Dunedin Festival Pairs event again popular

Press, 9 February 1983, Page 19

Dunedin Festival Pairs event again popular

CONTRACT BRIDGE

J.R. Wignail

As its contribution to Festival Week, the Otago Bridge Club organises the Dunedin Festival Pairs, which attracts more and more visitors as the years go by. Entries for this year's event came from a wide range of South Island clubs from Christchurch to Invercargill. to produce a near capacity tournament. The prizes, however, remained firmly in Dunedin. There was general satisfaction that first place was taken by Mrs J. East, a stalwart of the Otago Bridge Club for many years, playing with A. Rosenstreich.

In second place, very close behind, were R; R. Hudson, a past president of the club, and Mrs Hudson. ' Third were J. La Hood and D. McLaren, both popular and genial members in the best Otago tradition.

How one fares in tournament bridge depends to some extent on the actions of the opponents one meets, though of course over 84 boards or so the luck tends to average out. At the very least, however, this hand dealt by South had a big bearing on the final result:

Against the winners. South opened one ,spade, North raised to two and South bid four. Any other opening lead

would have helped the declarer. but Mrs East found the inspired choice of the eight of hearts.

Having taken the first trick with the king of hearts, the declarer laid down the king of spades which lost to East’s ace. The heart return was won by the ace and South cashed the queen of spades, finding the bad break.

At this point the declarer panicked eventually going one down in a contract that might have been made, giving Mrs East and Rosenstreich an excellent score on the board. Even after that bad start, four spades could have been made. Having made the queen of spades and heard the bad news, the declarer simply continues with the 10 of spades. West wins with the jack and the defenders make their established heart trick but what more can they do? The best defence is probably to continue with a fourth round, of hearts, but South can ruff in hand with the seven of spades, discarding a low diamond from dummy if West refuses to over-ruff.

Dummy is then entered by leading a’ club to the queen, the nine of spades draws West's eight and a diamond is led to the 10 in hand. Another club to the ace allows the declarer to repeat the diamond finesse and the rest of his cards are high. . Even though 10 tricks can thus be made in spades, there is a lot to be said for

playing no-trump type hands in no-trumps. In this respect Mr and Mrs Hudson were a little unlucky, as against them North-South bid briskly to three no-trumps. With the cards lying reasonably favourably’ the declarer had no problems. There were four tricks in diamonds, two in hearts and one in spades and, with the ace. queen and 10 of clubs sitting over the king and jack, three more in that suit. Though there was nothing they could do about it, the runners-up did not score many points on the board. The winners also profited from observing another old but still very true adage — it is not necessary to have 26 points to make three notrumps. if the points are divided and sit on either side of a strong hand. North was the dealer, with only his side vulnerable:

Though the .- East-West hands contain only 23 points, North's high cards were so effectively sandwiched that Mrs East was able to make 10 tricks without difficulty. There were three spade tricks, three hearts, three clubs and one diamond and no defence to stop them.