Contract bridge Teams competition in New Plymouth

Press, 1 June 1977, Page 21

Contract bridge Teams competition in New Plymouth

This year’s Dunhill inter, ‘provincial teams competition i will be held in New Ply-! i mouth, in line with the policy! of moving the venue round’ the country. For the purposes of the' event, there are six areas,; four in the North Island and’ two in the South Island, each! of which ran trials recently to select their represetatives.l The Otago-Southland team! will be. C. Ackerley, R. Scott,i N. Ellison, P. McCaskill. S.l Burgess and D. Green. The first two pairs finished! first and second in the trials, while third place was won byj Mrs M. Morgan and Mrs J. j Wolken, one of the most consistent women’s pairs in South Island bridge. The Canterbury trials were very closely contested, and resulted in a tie for first , place between Mrs R. P. Kerr and A. J. H. Moore, the second year in succession that this’ pair has won. and B. R. Anderson and P. H. Marston. The third pair will be selected by the management committee, but the choice is expected to be be-| tween the two partnerships’ which finished third equal,) R. J. Brightling and K. GJ jWoolles. and F. P. S. Lu and! i J. D. Thomson. Mrs Kerr and Moore; j scored well in this deal byj '(finishing in the perfect con.l tract: N. A KJ4 V A 42 ♦ AK J 10 A 85 3 W. E. . A A 865 A Q 10972 • V QJ7 V 1053 ) ♦ 9643 ♦ Q 752 A A J A 7 S. A 3 ’ V K 986 ♦ 8 A KQ 109642 S. W. N. E. No !♦ INT 2 A 5A All Pass Moore might have opened I the bidding with a preI emptive three clubs, but this would not have been a success if his partner held a reasonable heart suit so he passed to await develop- 1 .

( ments. West opened one; diamond, Mrs Kerr over-) I called one no-trump, showling a balanced hand with I about 16 to 18 high card points. This was enough fori I South who. ignoring East’s; jtwo spade bid, jumped to' I five clubs. ! West cashed the ace of l •spades, then switched to the 'queen of hearts. After winining in hand, the declarer i led the king of clubs, taken Iby the ace. Another heart I was taken by dummy’s ace, )a club to the queen drew the. last outstanding trump, jand then the declarer dis-; | carded one of his remaining small hearts on the king otJ diamonds and the other oni the king of spades. The contract had been made for the loss of the two black aces only. At several other tables the final contract was a reasonable three no-trumps played by North. East led a spade to the ace. and the spade return was covered by the jack and queen. A third round of the suit drove out the king, and) (now when West won his ace* of clubs he was able to lead I his last spade to enable his! | partner to take two more tricks in the suit and defeat 1 ‘the contract. On the next deal, Anderson | jand Marston found a good! defence to beat a contract! that at first sight appeared; unbreakable:—

!| N A Q 96 V .19 6 4 i ♦ QJ7 1 A Q 9 8 ’j W E A 10 85 2 A AK3 | V 5 V K 873 ♦ A 106 5 4 ♦ K 983 A 5 3 2 A 7 6 A J 74 V AQ 10 2 1 ♦ 2 A A K J 10 4 • After East had shown up ! with most of the adverse ■ strength, South finished in a ■lcontract of four hearts. With ’ the king of hearts on-side it I i looks as though the declarer 'lshould be able to confine his ■ losers to two in spades and ; one in diamonds, but it did > not go quite like that. , On West’s opening lead of a small spade dummy played j.the six. East the king and J South the four. The ace of ! spades was cashed for the second defensive trick, on , which West thoughtfully folI lowed suit with the 10 ,(Clearly this was an unnecesI sarily high card intended to 'lshow strength in the higher ) ranking side suit. East re(ceived the message, switching [to a small diamond, won by I the ace when a second dia- ■ mond was covered by the iking the declarer was forced I ito ruff.

Now he held only three! trumps in his hand, while; East had four. He crossed to; the queen of clubs, to lead the! jack of hearts, playing low! from his hand when East declined to cover. A second! heart followed to the queen,! but when West showed out,! the declarer knew his fate J He could cash the ace ofi trumps, but the king of hearts! was still out to defeat the) contract by one trick. The imaginative defence i had done its job.