A varied entry made for Westport

Press, 28 March 1979, Page 16

A varied entry made for Westport

CONTRACT BRIDGE

By

J.R. Wignall

The annual Westport Open Pairs’ Tournament attracts entries from a wide range of clubs but this year was expected to come under some pressure owing to the introduction of petrol restrictions. The tournament however is so popular that players from Ashburton, Christchurch; Blenheim and Nelson were prepared to travel to the Coast to compete against the local entrants from Greymouth and Westport. The strong contingent from Christchurch, although taking the first two places, did not by any means have things all their own way. and after the second session Miss J.. Gascoigne and Miss E. O’Connor, from Nelson, were in second position. Fading a little over the final round, however, they had to be content with third placing over all.

The winners were Mrs R. P. Kerr and S. J. Burgess, and the runners-up M. Sykes and J. Vryenhoek.

The best of the local pairs were Mrs F. Quinn and Mrs F. Herring, who took fifth place. It has been left to one of the smaller clubs in the country to introduce full computer scoring in a

tournament. Mrs Dellaca, of Westport, arranged for a full computer printout at the end of each session giving session scores and placings together with the prevailing situation. We can undoubtedly expect to see other clubs following suit in the coming years. One of the fascinations of bridge is that one can never with safety forecast the expected result on any particular hand. This deal, for example, was played at ail 20 tables, producing an

astonishing variety of scores:

There was a fair degree of agreement that the final denomination should be clubs, but no unanimity at all on the level of the contract. Four pairs stopped in three clubs, collecting three or four overtricks and indifferent scores for ■.their pains. Three pairs were a trifle bolder pushing all the way to the four level. One of them, in fact, was doubled for no very good reason, and when they made three overtricks the players needed the

services of a calculator to arrive at the final score. Five pairs were nearer the mark in an ultimate contract of five clubs, while three partnerships reached a small slam. In the meantime there were a few other mysterious entries on the score sheet such as two spades played by East at one table — not a great success — and three spades played by North at another table. One West player was allowed to steal the hand by playing two diamonds, and finally a single North languished in two hearts. It was left to the eventual winners to find the full potential of the NorthSouth cards by reaching a final contract of seven clubs. At their table, as at most others, West had .opened the bidding with one diamond: W. N. E. S. !♦ IV No 24 No 2NT No 6* No 7* All Pass Over one diamond Burgess as North called one

heart and East passed. With an extremely powerful hand Mrs Kerr wanted to ensure the auction would be kept going until a final game contract was reached.

Most players now use the cue-bid of the opponents’ suit for this purpose. She therefore bid two diamonds and partner showed his extra values by bidding two no-trumps. Reflecting that if North could provide only the ace of hearts and king of spades a small slam would be a very sound spot, South jumped to six clubs. Impressed by his club support and good heart suit North added one for the road.

The play provided little difficulty. The opening

lead of the ace of diamonds was trumped, the ace of spades was cashed and a spade ruffed in dummy. Returning to hand by ruffing another diamond the declarer trumped a second spade on the table. A third diamond was trumped, another spade ruffed with the king of clubs, and now dummy’s fourth diamond was ruffed with the declarer’s last small trump. The ace, queen and jack of clubs drew East’s trumps, bringing the total of tricks to 11 and the ace and king of hearts brought the grand slam home. An opening trump lead might well have made things more difficult but for obvious reasons this line of defence was for-