| 47th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 6 | Bulletin 3 - Tuesday, 22 June 2004 |
|
|
||
Austria v France – Women Round 4 Going into their fourth round vugraph encounter, Austria and France were tied at the top of the Women’s Series on 65 VPs from three matches. Austria had a great start on Board 1, though the swing came in a most unusual manner.
When Daniele Gaviard-Allouche made a take-out double of the forcing spade raise and Catherine D’Ovidio failed to take it out, Terry Weigkricht had an unusual decision to make with the South cards. She eventually made the winning decision when she passed out 2NT doubled. Gaviard led the jack of hearts and Weigkricht rattled off the spades. She got the ending wrong, thereby holding herself to eleven tricks, but this unusual way of achieving +790 was still worth 13 IMPs to Austria.
Kriftner tried a cuebid along the way and now Cronier took the opportunity to show her second suit. When Willard gave preference back to spades, Kriftner left the decision to her partner and Jovi Smederevac judged to go on to 5©. Had Willard led her partner’s first suit, that would have been the losing decision as there are two spades and a diamond to be lost. Even a passive lead sees declarer with nowhere to go for a spade discard, but Willard led the ten of diamonds, and covering in dummy established a finesse position against the jack so that Smederevac had eleven tricks; +650 and 1 IMP to Austria.
It looks as though 4ª is doomed to defeat thanks to the two missing key cards being badly placed. Both Easts led the ª10 and declarer drew trumps then ran the queen of clubs. Gaviard ducked but when the next club and switched to a heart. D’Ovidio won and cashed a second heart and that was one down for –50. Kriftner won the first club and also switched to a heart but Smederevac won the ace and switched to a diamond. Kriftner won the ace and returned a diamond and Cronier ruffed, crossed to dummy with a club and ruffed another diamond. When the king fell she crossed to dummy again in clubs and took a heart pitch on the established diamond; +420 and 10 IMPs from nowhere for France.
Would you bid with the South cards over the simple heart raise? Willard did not and Kriftner, who could see that there might be game on the other way, made sure that there would be no second chance for her opponents to get together. However, Cronier had a painless second double and Willard an equally painless pass. The defence had no difficulty in coming to the six tricks that were their due and that was three down for –500. Weigkricht bid 2NT to show the minors and Gaviard’s reraise to only 3© left room for Grumm to show slam interest. Not knowing which suit her partner intended as trumps, Weigkricht signed off in the lower one and 5§ became the final contract. Gaviard cashed the ace of hearts then switched to her diamond, Weigkricht putting up the ace. It all hinged on the trump guess, of course. If the diamond switch was really a singleton, then West rated to have the trump length, but Weigkricht wasn’t convinced that this had to be the actual diamond position. After some thought she cashed the §K and led low to her ten so was down one; –50 and 10 IMPs to France.
D’Ovidio showed a strong hand with her 3¨ rebid and was then unwilling to cuebid despite finding a spade fit. Gaviard took control, however, athen jumped to the diamond slam on finding that she was facing three key cards. She presumably did not believe that her partner would have signed off if holding ªAKQ and ¨AQ. That worked out perfectly and D’Ovidio soon chalked up +1370. At the other table Kriftner followed a canapé sequence to show her red suits and Smederevac started a series of cuebids then took control and bid the grand slam, gambling out the spade position after her partner had failed to show any support for the suit. A bit unlucky, perhaps, but I like the French auction better and I like their result even more as 7¨ was doomed to failure; –100 and 16 IMPs to France. Of course, I would like even more an auction that began with a 1¨ opening bid from East, but then I am a simple soul who believes in longest suit first.
This proved to be a good hand for four-card majors as the Austrians bid quickly to 1NT and played there on a low diamond lead. That was the end of the South hand, of course, and Smederevac came to nine tricks for a useful +150. The French five-card major style found the spade fit and that convinced Weigkricht to compete in diamonds. There is no reason in this auction why South’s failure to open should indicate that she has a side-suit of hearts, as a six-four red-suit hand could double 2ª, but Grumm presumably saw things differently as she converted to 3©. Now I disagree strongly with D’Ovidio’s 3ª bid. OK, she was maximum for her constructive 2ª raise, but that is a ten-loser hand there is nothing about it to suggest that an unLAWful 3ª bid will be a winner. Sure enough, 3ª turned a plus score into a minus. The defence started with three rounds of diamonds for aruff and there was still a heart to lose as well as a trump; –50 and 5 IMPs to Austria.
Both sides bid nicely to the cold grand slam that was missed at a surprising number of tables. In both cases East took control. Kriftner responded to 5NT and let Smederevac make the final decision, while Gaviard accepted the invitation herself and bid the grand. No swing; +2210 for Austria and +2220 to France. The match ended in a deserved win for France by 44-24 IMPs, 19-11 VPs. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| Page 6 |
