| 35th World Interzonal Team Championships, Paris, France | Friday, 3 November 2001 |
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Norway vs USA II Bermuda Bowl - Final 3 Leading by 94-47 after 32 boards, Norway pitched s hut out for 15 deals of the third segment, only conceding IMPs on the very last deal of the set. But, for all that, anyone who was in the vugraph theatre on Thursday evening would surely vote for Alan Sontag as being the star of the show. The man cannot sit still for a second. If his body is not moving then the head will be doing so, and if the head is stationary the face will be constantly changing expression. Getting up from the table at every available opportunity - including while declarer and waiting for the defenders to come up with their next play - grinning, frowning, playing with his scorecard, his played cards, his lucky gold piece, anything that came to hand; Alan had the audience in fits of laughter throughout the session. He also played some pretty decent bridge, as one would expect from a previous World Champion.
Two No Trump was too much for Erik Saelensminde at the other table. He won the spade lead in hand and played ace then queen and a third heart to the king. There were only three tricks in each major, however, for down two; -100 and a flat board.
Have you ever seen a deal on which two partners both transferred to the same suit? That is what happened on vugraph. Sontag transferred to spades and that gave Aa an opportunity to double to show his hearts. When that came back to him, Sontag jumped to 3NT. On the other side of the screen, Weichsel described this as 'If he has remembered, that denies a heart stopper', with the emphasis on the If. Weichsel could see that even if his partner did have a heart stopper the lead through it would be very threatening in either 3NT or 4ª. Accordingly, he in turn made a transfer bid to get Sontag to play the spade game. Aa led out the ace then queen of hearts but it mattered not; +420. In the Closed Room, Boye Brogeland's sequence showed five spades
and three hearts and quite by chance avoided the lead-directing
double. After a club lead, the contract was secure for +430 and
a flat board.
After Weichsel's third-seat pass, Groetheim opened 1Nt and played there. Sontag, of course, led from his four-card heart suit and Groetheim put up the ten. He continued by running the ª10 and Sontag promptly switched to a low diamond to the ace. Groetheim won the diamond return and claimed eight tricks for +120. Saelensminde is of the school that believes in opening light in third seat when there is a sensible reason to do so, and this East hand was not that far short of a normal Norwegian opening bid in any case. Brogeland doubled the 1NT overcall and gave preference to 2¨ when Saelensminde ran from his partner's double. The contract was never in jeopardy and the defence actually dropped a trick to let Saelensminde score +110; 6 IMPs to Norway.
The two auctions began in identical fashion but then Aa made a surprising competitive bid of 3ª to buy the contract. Sontag led a low club and there was some percentage in running that in because even if it lost there would then be a pitch for declarer's losing heart. However, Groetheim went up with the ace and played a spade. Sontag won the queen and played the §Q to dummy's king. Groetheim played a second spade to the ace and Sontag played the §J, ruffed. Now Groetheim played the ªK and Sontag dropped the §5 instead of the ª3. We will never know whether he would have noticed his error but Weichsel asked him 'No spades, partner', as is permitted in North American tournaments. But this is an area of the laws where the ACBL is out of step with the rest of the world and under WBF regulations the question established the revoke. Sontag was obliged to play the club and the resulting one-trick penalty made the difference between one down and just making; +140. In the other room, Chip Martel led the king of clubs against 3©
but didn't like the look of Lew Stansby's nine, which looked to
be discouraging. He switched to a diamond and continued that suit
when in with the ace of hearts. Brogeland made ten tricks for +170
and 7 IMPs to Norway.
Sontag's 2ª was described as 'Probably a fit bid' at the other side of the screen. After Aa had judged to make a take-out double, there was no chance that the Norwegians would get to the spade game. Indeed, Groetheim did well to find the double of 4© to increase the penalty for two down to -300. That looked to be a good result for Sontag's imaginative effort
but all it achieved was to hold the American loss on the board to
8 IMPs. When Martel was willing to bid to 4ª on his own, it wasn't
easy for Stansby, with his five-card support, to avoid bidding on
to the doomed 5ª. There was no way to avoid the loss of two diamonds
and one heart; -50.
It may appear that both Norths made the same opening bid, but in reality Aa was showing a bad pre-empt in either minor, while Martel's bid was natural. Despite having support for partner's minor, both Groetheim and Stansby focused exclusively on spades. While Sontag took the push to 5©, Brogeland made a tremendous decision when he judged to double 4ª. Apparently it just felt right at the time and Boye had the courage to follow his instincts - when you're hot… Both contracts failed by a trick for two +100s to Norway and 5
IMPs.
Up to this point the set score was 40-0 in favour of Norway, but finally there was some joy for the beleaguered Americans. Both the natural American auction and the Norwegian relays reached the good spade slam, but the opening leads differed, as did declarer's chosen lines of play. Aa received a club lead to the seven and ace, and back came a second club, which he ruffed. He played a diamond to the king then ace of hearts and ruffed one. Ace and another diamond, ruffed, left declarer a trick short because of the 4-0 trump split; down one for -50. Martel got a diamond lead to dummy's king. He played the §Q and Brogeland won the ace and switched to the eight of spades. Martel won in hand and played ace of diamonds and ruffed a diamond low, ruffed a club and played a heart to the queen, cashed the ace and ruffed another club. A diamond, ruffed with the king, and one more ruff in hand allowed Martel to make his nine of spades; +980 and 14 IMPs to USA2. Aa was unlucky, of course, but might he have played a spade to hand after unblocking the diamond? Now he sees the 4-0 break in time and recognises the need to take the heart finesse. After 48 boards, Norway were looking good, leading USA2 by 132-59 IMPs. |
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