N.Z. teams appearing in bridge Olympiad

Press, 16 July 1980, Page 15

N.Z. teams appearing in bridge Olympiad

As part of the celebrations of its fiftieth anniversary, the bletherlands Contract Bridge League is staging the sixth World Bridge Team Olympiad. It will commence on September 27 at Valkenburg, a small resort town near the border of Holland, Belgium and Germany. At this stage it appears that about 30 women’s teams will take part. They will play a round-robin of 29 matches each of 20 boards over a period of 10 or 11 days, with victory points awarded according to the winning margin. The

overall winners will be the team with, the best v.p. total. In this section, the United States of America, fielding an experienced sextet that won the Women’s World Championship two yeprs ago, will probably start favourites, but they can expect strong competition from Great Britain, the current European champions, and Italy. blew Zealand, appearing in the Olympiad for the first time, should certainly be in the running for one of the top places. The team is young, but still has plenty of international experience. The three pairs are Mrs K. Boardman and Mrs J. Evitt (Christchurch), Mrs J. Cormack and Mrs L. . Rotherham (Auckland) and Mrs J. Kinsella and Mrs S. .Sicker (Wellington). rSfii the open section, an entry of 60 teams is ex- . pected. They will be divided into two equal groups which will play a 29-match 20-board roundrobin of three games per day. At the end of this the four top teams from each group go forward into the quarter-finals. These, and the semifinals to follow, will be oyer 32 boards, but the final will be over 80 boards. The event will finish on October 11. Again the favourites will be the United States of America, the current world champions, who will be represented by six strong professional or semiprofessional players. Accustomed by the format of their own national championships to the grind of 10 days non-stop top class bridge, they will be hard to beat. Italy, though lacking many of the starts of former years, will still be a threat, while the Brazilians will be keen to make amends for their dismal showing in last year’s world championship. Canada seems to have a stronger team than usual, . and if all three British

pairs play to their best form they can by no means be discounted. New Zealand, drawn in what appears to be the harder group, will probably need a little luck to make the quarter-finals, but the players certainly have the ability, the will, and what is most important in such a long event, the temperament to provide a real challenge to the more favoured contestants. The team consists of two Auckland partnerships, M. L. Cornell and M. Mayer, D. Mathews and L. Wright, and P. H. Marston (Christchurch) and G. M. Sims (Auckland). While Mathews and Wright play a natural system based on Acol, the others use a highlyconventional relay system in which, in certain situations, one. partner asks a series of questions by means of artificial bids, while the other answers by showing the distribution of his hand and then the key high cards. Devised by Marston, with help from Sims and advice from others, it will probably be the most esoteric system on view. Sims is in fact the sole survivor from the New Zealand team at the last Olympiad in Monte Carlo in 1976. This deal from a team game at the Auckland Congress earlier this year illustrates his cautious approach and one or two facets of his system:

With Sims as South the dealer, and only his side vulnerable the auction was: S. W. N. E. 1 ♦ No 2Jft No 2V All Pass

CONTRACT BRIDGE

J.R. Wignall

The fact that Sims actually held four cards in the suit when he opened one diamond was purely coincidental, for this is the system bid on all weak balanced hands. The response of two clubs was obviously artificial, showing the values to open the bidding inviting game and at the same time confirming possession of either a five-card or longer heart suit, or of a four or five card spade suit. In the light of this information Sims made the good decisions to make the weak sign-off rebid ol.Two hearts, for although he hpld a fit of sorts with his partner, his hand contained far too many losers for any more aggression action. Against two hearts, West led a small spade, and the declarer could see-he was in danger of losing four tricks in the side suits—one in spades, two in diamonds and one in clubs. The problem was thus to ensure that no more than one trick was lost in hearts, Sims knew’ the perfect safety-play. He .first cashed the king of hearts, then led a low heart to his hand putting in the nine when East followed w’ith the five. The ace dropped the 10, and the- declarer lost only to the queen. Had East, not West, shown out on the second round of trumps, South would, of course, have taken his ace and led towards dummy’s jack. In either case, provided neither opponent was void,. Sims had ensured losing no more than one trick in trumps, and thus guaranteed the safety of his con-, tract.

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