S.I. teams title stays in Otago

Press, 24 August 1977, Page 25

S.I. teams title stays in Otago

Contract bridge ~

HBs

As many of the competitors remarked, the patronage for teams-of-four tournaments in the Otago-Southland centre is invariably very high, but this is far from the case in Canterbury. When the South island teams championships were held recently at the Christchurch Contract Bridge Club, the entry was disappointingly small, with only four clubs represented. The standard, however, was reasonably high, particularly from several teams who, although expected to do well, probablv performed better than they themselves expected. A number of seeded teams fell by the wayside, and complained that the schedule of a complete round robin of seven or eight board matches did not suit their Style.

The event proved to be a triumph for the defending champions, who. won by a convincing margin. H. Verdoner and J. Verkade (Balclutha) and S. Burgess and D. H. Green (Otago) can be very pleased with their success, particularly in view of some rather ill-conceived remarks made about them in a national bridge magazine. The joint runners-up came from Christchurch; Mrs V. Brightling, Mrs W. A. Sadler, B. R. Anderson and F. Power finished strongly to tie with Mrs V. Bell, Mrs J. P. Mather, L. Simpson and J. Vrvenhoek. From a reporter’s point of view, one of the problems with a tournament run as this one was, on an “everybody plays all” basis, is that different hands are used in all the matches. The winners were able to score heavily on this deal thanks to their bidding system:

N. A J 87542 V 8 ♦ 10 7 3 ♦ J 54 W E. A 63 A Q V K 73 V Q 9654 ♦ J 852 ♦ Q 6 A A K 6 3 A 10 9 8 7 2 S. A AK 109 V A J 102 ♦ AK94 A Q When the hand was played at the first table South elected to open one diamond in the hope that it would make it easier for his partner to scrape up a response. Sadly for him North could not do so and the opener was left to play in that lowly contract. By ruffing a couple of hearts in dummy, and two clubs in his own hand the declarer collected four tricks, which together with the ace, king of trumps and the ace of spades and hearts gave him his contract with an over trick. “It could have been worse, I suppose,” said South, ruefully. “I might have opened one heart and gone down.” He was referring to the game contract in spades that he and his partner had missed. For the winners. Burgess and Green bid as follows: S. W. N. E. 2< No 2V No 3< No 4A No 5A All Pass The two diamond opening bid showed a strong hand containing three suits and North’s response of two hearts was a compulsory relay asking for further description. Three diamonds showed a singleton club, so North was able to jump to four spades with some confidence. South’s five spade call showed additional values but his partner firmly declined this slam suggestion. The contract presented no difficulty, the declarer conceding one trick in clubs and one in diamonds and claiming the balance. One team found that the gods of bridge are invariably on the side of the big battalions, and while they were

the first to admit that the quality of their own play left much to be desired, they felt that any luck that was going ran consistently against them. Both teams for example reached identical contracts on the following deal but one made it while the other was defeated:— N. A AJIO6 VK2 ♦ KB6 A AJB4 W. E. A "2 A 953 V 9864 VAQIO7 ♦ 753 4A104 * 10732 AK96 S. AKQB4 V J 53 ♦ QJ92 AQS The auction was the same at both tables. North opened one club, South responded one spade, his partner raised to three and South called four spades. The fate of the contract depended entirely on the opening lead. At the first table West elected to lead a club. A small card was played from dummy allowing East's king to win. The club return was taken by South’s queen and trumps drawn in three rounds. The ace and jack of clubs then provided discards for two of the declarer’s hearts. Subsequently he conceded tricks to the ace of diamonds and the ace of hearts to make his contract with little difficulty. At the other table West faced with the same blind choice of opening lead started with a heart. When dummy played low, East won with the queen aqd cashed the ace of hearts. He continued with a third heart taken by South’s jack. Again trumps were drawn in three rounds and a diamond led to the king and ace. That was the third trick for the defenders and East exited with another diamond. Eventually the declarer had to try the club finesse and when East won with the king the contract had been defeated.

The opening lead certainly was crucial.