Mixed standard in N.Z. pairs championship

Press, 16 September 1976, Page 26

Mixed standard in N.Z. pairs championship

Contract bridge J.RWignall |

Funny things happen at the bridge table, even in a prestige event like the- New Zealand pairs championship. In theory a contest between the top players in the country, in practice it falls a good deal short of the ideals. I For the third year in succession the event was run in the North Island, this time in Auckland, and again only a handful of mainlanders made the long trek. They found the standard very mixed. How, for instance, can you score 3400 points on one hand? Careful calculation and a slide rule will show that this represents six down vulnerable doubled and redoubled. One pair did it on this deal:

< Despite the adverse vulnerability, South decided the time was ripe to rock the boat with an opening bid of one no-trump, a call for which his shape was ideal, but his over-all strength distinctly sub-minimal. West happily doubled, and North and East both equally happily passed, though for different reasons.

The trick-cyclist sitting South now redoubled, intending this to be a cry for help and asking his partner to choose an escape suit. But North could see no reason to disturb what to him seemed a reasonable contract.

On the run of the spades and hearts the dummy was squeezed so that the declarer was held to a solitary trick. While -ast-West had an easy game in spades or no-trumps, they were quite satisfied with their 3400 penalty. The bidding of this hand is not easy, but one might have expected more pairs to call the very good slam:

I Against South’s contract Hof six diamonds, West’s best opening lead is a spade, but the contract presents no difficulty. After capturing the queen with the king, the declarer draws trumps with the ace and king, then leads the queen of hearts. This is covered by the king, so dummy’s ace wins and the 10 drives out the jack. South wins the spade continuation with his ace, crosses to the nine of dia-i monds, and on the nine and: four of hearts discards his| (two losing spades. Six tricks■ lin diamonds, three in hearts,, the two top spades and the I ace of clubs add to the required total of 12. Thus the play is not particularly hard, but the bidding presented severe problems to several partnerships. Five pairs languished in diamond part-scores, and! seven stopped in game. Only! eight reached six diamonds.! while a few pairs took aj penalty of 700 by doubling! East-West in five clubs. With only 24 points be-i tween the two hands, it is a! deal where a strong club , system has a marked advan-j tage, but a natural system can cope as follows:

t The key bid is North’s three diamonds, a slight , stretch but probably justified ■ by his distribution and con- ’ trols. After this. South checks on aces and finding . none missing can call the , slam.

! South can make game in (hearts and in fact can collect *ll tricks by winning the iopening lead with the ace of I spades, drawing trumps. land leading the 10 of clubs.; (By finessing against West’s: I queen, the declarer can es-l ! tablish the suit for a dis-: icard of his small diamond. I Meantime, East-West can: make a four spade contract, losing tricks only to the ace of trumps, the king of clubs and the king of diamonds. At most tables the bidding developed into something of a free-for-all, with whoever played the hand coming out best.