| 1st World Mind Sports Games | Page 4 | Bulletin 14 - Saturday 18 October 2008 |
| |
||
|
Women Teams f-4 - China v England China's Counter Attack by Mark Horton A new day – and for China the fourth set of the final brought them renewed hope as they finally started to get onto the scoreboard in a significant way. However, the first deal of the day did nothing to suggest that China was about to launch a comeback:
Open Room
East decided to sit for the double and right she was (I am tempted to add as usual, but that may sound partisan). She led the eight of hearts and West played three rounds of the suit. When declarer ruffed with the nine of clubs East discarded a spade. East won the club exit with the king and played another spade (cashing the ace of diamonds first is better, but not easy to find). West won and played a fourth heart. Declarer should have discarded her diamond on this to escape for three down, but she ruffed high and exited with a trump. West won and played a spade, and East, who had discarded a spade on the fourth heart, ruffed and cashed the ace of diamonds, down four, +800. Closed Room
We saw the same start of three rounds of hearts, but when declarer ruffed high, East discarded a diamond. Declarer exited with a club and West won with the ace and can ensure four down with a diamond or a trump. When she played a heart declarer disposed of her losing diamond and was three down, - 500 as England added 7 IMPs. With England’s lead up to 90 IMPs the outlook for China looked bleak – but the wind was about to change.
Open Room
Declarer ruffed the lead of the king of clubs and played a spade to the nine. When that held she played a diamond to the queen and then went back to spades. West won and played a club, but declarer ruffed, cashed the ace of diamonds and went back to spades, claiming eleven tricks, +400. Closed Room
West led a club and declarer ruffed, cashed the ace of diamonds and then attacked spades. West won at once and switched to a heart. Declarer put up dummy’s ace, ruffed a club, played a spade to the nine and ruffed dummy’s last club. Now she played the queen of spades, but when she ruffed it the contract died. East took the jack of diamonds on the next trick and fired back the queen of hearts, locking declarer in her hand. There was no way to prevent East scoring a trick with the nine of diamonds. Down one, -50, 10 IMPs for China.
Open Room
China produced a sound auction, quickly agreeing a trump suit and eventually playing there. There was no spade ruff, so that was +1370. Closed Room
That emaciated overcall allowed East/West to crowd the auction – and that was enough to deter North/South. They were +680 but lost 12 IMPs.
Open Room
That West hand is not much of an opening bid – but you may notice that 3NT can be made with the E/W cards. Three Spades was one down more or less whatever the defenders did – in practice East cashed the king of clubs and then played a low one and declarer had to lose five tricks, -50. Closed Room
3NT would probably have made, so in a sense declarer was saving a couple of points provided she could escape for two down. (A spade lead to the ace and a low spade back would have tested declarer, but North would probably have started with the ace of diamonds, giving the game away as to the location of the missing spade honours.) East cashed the ace of clubs and switched to the six of hearts for the jack and queen. West exited with a diamond and declarer went up with the ace, crossed to the ace of spades, and fatally cashed the king. Now when she exited with a heart West could win and draw a third round of trumps before playing a club. There was nothing declarer could do to avoid three down, -500 and that gave China another 10 IMPs.
Open Room
Four Hearts was not difficult – declarer was soon writing down +480. Closed Room
West led the jack of clubs and declarer won in hand with the king. Six diamond tricks would be enough to bring home the bacon and she crossed to dummy with a diamond and played another one. She had seen West’s ten on the first round, and rather than get involved in some long- winded discussion about possible false cards, relevance of the obviously thin overcall, etc, suffice it to say that declarer went up with the king – and could not recover. She got the heart right, but that was only enough for eleven tricks. China were +50 and added another 11 IMPs.
Open Room
Once West took immediate action over South’s Multi it was only a question of whether they would stop short of a grand slam – and notice that Seven Diamonds makes. East was able to discover that her partner had ♥A ♦AK but no side kings and was happy to settle for the small slam. Declarer made all the tricks, +940. By the way, neither pair in the Open got beyond game. Closed Room
Rightly or wrongly West was attracted by the vulnerability and the hope of a large penalty. She started off with her top diamonds and declarer ruffed and played a spade. East won and played a diamond and declarer ruffed, drew trumps and played a club to the jack and queen. East switched to the king of hearts and a heart and declarer ruffed the third round of the suit and played a club. West, who had played the nine of clubs on the first round of the suit followed with the three and declarer had a guess – she opted for the king – unlucky – down three, -800 – but the excellent result from the other room delivered 4 IMPs to England’s cause. England were still the clear favourites, but by winning the set 66-19 China had put themselves in with a fighting chance. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
| Page 4 |
