World championship wide open

Press, 23 September 1981, Page 16

World championship wide open

CONTRACT BRIDGE

J.R. Wignall

Laie next month in New York the first ever seven nation contest for the Bermuda Bowl, the world championship of bridge, will take place. Six of the eight zones into which world bridge is divided will be represented, with Europe having double representation as an acknowledgement of both the strength and numbers of its participating countries. A double round robin will eliminate three contestants, •after which there will be a semi-final and final. This year the Bermuda Bowl is more open than ever before. As always the United States, particularly playing at home, will be strongly favoured, but its colours will be carried by. a team new to international .competition and which fric,hides a ..sponsor. Second favourite will probably be Poland who won the European championships in a canter last month, though here again two of the partnerships are comparatively unknown. Britain, runners-up in Birmingham, was perhaps fortunate that the political troubles in Poland forced the last minute removal of the European Championship to England. In the words of Denis Howard, its non-playing captain. Australia may have to wait a long time for a better chance of reaching the final,

but again its team appears to lack the solidity of past years. Pakistan, Argentina and Indonesia, the remaining contestants, will always be likely to provide an upset but . will probably lack the consistency to figure entlv.All in ail it should be a fascinating competition, though lacking most of the stars of recent years. At the same time five women's teams will play for the Venice Cup, but. here the outcome is rather easier to predict. Brazil, Venezuela and Australia performed with only mixed success in last year’s World Ladies Olympiad and will need to play very much better to threaten the professional approach of the United States and Britain.

Of these two the former is represented by a new team, so one would have to put' one’s money on the British. Certainly in winning the European Women’s Championship the British girls playing with great confid-ence.-finished well clear of the field. As' always Nicola Gardener, the daughter of a famous English international player, who has more or. less taken over her father’s bridge school in London, was firmly in the lime-light. It is not unknown for women’s bridge to suffer from a certain volatility in partnerships and Miss Gardener has not been alone in this respect, but there is no doubting her ability. She won a lot of points for her team by her handling of a difficult contract in this hand dealt by South with neither side vulnerable:

West led the two of spades to the six four and seven, and Miss Gardener returned a spade to dummy's 10. The three of hearts was led to the declarer's queen and when the eight dropped from West it looked suspiciously like a singleton. , South continued with a spade to the ace, ruffed by East who returned a club. The declarer trumped, cashed the ace of hearts and ruffed her last spade with dummy’s 10 of hearts. East over-ruffed with her remaining trump, but South was now well in control. She ruffed the club continuation, cashed the ace of diamonds and led a low diamond to the eight and nine, the perfect safety play to ensure three tricks in the suit. The nine won and the king of diamonds provided the vital tenth trick. The declarer had started with four probable losers, two in hearts, a spade and'at least one diamond, but careful dummy play had reduced these to three.