Brighton Friendly Internationals


One of our editorial team comes fresh from editing the bulletins at the English Bridge Union Summer Meeting in Brighton. The congress featured a four-team friendly international tournament with two English teams, the Chinese Ladies and an Australian Open team, playing a double round-robin of 14-board matches. The teams were:

Australia: Tony Jackman, Mike Robson, Jim Wallis, Ishmael Del'Monte
China: Sun Ming, Gu Ling, Zhang Yalan, Wang Wenfei, Zhang Yu, Wang Hongli
England (Mossop): Dave Mossop, Tony Forrester, Paul, Jason and Justin Hackett
England (Burn): David Burn, Joe Fawcett, Alan Mould, Gary Hyett

For Match 1, the MOSSOP team had only three members present, so Brian Senior stepped in to partner Justin against the Australians.

Session 1. Board 13. Dealer North. Game All
ª 2
© A K 8 4 3
¨ K 9 8
§ J 7 6 4
ª 10 9 6 4 ª A 5
© 10 9 7 6 © Q J 5
¨ A ¨ Q 10 2
§ A 9 5 3 § K Q 10 8 2
ª K Q J 8 7 3
© 2
¨ J 7 6 5 4 3
§

Australia v Mossop
West North East South
Wallis P. Hacket Del'Monte Mossop

1© 1ª Dble
Pass 1NT Pass 2¨
All Pass

The auction requires a little explanation. Wallis/Del'Monte play that an overcall in the next suit up from the opening bid is either a natural overcall with opening values or an overcall in any suit with less than opening values. But, I hear you say, the East hand is a perfectly sound opening bid, so why did it not qualify for a 2§ overcall? Well, having this toy at his disposal, Ishmael Del'Monte wanted to try it out at the first available opportunity, even though his hand did not really qualify, just to see how his opponents would handle it.

David Burn has been coach of British international teams for many years, partly because he is very good at coming up with workable defences to strange opposing methods. He had suggested that when this overcall came up the best thing to do was to double to say that you had been about to respond in the suit overcalled, otherwise pretend RHO had passed and just play your normal system. Hence, David Mossop's double of 1ª, which simply said that he would have responded 1ª had East passed. This also explains how Paul Hackett could rebid 1NT with a singleton spade.

Anyway, 2¨ was a very comfortable spot and Mossop emerged with ten tricks; +130.

West North East South
Senior Jackman J. Hackett Robson

1© Pass 1ª
Pass 2§ Pass 2ª
All Pass

Justin chose not to overcall and the Australian pair never mentioned diamonds. Senior led his bare ¨A and switched to a low club, hoping to get any club tricks belonging to his side cashed before they went on the hearts, or perhaps get a force going. Robson ruffed the club and played a heart to dummy then a spade to his king. He continued with the ªQ to Justin's ace and back came a club, ruffed. Now declarer played a diamond towards the king. Senior thought he could see eight tricks for declarer whatever he did on this trick, but pitched a heart as this might save an overtrick on a different layout. The ¨K won and declarer played another diamond to Justin's queen, Senior throwing another heart. Justin played a club, declarer ruffing while Senior unblocked the ace, and now Robson cashed the ªJ and tried to sneak the ¨3 past Senior. A couple of careful recounts suggested that it was appropriate to ruff that and Justin threw his last heart, so had two clubs to take for the last two tricks; one down for -100 and 6 IMPs to MOSSOP.

Declarer needed to cash the ©K when in dummy with the diamond and would now have had eight tricks.

China v Burn
West North East South
Burn Z. Yalan Fawcett Gu Ling

1© Pass 1ª
Pass 2§ Pass 2ª
All Pass

The play started exactly the same way, but Burn did ruff in when declarer led towards the ¨K. Now Gu was in control and actually came to ten tricks as Fawcett had unblocked the ¨Q under the ace, allowing her to throw the blocking king when she drew the last trumps and then ran the diamonds; +170.

West North East South
Sun Ming Mould W Hingli Hyett

1© 2§ 2ª
3© Pass 3NT 4¨
5§ Dble All Pass

5§ doubled is one of the luckiest contracts I have ever seen. To make it, declarer actually needs the 4-0 trump break -- otherwise South gets a heart ruff. She needs spades to be 6-1 so the defence cannot get at their spade trick; and the heart honours must both be in the short spade hand so that an initial spade lead does not leave South with a heart entry to cash the established spade winner. All of this came to pass!

Hyett led his heart and Mould won and, knowing his partner could not ruff the third round, switched to a spade. Wang Hongli won the ªA and played the §K. When she saw the 4-0 break she had no choice but to play on hearts. When Mould won his second top heart, he had no spade to play so switched to a diamond - not that it mattered. Declarer was able to throw her spade loser on the fourth heart and cross-ruff her way home, one diamond ruff being taken with the ace of trumps; +750 and 14 IMPs to CHINA.

