| 1st World Mind Sports Games | Page 3 | Bulletin 14 - Saturday 18 October 2008 |
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Women Tams final-2 - China v England England Accelerate by Mark Horton As the second session unwound England continued to dominate the play. They looked much the sharper of the two teams – as you may judge for yourselves from what follows.
Open Room
When South showed a powerful hand with her jump to game North went in search of a slam. A couple of cue bids later they were there. That was an easy +920. Closed Room
The Precison start led to what was essentially an identical auction, but this time South was unwilling to bid beyond game, +420 losing 11 IMPs.
Open Room
North’s solo flight to the five level was… shall we say remarkable. East cashed the king of diamonds and followed it with the ace, West following with the nine and then a helpful eight. East switched to the six of spades and West won with the king and cashed the queen of diamonds. She had only to cash the ace of spades and then play a club to ensure +1100, but she switched to her singleton club. Declarer went up with the ace, drew trumps and exited with a spade, forcing West to concede a ruff and discard. –800 was no triumph, but I wonder who felt worse, N/S or E/W? Closed Room
There were no heroics at this table, declarer taking the obvious eleven tricks, +450 representing a loss of 8 IMPs. One of the many attributes a good pair needs is the ability to put a bad result out of their minds. England’s players all possess this essential element.
Open Room
One of the simplest rules is to support partner if you have four cards in their suit. Once North did that South knew where she wanted to be. That was +1010. Closed Room
On a different day I would not have been too surprised to see the Chinese pair bid these hands to Seven Hearts – but for the moment at least the spark they had shown in the semi-final was missing. Two Hearts was Kokish and Three Clubs confirmed a big heart/club two suiter. When South bid Three Spades North ought to bid Four Diamonds – when she didn’t South, no doubt reluctantly, settled for game and lost 11 IMPs.
Open Room
2♣ Majors West led the six of spades (a Marston-style heart lead is one way to trouble declarer) and East won and returned the suit. Declarer won and played three rounds of diamonds. East won and was helpless – there was no way to reach the West hand. She tried the ace of hearts and then switched to a club but declarer claimed the rest, +630. Closed Room
The opening lead was the same, but this time East astutely switched to the four of clubs, a much more testing defence, attacking dummy’s entry to the diamond suit. Declarer tried three rounds of diamonds and East won and switched to a spade. Declarer won, cashed the ace of clubs and rather than try a heart to the ten, exited with a low club. East won, played back a club and in due course the defenders took two heart tricks to defeat the contract by a trick and earn 12 IMPs. After the club switch declarer needs to adopt a different approach. She can cash the king of diamonds but must then take a top club and extract East’s exit card by cashing the king of spades. Then two rounds of diamonds put East on play, and she is endplayed in two suits. You know from the opening bid that East must have the ace of hearts. You get to see West’s jack of clubs – and she must have at least one spade honour. Surely that indicates that the jack of hearts is with the opening bidder. Playing on diamonds relies on West having the jack of hearts – and declarer did not even try for that.
Open Room
South led her diamond and declarer won and tried the king of clubs. When North impassively played the six she ruffed and exited with a diamond. North had two ways to beat the contract, either by playing two rounds of hearts to stop a diamond ruff, or by switching to the jack of spades – South ducking and later giving her partner a spade ruff. North did play a trump – but it was the five. Now declarer could organize a diamond ruff and with the jack of spades well placed she was home, +420. Closed Room
Two Spades promised a major+minor weak two-suiter, and when South led the ten of diamonds declarer ducked. North won and returned the suit, so the contract was down almost immediately. –50 gave China 10 badly needed IMPs.
Open Room
North followed the oft repeated (at least by me) maxim of the late Barry Crane, ‘When God deals you AK of a suit it’s so you don’t have a lead problem’, and tabled the ace of hearts. That was a swift +50. Closed Room
Here North led the two of spades and declarer won in hand with the ten, cashed the king and took two more spades via the finesse, South discarding a couple of hearts. Declarer now played on diamonds, the fall of the jack giving her the nine tricks she needed, +400 and 10 IMPs for England. England now led 87-44, and although there were still a lot of boards left the signs for China were ominous. |
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