Close finish to N.Z. fours

Press, 31 October 1979, Page 17

Close finish to N.Z. fours

Though this year’s Teams of Four championship was not by all accounts memorable tor the standard of play, it was certainly noteworthy for the closeness of the finish. At the conclusion of the 11-team round robin, two teams captained by W. Haughie (S. J. Abrahams, A Taylor and A. Turner) and 1.. Wright (J. Evitt, R. Jacobs, S. Lester) had acored 148 victory points out of a possible 212. Under a hastily invoked rule, the tie was broken by reference to the match between them. Although this had been drawn. Haughie had scored one international match point more than Wright, so the title was his by the narrowest possible margin. In third place, on 141 victory points, was the Christchurch four of R. P. Kerr, F. P. S. Lu, M. Sykes and K. G. Wooles, who after a bad start recovered very strongly. The match between the two leading teams had a dramatic outcome. After 16 boards, Wright was leading by 42 i.m.p.’s to 7, but in the final two deals Haughie scored 36 to win by 43 to 42, a recovery that subsequently proved to be vital. This was the penultimate hand, obviously loaded with dynamite. f-outh dealt, with both sides vulnerable: N. A A 97 4 V Q 985 ♦ AJ2 A 85 W. E. AKJB A Q 1065 V V K 74 ♦ 108643 ♦ KQ975 A AKIO 7 3 A 4 S. A 32 V A J 10632 ♦ — A QJ962

The auction at the first table, where Haughie and Turner were North-South, has a science fiction look about it: S. W. N. E. 2NT 3* 34 Dble 3V 44 -IV No No 54 No No 5V No No Dble All pass The opening two notrump bid showed a weakish two-suited hand, but the rest of the auction is shrouded in mystery. Be that as it may. West would have made his bravely bid contract of five diamonds, so South was certainly right to push on to five hearts. To defeat five hearts, doubled, all West had to do was to lead out the ace. king and another club. The declarer could ruff with the queen of hearts but East would over-ruff and that would be one down.

Unfortunately for his side, after cashing the ace of clubs West had a blind snot and switched to a low diamond. Gratefully, the declarer won with dummv’s ace, on which he discarded the two of spades, and led the oueen of hearts, covered by the king and ace.

The jack and 10 of hearts drew the remaining adverse trumps. after which South led a low club to dummy’s eight. West won with the 10. to continue with a diamond and the declarer trumped East’s queen. Now the queen of clubs was led. and when West covered with the king it was all over. North ruffed, and the South hand was high. The five hearts doubled contract had been made. When the board was replayed. the auction was quite different:

S. W. N. E. No 2NT No 34 3V No No 4< No No Dble All pass Again the opening bid was two-no-trumps, but this time the dictates of South's system made him pass, and it was West who started proceedings. He was showing length in both minor suits with only moderate high card strength, so East corrected to three diamonds.

At this point South came to life with three hearts, and after two passes East pushed on to four diamonds.

When this came round to him. North made probably the worst, and certainly one of the most expensive, bids of his bridge career. Impulsive and rash were the two mildest adjectives he himself used subsequently to describe his double of four diamonds, and East was not unduly strained to collect 11 tricks. The only winners for North-South were the aces of spades and diamonds, so the doubled contract was made with an overtrick.

By making a doubled game at both tables, Haughie collected 1760 points on the board, which converted to 18 i.m.p.’s. Another similar swing on the last hand gave him the match. This was a pity for the runners-up who at times had played really well.