Session 1. Board 16. Dealer West. EW Game
ª K J
© A Q 5 4
¨ K 9 8 7 6 3
§ 4
ª 8 7 6 3 ª Q 9 4
© K 9 © 8 7 6 3
¨ J 10 5 4 ¨ A
§ A 8 3 § Q 10 7 6 2
ª A 10 5 2
© J 10 2
¨ Q 2
§ K J 9 5

This innocent looking deal produced four different contracts.

China v Australia
West North East South
Jackman Robson

1¨ 1ª
2¨ Pass

The Australians bid quietly to a partscore. They play Precision and Robson took a slightly pessimistic view when Jackman could only repeat his diamonds; +130.

West North East South
Z Yalan Gu Ling

1¨ 1ª
2¨ 2NT
3NT Pass

Gu Ling tried for game with 2NT and Zhang Yalan just raised to 3NT, giving no extra information away. A club was led to the queen and king and Gu crossed to the ªK to lead a low diamond towards the queen. When the ace hopped up she was well-placed and, with both the heart and spade onside, came to ten tricks; +430 and 7 IMPs to CHINA.

Burn v Mossop
West North East South
Justin Paul

1¨ 1ª
2¨ 3¨
5¨ Pass

Justin has a pretty aggressive opening style but Paul still tried for game over the 2¨ rebid, as seems normal. However, whether 3¨ is the best way forward is questionable, and here it led to a poor contract when Justin just jumped to 5¨, not entirely unreasonable with a small singleton in an unbid suit, though I suppose he could have bid 3© to give Paul another chance. The disadvantage of bidding 3© is, of course, that you make the defence easier as they know more about the hand. Anyway, 5¨ was hopeless, having two trump losers to go with the §A; -50.

Open Room
West North East South
Burn Fawcett

1¨ 1ª
2¨ 2NT
3© 4©
Pass

Joe Fawcett made what looks like the more normal game try of 2NT and Burn chose to describe his hand with 3©. That looks best in this auction but I don't really understand Fawcett's raise to 4© - 3NT looks more normal.

Jason led a low club to the jack and ace and Mossop switched to a spade for the jack, queen and ace. The contract still had chances at this point, but Burn played the ¨Q from dummy and Jason won the bare ace. He reverted to clubs, leading the queen to dummy's king. Burn led a diamond to the king and, when that was ruffed, could no longer find a way home. He was one down for -50 and a flat board.

Session 1. Board 19. Dealer South. EW Game
ª A 4 3
© Q 8 6
¨ 2
§ A K J 6 4 3
ª 9 6 ª K Q J 10 5 2
© A K 5 3 2 © J 9 7 4
¨ 10 6 ¨ K Q 3
§ 10 8 5 2 §
ª 8 7
© 10
¨ A J 9 8 7 5 4
§ Q 9 7

At all four tables South opened 3¨ and, after two passes, East overcalled 3ª. At three tables, that ended the auction, while at the fourth North found an aggressive penalty double. Everyone led their singleton heart and all four declarers won the ace. What happened next would be a bit of a blow to those misguided people who believe in male superiority.

Del'Monte, Hyett and Jason all played the ª9 at trick two while Zhang Yu played the ª6. On the actual lie of the cards this made no difference - there is nothing to prevent declarer coming to nine tricks. However, try swapping the seven or eight of spades with the three or four. North can now go in with the ªA and switch to his singleton diamond. After a diamond to the ace and a diamond ruff, North gives his partner a heart ruff and back comes a third diamond.

On the actual layout, dummy's ª6 is good enough to prevent an over-ruff, but swap those spots around and North gets an over-ruff for the fifth defensive trick. Of course, Zhang Yu was safe, as nobody was ever going to be able to over-ruff the ª9, which she had carefully left in dummy for precisely this eventuality.

The leaders met for the first time in Session 2 with MOSSOP on 37 VPs and CHINA on 34. The wind blew strongly in Mossop's direction from the outset.

Session 2. Board 2. Dealer East. NS Game
ª K 9 4
© J 10 8
¨ Q 10 6 3
§ 8 5 3
ª Q 7 3 ª 8 6 2
© K 7 6 © Q 4 3
¨ K 7 5 ¨ A J 8 4
§ A 9 7 6 § K J 2
ª A J 10 5
© A 9 5 2
¨ 9 2
§ Q 10 4

With MOSSOP East/West, Justin opened the East hand with 1¨ in the partnership style, doubled and redoubled. When North's 1© run-out rode around to Paul he contented himself with 1NT.

