Thrilling finish to Aust. Congress

Press, 27 September 1988, Page 10

Thrilling finish to Aust. Congress

CONTRACT BRIDGE

J.R. Wignail

As part of the Australian bi-centennial celebrations and in conjunction with World . Expo, the Queensland Bridge Association organised a Bi-Centennial Congress to which a strong American team was invited. This included reigning world champions Chip Martel and Lew Stansby, their wives Jan and Jo-anna, one of the best women pairs in the United States, and Dorothy and Alan Truscott. Dorothy is the top ranked woman in the world, and Alan the bridge correspondent for the “New York Times.” In the teams event, sponsored by Sydney property developer Frank Theeman, the visitors had few problems in qualifying for the final. Chip Martel showed just why he is a world champion in his handling of a difficult four spades on this hand dealt by South with neither side vulnerable:

When West led the queen of diamonds against four spades, the declarer seemed to have too many losers — two in spades, one in diamonds, and at least, one in clubs. But good technique brought in 10 tricks.

Martel allowed th< queen of diamonds to win the first trick, took the second with the diamond ace, and ruffed a diamond in hand. Next he led a low spade towards the jack, forcing West to play the king. The heart return was taken by dummy’s king and now came the jack of spades. When this was covered by the Queen and ace, West’s 10 was smothered. The last trump was drawn with the nine, and the club ace cashed. When the jack dropped all that remained was to make sure of three tricks in clubs, and this was easily achieved by leading a low club to dummy’s eight. By confining his losers to a diamond, a trump, and a club, Martel had brought home his very thin game. In the final the Americans played Theeman’s team — Seamus Browne, originally from Christchurch but now resident in Sydney, Kokan Bagchi and Avi Kanetekar from Sydney, and possibly the most famous bridge player in the world, Zia Mahmood, especially imported from Pakistan to give the congress a certain flair. The visitors were off to a fine start, Theeman fought back, the Americans restored their lead and with only 10 hands to play led by 31 international match points. At this stage Zia and Browne struck up a magical partnership in a situation tailormade for the flamboyant Pakistani. There was plenty of action on every board, but this was a typical example. East dealt with his side( vulnerable:

As dealer, Zia, East, declined to open the bidding. He was trying to produce a swing by producing the unusual. After two more passes North opened one diamond, and East came in with two hearts. South’s jump to three spades guaranteed a great fit with diamonds so East felt very confident in doubling the final contract - of four spades. Sure enough, Seamus Browne found the diamond lead and East ruffed. To give himself some time to think, Zia returned a club won in dummy. When a spade was led, he climbed in with the ace, led a low heart to his partner’s king and trumped a second diamond. This brilliantly cooperative defence put the contract one down for 100 to East-West. At the other table North was the declarer in four spades and although East underled hearts at trick one to put her partner on lead and obtain a diamond ruff, the only other defensive trick was the ace of trumps. So Theeman had a game swing. ; Thereafter it was all one way traffic, and the home team ran up 51 IMP’S to two over the final 10 hands to win by a clear margin. j,

The auction with Stansby and Martel South was: NorthS. W. N. E. 1NT No 2* No 24 No 4$ All Pass