Easy win in Canterbury Teams

Press, 14 May 1985, Page 16

Easy win in Canterbury Teams

CONTRACT BRIDGE

J.R. Wignall

The Canterbury Teams of Four resulted in an easy victory for M. Sykes, R. D. Scott, P. A. Dewar and J. L. Skipper. In training for next month’s trials to select the New Zealand team for the Far East Bridge Championship in Sydney in November, they played very impressively, winning all their matches, most by comfortable margins. The runners-up were B. R. Anderson, M. J. Kun, K. G. Wooles and J. R. Wignall, while third place was taken by Mrs S, F. Davis, Mrs J. Kerr, Ms >R. H. Palmer and M. J. D. Reid. The format was a roundrobin with all 12 teams jlaying each other over 10 ward matches. Though undoubtedly popular with the majority of the contestants, this scheme has two drawbacks: the players do not ilay the same cards so that :heir problems are quite different, and in a short match one deal can be vital.

Both leading teams continued unbeaten until the penultimate round, though the Sykes quartet was winning by greater margins. When they met head-on, therefore, the Anderson four had to win decisively to keep their chances alive. They prayed for lively cards and they were not disappointed. In fact, the hands were just a little bit too lively. South dealt the following collection, with neither side vulnerable:

At the first table, the auction was:

Pass South’s pre-emptive opening three heart call gave West a real problem, which he solved by doubling. Normally this would show support for spades so when North raised the ante to four hearts East tried four spades. ‘ When this came round to him West retreated to five clubs, and, licking his Ups in anticipation of a juicy penalty, North doubled. But it was not over by a long way. East tried five diamonds and suddenly his side had reached its best spot. There are a number of possible permutations in the play depending on the defence, but East would almost certainly emerge with 11 tricks and his contract. Essentially he would lose a trick in spades, ruff two of his small spades in dummy and eventually concede another trick in clubs.

North could hardly foresee all this, but it was clear to him that he had little defence against five diamonds. so after soiyie

thought he pushed on to five hearts.

Recognising the freakish nature of the deal, neither defender doubled even though together they held all four aces. In a sense they were right, for it needed a good defence to beat the contract.

Against five hearts, West led the six of spades and when dummy played low, East encouraged with the nine. After winning with the queen the declarer ruffed three diamonds on the table and three clubs in his own hand before leading a round of trumps. West immediately took his ace of hearts, led a spade to his partner’s ace and ruffed the third

round of spades. The declarer had the rest of the tricks, but had to be satisfied with conceding a 50-point penalty to his opponents. The auction was quite different when the deal was replayed at the other table:

Here, over the three heart opening, West elected to make the honest bid of four clubs, a disastrous choice as it transpired. North, instead of doubling, pushed on to four hearts, and East, with a rather good hand on the

bidding so far, and playing his partner for a good club suit, raised to five clubs.

North could hardly hold himself back, but eventually managed to double in restrained fashion.

The play was painful to behold, but the declarer contrived to scramble four tricks in trumps, the ace of spades, the ace of hearts and a ruff in dummy to concede a penalty of 700 points.

There were several other hands where the challengers tried a little too hard only to be unsuccessful. In the end Sykes had scored a convincing victory to finish worthy winners by a comfortable margin.