Even this modest contract is in danger, but South was sufficiently embarrassed by the third round of diamonds to let a spade go. An eventual endplay yielded three club tricks and seven in all; +90.

At the other table, East passed initially and, after a competitive auction, Tony Forrester found himself in 2© doubled. There may be only five obvious losers, but contriving eight winners is another matter. Forrester managed it, however, and the tone of the match was set.

Session 2. Board 3. Dealer South. EW Game
ª A Q 8
© A J 7
¨ 9 8
§ 7 6 5 4 2
ª J 9 4 ª 6 5 3
© 10 8 © Q 9 6 4 3
¨ A K 10 6 4 2 ¨ J 3
§ 9 8 § Q J 10
ª K 10 7 2
© K 5 2
¨ Q 7 5
§ A K 3

Most auctions will lead to 3NT by South, as happened at the table where MOSSOP sat North/South, and only a pinpoint defence will beat it. On a top diamond lead, East has to unblock the jack and West has to switch. This was not found against Forrester, who recorded +400.

At the other table, the Chinese South opened a Precision 1¨, North responded 1NT, and when the eventual 3NT was reached, Paul Hackett (West) found a lead-directing double which yielded +300. Enterprising, as one would expect, though the auction had fallen conveniently into place for East/West.

One board later, Paul was in 4ª on the opening lead of the ©7. With ©J4 in hand and ©K106 in dummy it was normal to run this. Bad luck! North had found a devastating lead from ©A87 and there were two trump losers to go with the heart losers. Sad to say from a Chinese viewpoint, South was looking at ©Q9532 and put in the 9! Declarer had 11 tricks now. Immediately after the hand was over, North initiated a lively debate but some sympathy is due to South, as the queen is only the right play when partner has done the "wrong" thing at the right time.

The loss was only 1 IMP because the Chinese declarer in the other room did well to put up the ©K late in the play, North/South having bid and supported the suit. Still, a possible major swing had been avoided and the seven-board set ended with MOSSOP leading 51-1. MOSSOP held on in the second half to win the match by 25-4 VPs. Meanwhile, BURN was beating the Australians 25-2.

The next deal was the liveliest of the final session:

Session 3. Board 21. Dealer North. NS Game
ª Q 3
© 5
¨ A J 9 8 7 6 3 2
§ 6 4
ª A K J 10 9 8 7 ª 6 4 2
© 7 6 © A K Q J 10 9
¨ 10 4 ¨ K Q 5
§ K 10 § Q
ª 5
© 8 4 3 2
¨
§ A J 9 8 7 5 3 2

China v Australia
West North East South
Sun Ming Jackman W Hongli Robson

3¨ 3© Pass
4ª All Pass

Wang Hongli contented herself with a simple 3© overcall of the opening preempt and Sun Ming just jumped to 4ª, making all 13 tricks on a heart lead; +510. Wallis and Del'Monte were more ambitious in the other room.

West North East South
Del'Monte Z Yalan Wallis Gu Ling

3¨ 4© Pass
4ª Pass 4NT Pass
5© Pass 6NT All Pass

Any slam is very fortunate to make. As you can see, it is only the 8-0 diamond break which makes it impossible for the defence to get at their second ace, assuming of course that East/West can get the slam played by East. Wallis made all 13 tricks in 6NT for +1020 and 11 IMPs to AUSTRALIA.

Burn v Mossop
West North East South
Forrester Bum P. Hackett Fawcett

3¨ 3NT 4§
6NT All Pass

Paul Hackett found a third different action with the East cards. When Fawcett competed with 4§, Forrester gambled out 6NT, knowing there was a big danger of a minor-suit ruff if he chose to play in a suit. Right he was. Had Forrester tried 6ª, that would have gone down very quickly on ace and another diamond lead. 6NT made exactly after Fawcett cashed the §A then searched his hand in vain for a diamond; +990.

West North East South
Mould Jason Hyett Justin

3¨ 3© 4§
4ª 5¨ Dble All Pass

Gary Hyett made the simple 3© overcall and now Justin bid his clubs. Justin clearly intended the 4§ bid as natural but, like the rest of us, the twins play all sorts of new suit bids in competition as fit-showing, and Jason equally clearly thought that the 4§ bid would also deliver some kind of diamond support. 5¨ doubled was not a success, going down 1100. The twins would have been relieved to only drop 3 IMPs for their little adventure, though explaining to teammates why their +990 was not worth a large swing may have proved a little difficult.

Final Table
1. England (Mossop) 120 VPs
2. England (Burn) 96 VPs
3. China 72 VPs
4. Australia 65 VPs

Results Contents
Par Contest Round 1, Round 2
Mixed Session1
Brighton Friendly
1998 Computer Championships
Disastrous Bid



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