| 12th World Team Olympiad | Page 2 | Bulletin 6 - Friday, 29 October 2004 |
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England’s Hungarian Rhapsody by Mark Horton Round 12 saw England, the runaway leaders of Group C, face Hungary, one of the teams fighting for a qualifying spot. It proved to be a match of few swings and both teams missed chances. However, England generally had the better of things and added another good win to their collection.
The Hackett twins aggressive bidding style makes them difficult opponents, but on this occasion they ran into trouble once Justin decided to take a second bid over West’s double. East led the five of hearts and West won with the king and returned the two, taken by dummy’s ace. Declarer played a spade to the king and a low club. East went in with the queen and played a spade, West winning and giving his partner a ruff. There were still two trumps and a diamond to come so the contract was two down, -300.
Despite the 4-1 trump break Two Diamonds was a comfortable spot, and when North led the ace of clubs it simplified matters for declarer who soon emerged with eight tricks, +90, but 5 IMPs to Hungary.
South’s atypical gung ho preempt meant West would be taking a risk to bid 3NT with only two tricks (nevertheless one that many would take) and when he passed North raised the ante. The commentators felt East had to bid Five Hearts and had he done so West would almost certainly have gone on to the lay down slam. It took a while for the tray to come back and for a brief moment a director was at the table. He might have been needed again if East had bid over West’s double, but as it was North/South were going to post an excellent result. West led the two of spades and declarer won with jack and played back the queen. West took the ace (it would probably be better to duck in order to see a couple of discards from partner) as East discarded the seven of clubs (high discouraging/odd/suit preference according to the convention card). West switched to the two of clubs (3rd & 5th) and East took the king and returned the nine – he might have cashed the ace of hearts first – West winning with the queen. Now West was faced with a nasty guess as to the whereabouts of two cards, the ace of hearts and the eight of clubs. When he tried to cash the ace of clubs declarer was home, a remarkable +590.
The weak two gave East/West plenty of room to investigate but they could not discover the perfect fit that existed. With decent controls West might have gone on with Four Spades, or East might have made at least one more move. How pleasant to discover that +680 was worth 15 IMPs.
After the strong club opening North/South did well to bid the spade game that cannot be defeated. East led his spade and declarer won in dummy and played the king of diamonds. East won and returned the nine of diamonds to dummy’s queen. When a club to the ten forced East’s ace declarer was in control. East cashed the ace of hearts and continued with the queen. Declarer took dummy’s king, crossed to the king of clubs, played two rounds of trumps ending in dummy and advanced the nine of clubs, +620.
Declarer made the same ten tricks, but that represented a loss of 10 IMPs.
In order to defeat Three Diamonds, West must lead a heart, the point being that declarer has no convenient way to hand to play a trump towards dummy. His actual choice of ace and another diamond saw declarer win in hand and play a third trump to dummy’s queen. At this point declarer must play a low club from dummy, not easy to see, but instead he ran the ten of hearts to West’s queen. West played back a heart and declarer won with dummy’s jack and played a club. Now East must go in with the queen and play a spade. As long as West ducks, wins the next spade and cashes the ace of clubs, declarer must lose a heart at the end for one down. East should perhaps have found this play, as with the ace of clubs South would undoubtedly have raised 2NT to game. As it was, declarer was home when the ten of clubs forced the ace, +110.
3NT would certainly have failed, but when South ran West decided to rest his case. West led the ace of clubs, followed by the ace of spades and a heart. Declarer won in dummy, ruffed a club and played a diamond. West went in with the ace and gave his partner a heart ruff. The play record stops at this point, but the contract was two down, so we can infer that when East played a club declarer did not ruff it high. –100 and 5 IMPs to England. Round about here Canada’s Joey Silver, who had briefly joined the audience in the VuGraph theatre, took his leave. As he departed he called out, ‘I’ve never seen so many sleepy people in my life – wake up everybody, this is really interesting.’
Declarer won the opening lead of the king of hearts, North dropping the ten, drew trumps when the suit behaved and played a diamond to the king and ace. He won the diamond return with the ten and played the seven of hearts, eventually putting up dummy’s jack. +420.
Four Clubs was a ghastly contract, but luckily for North/South no one could double. East led the king of diamonds and declarer won with the ace and played the ace of clubs followed by the queen. West won, drew another round of trumps and played a spade to East’s ace. When East cashed the queen of diamonds declarer claimed for three down, -300, but a gain of 3 IMPs.
Obviously you want to be in game, but clearly West did not think he had an automatic raise to Four Hearts. Declarer made eleven tricks, +200.
The English pair made no mistake, +450 and 6 IMPs that helped England to a 52-19 IMP win that translated into 22-8 VP. |
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