The national bridge title returns to Christchurch

Press, 21 November 1979, Page 13

The national bridge title returns to Christchurch

More than 60 teams entered the National I.M.P. Teams of Four Championship at the beginning of the year, making it one of the biggest events held in New Zealand. After a series of local and regional knockout rounds four teams remained to contest the finals in Wellington. In the penultimate round A. J. Thomson’s Wellington side (Mrs Thomson, G. O’Donovan and B. Patterson) just scraped through by defeating a young Auckland team by the narrowest of margins. In the other semi-final the Canterbury and South Island champions, R. P. Kerr, F. P. S. Lu, Mrs Kerr and A. J. H. Moore, had a more comfortable win over Waikato-Bays. The final was a closefought affair for most of the way; and going into the last session Canterbury held the slender lead of seven international match

points. Then the two Canterbury university professors, Kerr and Lu, struck form and some aggressive bridge saw their team add a further 34 I.M.P.’s in the last 12 boards. WaikatoBays won the play-off for third place. This was one professorial triumph. Both sides were vulnerable when West dealt the following: N. A KQ74 V J 54 ♦ AQJB3 A 6 W. E. A A A 108 32 V K 10 9 3 V AQB 6 ♦ K 72 <65 A AlO 987 *4 3 2 S. A J 965 V 72 ♦ 10 9 4 ♦ KQ J 5 With Kerr and Lu NorthSouth, the auction w z as: W. N. E. S. 1A Dble No 1A No 2A No 2NT No 3* No 4A All pass

All one can say about the auction is that nothing was left unbid by either partner. The optimistic final contract could have been defeated had the defence simply taken their four top tricks, the two black aces and the ace and king of hearts. But bridge is a difficult game and the defence did not go quite like that. Against four spades, West started with the ace of trumps, to give himself a chance to inspect the dummy, and promptly switched to a low diamond in an attempt to deter the declarer from taking the diamond finesse. After one look at the North hand, Lu could not be deterred from anything. He needed every finesse that was going and then some. He took the second trick with dummy’s queen of diamonds, and dropped the 10 from hand with the intention of causing confusion among the defenders.

Next he cashed the king of spades, finding out about the unkind break, and led a club to his king and West’s ace. The crucial point of the deal had been reached. To defeat the contract the defence had to take its tricks in hearts now or never, and with dummy’s long diamond suit clearly visible West should certainly have switched to a low heart. Instead he returned the 10 of clubs and the declarer was home. Discarding a heart from the table he won in hand with the queen, drew the remaining spades with the queen and jack then cashed the jack of clubs throwing on it a second heart. The nine of diamonds was led and. when West followed with the seven, North’s three was played. Another diamond to the king and ace cleared the suit and that was that — three tricks in spades, five in diamonds and two in clubs added up to four spades bid and made.

When the deal was replayed with Mrs Kerr and Moore holding the EastWest cards a different auction led to the same contract: W. N. E. S. 1* Dble IV 1A 2 V 2 A No No 3V 3A No No 4V No No 4A All pass Here the declarer never stood a chance, for on the first round East seized the opportunity to call one heart over the double of one club. Now the opening lead was clearly marked and the defenders took their four top winners to defeat the contract in short order.