Rubber knock-out tournament

Press, 11 July 1979, Page 14

Rubber knock-out tournament

Arranged by the Leinster Bridge Club, the Merivale Travel Centre rubber bridge tournament is approaching its final stage. The original entry, confined to partnerships of nonmaster rank, has been reduced by 24 deal matches, run on a knockout basis, to three pairs. P. Harris and G. Ward are through to the final which will be held on July 14. Their opponents will be the -winners of the other semi-final between Mrs W. Slade with Mrs J. Wilkinson, and D. Lawrence with J. Smith. They will be playing for the prize of an expensepaid eight-day holiday in Sydney, one of the more attractive rewards in local bridge. The proceeds of the whole tournament are to be donated to the Canterbury Children’s Holiday Home Trust, whose" patron is the Mayoress, Mrs Hay. Many of the matches have been closely contested, the result often decided on the last few hands. Mrs Slade and Mrs Wilkinson had a narrow escape when their opponents took a pessimistic view of these cards. West was the dealer:

Playing Precision, West has an automatic opening bid of one diamond and East an equally automatic response of one spade. The difficulty comes on the second round of bidding.

Some players on the West cards would re-bid two clubs in an attempt to show their second suit while some would prefer two diamonds, for frequently in Precision the diamond opening bid is something of a catch-all not guaranteeing possession of four trumps. Still other players would re-bid one no-trump in an attempt to dissuade partner from any enterprise.

The two diamond re-bid actually selected need not have been fatal. When

East, however, in showing her second suit, re-bid three clubs it should have been treated as unconditionally forcing. Many players, in fact, have an understanding that except m very rare circumstances the introduction of a new suit at the three level virtually commits the partnership to an eventual game contract. West’s decision to pass is therefore questionable at best but these are grey areas in many partnerships. Even if the auction continues with a raise to four clubs it is doubtful if the good slam contract could be reached.

From East’s point of view the whole crux of the matter is the number of aces held by the opening bidder and therefore it is essential to introduce Blackwood.

The problem here is that over the four no-trump

inquiry West will have to bid five diamonds with one ace and five hearts with two, in either of which cases the partnership will be driven to a hopeless six clubs missing two or three aces. The auction is thus likely to proceed:

The opening lead of the king of hearts is won by dummy’s ace, after which the declarer carefully unblocks dummy’s ace of spades. A small club is led to the queen, and if either opponent is void in trumps it is now apparent. East, furthermore, is in a position to finesse either way against the missing jack. But first of all the king and queen of spades are cashed on which dummy’s two losing hearts are discarded, and the declarer’s last heart is ruffed on the table. The ace of clubs and a club to the 10 draw the outstanding trumps. East then makes the rest of her spades and ultimately concedes one trick only to the ace of diamonds.

CONTRACT BRIDGE

By

J.R. Wignall