| 45th GENERALI European Bridge Championships, Arona, Tenerife, Canary Islands | Friday, 22 June 2001 |
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Israel v Norway Ladies Series Round 1 The first round of the Ladies teams featured a match up between two countries, Israel and Norway, either of whom might well take one of the qualifying places for Bali. My personal bet was that with several other strong countries represented here there would not be room for both to make it to the World Championships. Norway took a small lead on the first deal of the match.
Ruth Levit-Porat's jump to 3ª showed shortage, but not specifically long running diamonds - though presumably most other hand types could just cuebid 2ª. Whatever her partner was showing, Migri Zur-Campanila had very limited values with a probably wasted king of spades and doubled Ida Wennevold's 4ª. Levit-Porat still thought for some time before trusting her partner's judgement and passing. Wennevold ruffed the diamond lead and cashed the ace of trumps before leading a low club from hand. Levit-Porat won the jack and played a diamond which declarer ruffed. She exited with a spade to the king and back came a club to the ace followed by a low heart switch. Wennevold put in the jack so had just to lose the ace and a later heart trick; down two for -300. In the other room, Aase Langeland preferred to rebid 3¨ and, when Eva Lund Heitmann raised in competition, made a slam try of 4ª on the way to game. Two rounds of spades gave Langeland a discard from hand and she simply drew trumps then gave up a club; +400 and 3 IMPs to Norway.
(i) Good/Bad 2NT
The same contract was reached at both tables but Heitmann raised the stakes a little with a final double. Langeland led a low club and Hanita Melech ran this to North's ace. A diamond switch was won with the ace and Melech led a second diamond to the king. Langeland switched to the king of hearts now and finally found the trump switch - but far too late, of course. Melech had the communications to take two club ruffs in dummy and had ten tricks in all for +590. Levit-Porat led the king of hearts and switched to a trump at trick two. Tulla Steenlybaek won that in hand and played ace and another diamond. Levit-Porat won the ¨K and led a low heart to the eight and ruff. Declarer ruffed a club then tried the queen of diamonds. When that got ruffed she could over-ruff but had only two club ruffs in dummy and eventually had to concede two club tricks and her contract; down one for -50 and 12 IMPs to Israel.
It is easy for South to give the contract by leading a diamond into the tenace but Levit-Porat avoided that, leading instead her doubleton spade. Steenlybaek took dummy's king and played the ten of hearts for the queen and ace, then a second heart to the king. Levit-Porat continued spades (her partner had dropped the queen at trick one). Declarer won the ace of spades and played three rounds of diamonds, ruffing, then exited with the spade loser. Zur-Campanila won and played a club on which Steenlybaek put up the king. But Levit-Porat had a complete count of the hand and ducked to avoid the endplay. Declarer crossed to dummy to lead a second club up but had to lose two tricks in the suit for down one; -100. At the other table West was declarer so Heitmann had an easy spade lead. Nurit Naveh won in hand and took the diamond finesse. That lost and back came a spade but she now had a discard for the spade loser. Naveh won the second spade, cashed the ace of hearts, then played the diamond winners, throwing her spade away. When she now exited with a second trump, Langeland had to win the king but was then endplayed; +620 and 12 IMPs to Israel.
Levit-Porat had a pretty good match but I thought she made a lazy bid on this hand. Having heard her partner bid hearts three times, including a jump, would it have cost to bid 5NT rather than 6©? On the actual deal, Zur-Campanila would have seen the value of her spade holding and been well placed to bid seven. In the other room, Naveh's delayed diamond pre-empt made life more difficult for her opponents and they too stopped off in six. A pair of +1460s for a push board. Not everyone had a free run on this deal. In the match between Poland and Croatia in the Ladies series, Marina Pilipovic heard the auction: 3¨ - 3© - 5¨ to her. Looking at that South hand, she simply jumped to 7©! Bridge is such an easy game sometimes, don't you think?
Heitmann led a heart against Naveh. That went to the queen and king and back came a second heart to the ace. Naveh took the club finesse and, when that held, played two more rounds of the suit. Heitmann won the third club and played another heart to the jack. Naveh continued with the ace and queen of spades and came to eleven tricks when the defence lost its way; +660. That was only an overtrick or two and it didn't appear that much damage had been done. However, at the other table Zur-Campanila led the ten of diamonds to the jack, ducked. Wennevold won the next diamond and took the heart finesse. That lost and back came a third diamond. Declarer won and finally got around to the spades, playing ace then queen as she might have done at tricks three and four. Zur-Campanila won the second spade and cashed her diamond winner before exiting with a club to the king and ace. Now Wennevold had one of those unfortunate lapses to which we are all prone on occasion, miscounting her losers and thinking that she could afford to duck a club in case the ten of spades was not coming down. That meant an embarrassing one down; -100 and 13 IMPs to Israel.
Method had some bearing on the result here, Langeland's four-card major opening making life much easier for her side. Four Clubs was a cuebid and Langeland was happy to cooperate, taking control when Heitmann was able to make a second cuebid above game; +1430. Levit-Porat had to start with 1§ and Zur-Campanila bid 3¨ over the weak jump overcall. What was levit-Porat to do? She fancied 3NT with her sure spade stopper and useful diamond holding but if she didn't bid it now she might not get another chance. There was no problem in making ten tricks for +630 but that was 13 IMPs to Norway, who needed them. I hate that 3¨ bid when a negative double was presumably available. Of course, double does not necessarily get them to the slam, but at least they play in hearts and have a chance. Israel won the match by 48-28 IMPs, 19-11 VPs. |
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