| 37th World Team Championships | Page 7 | Bulletin 13 - Friday 4 November 2005 |
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Italy v USA1 (Bermuda Bowl) Action Packed Set two of the Italy-USA1 match was the kind of roller-coaster round that would make nervous wrecks of partisans on either side. The Americans started the set up 25, thanks to the 24-19 first set and their 20-IMP carry-over. The fun started on the first deal.
Jeff Meckstroth’s 1♣ was strong and artificial. Claudio Nunes’ 1♦ bid promised majors or minors, at least 4-4 in each suit. The double showed values, but short of a positive response. When Meckstroth doubled 1♥ for penalty, Nunes’ pass revealed that he had the majors. Eric Rodwell didn’t fancy defending 1♥ doubled with a void, so he pulled it. Fulvio Fantoni started with the ♠Q to dummy’s ace, and Nunes won the spade continuation with the jack. A low club went to the nine and ace. Rodwell cashed the ♥A and ruffed a heart, following with a spade ruff with dummy’s ♦7. The defenders still had three tricks coming, but Rodwell had Plus 110.
Alfredo Versace and Lorenzo Lauria had the preponderance of the high-card points, but Nick Nickell beat them out where it counted - in tricks. Versace started with a low heart. Nickell played dummy’s six, overtaking with the ten. He played his ♠8 to dummy’s jack, then another spade to the queen and Versace’s ace. Versace exited with a low club to the ten and Nickell’s jack. Nickell fired back a club, taken by South with the ace, and another low heart went to dummy’s nine. Lauria was down to three diamonds by then, and he split his honours when Nickell called for the ♦8. Nickell won with the ♦A and exited with the ten to Versace’s king. Versace cashed the ♥A, and Lauria still had the ♣K and ♦Q to come, but Nickell had the rest for Plus 180 and a 7-IMP swing to USA1. A couple of small swings later, there was another doubled 1NT contract, but this one didn’t fare as well.
Rodwell started with a low heart to the ace. The diamond return went to the nine and dummy’s queen. The ♠Q was covered by the king and ace, and the ten returned to North’s jack. North/South could take only three hearts, one club and one spade. Nunes had Plus 120.
Versace’s 1NT was natural and strong, but not strong enough. Nickell had enough to make a penalty double, and Freeman led his partner’s suit. Versace won with the ♥Q in hand and played the ♦8. Freeman ducked and Nickell overtook with the queen to return the ♣8. Versace put up the king, ducked by Freeman. Now the ♦J went to Nickell’s king and a second club produced three club tricks for the defense. Freeman exited with the ♠10 to declarer’s king, and Versace could do no better than cash his two heart tricks. That was two down for Minus 500 - and 9 IMPs to USA1. More IMPs went to the Americans on the next board.
Meckstroth led the ♣8 to Rodwell’s ace. Instead of giving Meckstroth his ruff right away, Rodwell exited with his singleton spade. Fantoni pitched a spade on the ♦A before playing a heart from dummy. Rodwell hopped up with the ace, gave Meckstroth his club ruff and ruffed the spade return for Plus 50.
Nickell no doubt was thinking, no double, no trouble, when he passed 2♦ with a void in his partner’s suit. It worked out well when Versace bid his spade suit again. Freeman started with the ♦A and a second diamond. Nickell ruffed and returned a club to the nine and ace. A spade went to the jack and queen, and Nickell ruffed another diamond, getting out with the ♣K. Versace ruffed and played a high spade to Freeman’s ace. Versace had played the ♦K earlier, so he had to take the next diamond trick in dummy - and now there was a possible trump promotion for Freeman if Nickell was alert enough to play the ♥Q after the ♥A and a second heart. That became a moot point, however, when Versace ruffed a club and was overruffed by Freeman for the second undertrick. The USA1 lead had grown to 67-21. An overtrick IMP on Board 6 made it 68-21, but a big chunk came back almost immediately.
On a different layout, the aggressive bid by Meckstroth might have worked out. The cards did not lie well for them, however. Fantoni started with the ♦K and continued with a diamond to his partner’s ace. The defense took the next two tricks in hearts, and Fantoni put Rodwell in dummy with a club to the king. Rodwell played a spade to the queen, but he still had to lose a spade trick because of the need to ruff club losers, so he was two down for Minus 500.
When the tray came back to Freeman’s side of the screen with Lauria’s 4♠ bid and Nickell’s 5♣, it had to be a disappointing sight for Freeman. The opening lead of the ♠A didn’t help the defensive cause a lot, but there were four natural trump tricks for the defense. That was all they took, but it was Plus 500 and 14 IMPs to Italy, now 33 IMPs behind. Freeman made a nice play on defense on Board 8 to help the American cause.
