CONTRACT BRIDGE Home teams do best in championship

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33263, 28 June 1973, Page 13

CONTRACT BRIDGE Home teams do best in championship

1 Contributed by

J.R.W.)

In many ways Otago has , led New Zealand and in !c bridge it is no different. $ four years ago the Otago s club introduced a new style < of teams of four competi- 1 tion which had previously i been thought impractical. ; i It proved to be most sue- 1 cessful and so popular that ,t it has been adopted by I manv clubs throughout the

country. The Canterbury teams of four was a good example of this type of tournament. Twenty-two teams, each of four players, entered and all played 19 matches of six deals, since the time available did not permit a full round robin. At the first table. Team A sat north-south with Team B east-west, while at a second Team A was east-west. Three I hands were dealt and played at each table, then they were interchanged. In this way both teams held exactly the same cards so a direct comparison of scores was possible. Six vic-' tory points were at stake in each game awarded according to the winner’s margin. WINNERS The winners, with a score of 92 out of a possible 114, were J. R. Wignail, R. J. Brightling, R. P. Kerr and F. p. S. Lu. In second place were H. Pickering, J. Hay, L. S. Julian and J. D. Thomson, while yet another Christchurch team was third — Mr, and Mrs H. S. Wilkinson, Mrs M. Burt and Mrs G. R. Hanan. The power of a trump suit and its potential for producing extra tricks was clearly illustrated by this hand from one of the winner’s matches: N S—J H—AJ6 D—A 10 542 C—K 97 3 W E S—7 32 S—K 10965 H—Bs3 2 H—QlO 9 D—J9B6 D—Q73 C—4 2 C—lo 8 S S—A Q 8 4 H—K74 D—K C—A QJ 6 5 The auction proceeded fast and furious to a grand climax:

When North opened one: diamond, South, certain of I game, set off in search of a slam by jumping to three clubs. After receiving support he checked on aces, and find- ■ ing his partner with two. he inquired about kings. When North showed one it was almost certainly in clubs, so South shot the grand slam. BEST LEAD

West found what is usually the best lead against a seven level contract, a trump, but the declarer was in no difficulty. He won in hand with the jack, cashed the ace of spades and ruffed a spade ini dummy. Returning to hand with the king of diamonds, he ruffed another spade on the table. He came back to the king of hearts to trump his last spade, the queen, with the king of clubs, then he ruffed a low diamond in the south hand. The ace of clubs drew the outstanding trumps, dummy was re-entered with the ace of hearts and the declarer’s last heart went away on the ace of diamonds. At the start of the hand the declarer had 10 sure tricks, five in clubs, the two aces and kings in hearts and diamonds, and the spade ace. The presence of the trump suit enabled him to produce three more by ruffing spades in dummy, and finally to return to hand safely at the right time. WEAK OVERCALL When the hand was replayed the auction was somewhat different:

East’s one spade overcall would hardly qualify for a Bank of England warranty,' but it had the effect of in-'

furiating South into an im-l mediate four club call, asking, for aces. North admitted to J two and subsequently to one king, so South settled for six 1 no-trumps. When West’s opening lead was the seven of spades covered by the jack, king and ace, the declarer could count 11 tricks in all—five clubs, two diamonds, two hearts I and two spades. In fact when South started , to run off all the winners, East found it quite impossible , to keep all the cards he • needed. Eventually he dis- I ! carded a low heart, and the • declarer produced the twelfth I trick by playing off the king I and ace of hearts, dropping i the queen and establishing ■ | the jack. While this was an efficient.! enough piece of dummy play, j I the score it produced fell i rather short of the grand slam chalked up in the other ;room by a South player who, 'recognised the power of the' ; trump suit.

w N E S No ID No 3C No 4C No 4NT No 5H No 5NT No 6D No 7C

w N E S No ID IS 4C No 4S No 4NT No 5D No 6NT