APBF Captains Log 14 June
Friday 14 June
Overall, a good performance by the Australian teams. When the round robin finished the Australian seniors’ team was still in front, despite pressure from Indonesia. Congratulations! The team won 16 of 22 matches with one draw. The women’s team also played well to secure third place. They had good wins over both Chinese Taipei and New Zealand. The final match was very swingy, and at one stage 0.8VP separated third, fourth and fifth. The open team continued its mixed form, losing and winning one match to finish a disappointing seventh. And the Lusk team finished twelfth. Japan won both the open and the women’s while Indonesia finished second in all three events. The surprise was China. Although a number of their top men and women were missing their replacements were thought to be of better quality than their performance in both the open and women’s events suggests.
The final board in the last match (second-last for the seniors which had a larger field) had an influence on the outcome for many teams.
[deal nr=”32″ hand=”KQ10764.9.K1085.83;A9.Q87642.A.AJ109;J83.AKJ10.QJ743.5″]First North had to decide what to open at favourable vulnerability. Most players opened a weak two but Avi Kanetkar thought this hand had too much playing strength and chose 3S.
Most Easts chose to make a simple heart overcall. This posed a problem for the South players, who held support for spades but a juicy heart holding. For the seniors’ team, Chris Hughes doubled the 4H overcall. At the other table, the Indonesian North-South played in 4S, one down.
Things were a little more complicated in the women’s match as both Norths opened a multi 2D, which both Easts doubled. For New Zealand this showed any 16+ hand – a poor choice in my opinion as this is a hand where you want to start bidding your suits. Nevena Djurovic ignored this and enquired with 2NT. When Liz Havas showed a maximum with spades Nevena declared 4S. The lead problem was too tough for West who led the CK, and now the hand was cold.
Candice Ginsberg also doubled 2D but this was either a transfer to hearts or any 16+. South passed and, when Barbara Travis bid 2H as West, passed again – a deep position when she can be confident North has spades and a heart lead is very likely.
For the open team Bill Jacobs couldn’t open a weak two because he and Ben Thompson play Fantunes, where two-level openings show hands with (9)10-13 HCP and five or more cards. (One-of-a-suit openings are 14+ and are forcing.) He chose not to open 3S and now the auction took a completely different turn. East opened 1H, Ben Thompson overcalled 2D, trying to take away the opponents’ bidding space, West passed and Bill jumped to 3S to show a spade suit and diamond support. Ben raised to 4S which East doubled. East failed to lead the DA and then underlead his CA to partner’s king for a ruff – would you have found that defence? Instead Bill received the fourth-best H6 lead. He was confident this was from the HQ so, with a doubled overtrick potentially on offer, finessed the HJ and then cashed the HA and HK. When West ruffed this Bill found the scissors coup, discarding his second club rather than over-ruffing so as to break the communications between the two hands and prevent any ruff. +590 was worth 9 IMPs when the Thai opponents stopped in 3S at the other table.
