by Stefan Back

Omar Sharif and his partner Sadek Radwan, playing on the Egypt seniors team, were definitely not in a bright mood after they had played their 12-boards match against Nissan Rand and Moshe Katz from Israel, knowing that besides a couple of dull boards they had produced three annoying scores that would give their side no reason for a "la Ola". Have a look at their "terrible threesome":

In the very first board a competitive auction saw Omar as declarer in 3ª.

Board 1. Dealer North. None Vul.
	ª A K 9 6 © Q 10 ¨ 8 4 2 § K Q 6 5
ª Q 10 8 4 3 © A 9 5 ¨ A Q 7 6 § 8		ª 7 5 2 © K J 8 2 ¨ K 9 5 § 7 3 2
	ª J © 7 6 4 3 ¨ J 10 3 § A J 10 9 4

North led the king of clubs and continued with the queen overtaken by South's ace and ruffed by West. Sharif now crossed to the king of diamonds and led a small spade. When the jack appeared on his right he "smelled" the 4-1 trump split but unfortunately got the hand wrong in the end. North, after having scored the king of spades, exited with a third round of clubs and West had to ruff again. Now, the declarer played a heart to the jack, cashed the ace of hearts, then played two top diamonds from hand and continued with a small heart. North took the chance to ruff with the six of spades, got off lead with a club and patiently waited for two more trump tricks to set the contract one; Israel: +50.

If declarer, after cashing his red suit winners, plays the thirteenth diamond instead of a heart he reaches the following ending with seven tricks already "in the bag":

	ª A 9 6 © - ¨ - § 5
ª 10 8 © 9 ¨ 6 § -		ª 7 5 © K 8 ¨ - § -
	ª - © 7 6 ¨ - § J 10

If North discards a club, West scores the six of diamonds and another spade trick in the end to make his contract. If North ruffs with the six of spades, dummy will overruff and once again the same trump endplay applies. If North ruffs with the nine of spades and returns a club declarer ruffs in dummy to lose only the ace of trumps later on. If North finally ruffs with the nine of spades and exits with ace of trumps and another trump, then declarer will score the king of hearts to survive.

Annoying but probably just a small pick up for the opponents. But there were much bigger numbers to come:

Board 6. Dealer East. E/W Vul
	ª J © Q 10 9 5 3 ¨ K Q 6 3 2 § 7 6
ª K 8 6 2 © A J 4 2 ¨ 4 § K Q 4 2		ª Q 9 7 5 © K 8 7 ¨ A 10 8 § J 9 5
	ª A 10 4 3 © 6 ¨ J 9 7 5 § A 10 8 3

This dummy must have been a delight (and relief) for the South, our fearless "king of balancing". Things even got better for him when West, left on play with the king of clubs, tried to beat the contract by giving his partner some heart ruffs and therefore continued ace of hearts and another heart to the nine and king.

Now it was soon all over. South ruffed, cashed the ace of spades and played a diamond to the queen and ace. He won the club return, cashed the jack of diamonds, ruffed a spade, ruffed a heart and claimed ten tricks; Israel +570.

And then there was board 11, in which everything went exactly the way North wanted it to:

Board 11. Dealer South. None Vul.
	ª A 9 7 3 © A 7 5 ¨ J 8 4 § A 4 2
ª K 10 2 © Q 8 3 ¨ K Q 3 § 10 9 7 6		ª Q J 6 5 4 © - ¨ 9 7 6 5 § K Q J 8
	ª 8 © K J 10 9 6 4 2 ¨ A 10 2 § 5 3

South opened 3© and North decided to go quietly and passed. East understandably decided to reopen the bidding and chose to double. West with no better option available went for 3NT and North must have been very willing to double this. Much to his surprise, no one had any objections and so 3 NT doubled became the final contract. Here's the bidding once again:

What can you say about the play? Although Sharif got the hearts "right" - when it went small to the king and jack back he ducked the queen - the blocking of South's long suit didn't really help and in the end West was six down for +1400 to Israel.

Now, what do expect from a match like that? You don't really feel like "la olaing", do you?

Well, thank god sometimes you are lucky, your partners come out with a huge set and you even win a match like that.

Okay, you have lost a couple of IMPs on board 6 and 11 (10 and 17 to be precise), but you already collect 2 IMPs for Board No.1, where your North/South pair at the other table bid 1NT and scored an overtrick.

The rest, of course, has to come from rather "unexpected contributions" from the other room:

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

After the following auction, South ended up in 3 NT:

As East did not introduce his diamonds, West led a small spade. South won in dummy and played a heart to the 9 and 10. West played another spade to South's ace, and he now successfully finessed in hearts and ran the suit. In the end declarer cashed the ace and king of clubs and had to admit defeat, when the queen did not appear. One down seemed all right but not spectacular from East/West's point of view. However, it became a nice addition to North/South's +800, collected in 4ª doubled at the other table for 13 IMPs!

Finally, the match turned on the very last deal.

Board 12. Dealer West. N/S Vul
	ª Q 9 5 © Q 10 7 6 ¨ J 10 6 2 § K 4
ª K 10 3 2 © A 3 ¨ Q 9 3 § Q 5 3 2		ª A J 7 4 © K 8 2 ¨ A 7 4 § A J 7
	ª 8 6 © J 9 5 4 ¨ K 8 5 § 10 9 8 6

Sharif - Radwan had a straightforward auction to 4ª:

Sadek Radwan won the ten of clubs lead with the jack and played ace of spades and spade to the queen. Losing a trump trick meant +450 to Egypt when he claimed later on only to lose one more trick, the diamond king.

Nothing special but worth another 11IMPs, as the Egyptian North/South pair, Abbelaziz El Shafie and Mohsen Kamel, managed to set the contract in the other room, which happened to be 3NT, by one trick!

With a couple of minors swings to go with these two huge closed room results, Egypt finally won the match 38:28, 18:12 in VPs respectively. Anyone for a "La Ola" NOW?

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