The 2♦ bid was Multi, and Meckstroth’s 2♠ bid said he would be happy to play at least at the three level in hearts if that was Rodwell’s suit. Nunes started with a low trump, ducked to Meckstroth’s queen. Meckstroth played a low heart from hand. Fantoni overtook Nunes’ ♥J to play a low club. Meckstroth won with the ♣A and played another heart. Fantoni won again and continued with the club. Meckstroth took the ♣K and ruffed a heart, then played the ♠A and the ♠J. Fantoni won with the ♠K and played the ♦Q to the king and ace. The ♦J was cashed, followed by the ♣Q, on which Fantoni discarded his third diamond. He made the ♠9 on the play of the third round of diamonds. A well-earned Plus 100 for Italy.
Nickell led two top hearts, playing a low one to his partner’s jack on the third round. Lauria ruffed, went to dummy with a club and ran the ♠Q. Nickell won the king and continued with the ♥Q, Freeman alertly ruffing with the ♠8. Lauria discarded a diamond, and now there was only one play to keep Lauria from making his contract - the ♣Q. Freeman found it. In dummy with the ♣K, Lauria played the ♦K to Freeman’s ace. Nickell ruffed the club return for the setting trick. It was a loss of 2 IMPs, but it might have been 5. Italy scored 8 IMPs when Meckstroth and Rodwell overbid to 4♥, two down, while Nickell and Freeman let Versace make 3♥. More overbidding by the Americans produced another swing for Italy.
There were nine tricks but no more, so Nunes was Plus 140.
Nickell’s second double - a game try - was aggressive, to say the least. Whether Freeman had the right hand to bid on is debatable - his five-card suit was, after all, the suit South had opened, although it might have been only two. Despite the opening club lead, Freeman had no quick way to hand for a heart discard on the ♣A, so he was quickly one down. On the next deal, both rooms reached the same contract, and both went down two, but one was doubled and the other not.
Lauria led the ♣10 to the ace. A heart went to Freeman’s ace, and the ♠J fetched Lauria’s ace. He exited with a spade to dummy’s king. The ♠Q was cashed, and Freeman could have escaped for one down by playing a diamond to the jack or ten. Lauria would be in with all hearts and would have had to give Freeman a ruff-sluff to pitch one of his losing clubs. Freeman played a diamond to the ace, however, and had to lose another three tricks for Minus 100.
The play record does not indicate how Nunes escaped for two down, but the double helped USA1 to another 5 IMPs. Board 14 was frustrating for USA1 partisans but a delight, in a way, for Italian rooters.
Meckstroth started with the ♦Q (Rusinow), ducked. Fantoni won the continuation of the ♦K and, after long thought, played the ♣J and let it go. He could have prevailed if he had continued with clubs, but he ruffed a spade in dummy to play a low heart. Rodwell went up with the ♥K and accurately played back a diamond. That was ruffed in dummy, followed by a heart to the queen. Fantoni had to lead a club at that point, otherwise he would have been locked in dummy after picking up the trumps and forced to lead away from the ♣K. On the club lead from declarer, Meckstroth went up with the ace and played a fourth round of diamonds, promoting Rodwell’s ♥J to the setting trick. USA1 was in position for a nice gain thanks to overly aggressive bidding by Versace and Lauria, but they had to settle for less.
Freeman would have done best to lead his partner’s suit - the club return through declarer’s A-Q would have been deadly. Freeman started with the ♥A, however, and continued with the ♥2, advertising the ♣K. Versace studied the dummy at length before going up with the king, dropping Nickell’s queen (Versace discarded a club from hand). On the play of the ♥J, Nickell ruffed with the ♠2. Versace overruffed and played the ♦K to Nickell’s ace. The ♣J went to Versace’s ace, and he exited with the ♣Q to Freeman’s king. Freeman could have assured two down by continuing with a heart, giving declarer a useless ruff-sluff but allowing Nickell to ruff with the ♠Q or ♠K while he still had an out card. Instead, Freeman got out with a club, ruffed by Versace. Now declarer could cash two winning diamonds and ruff the last one in dummy, bringing Nickell down to the ♠K Q 10. All Versace had to do then was to play low from the ♠A 8 7 toward the ♠J 9 6 in his hand to achieve one down. It was still a loss, but he should have been Minus 300. The final two boards produced small swings. USA1 had taken an action-filled set, 37-33. There was a lot of bridge left to play, however. |
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