| 48th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 2 | Bulletin 14 - Saturday 26 August 2006 |
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Open Teams - England v Poland (Round 28) by Mark Horton No apologies for presenting England once again. They faced Poland in a match that was crucial for both teams.
Open Room
In theory the defence can take four tricks against a heart contact, but it’s easy not to do so. Declarer won the club lead, discarded his diamond on a second club drew trumps and played spades, +170.\ Closed Room
This time the failure to lead a pointed suit was more serious, +620 and 10 IMPs for Poland. They immediately doubled their advantage:
Open Room
East led the ace of diamonds and the two was exactly the card you would like to see playing upside down signals. He continued with the king, gave his partner a ruff and West returned a heart, a fast one down, +50. Closed Room
East led the king of diamonds and playing standard count the two was just the card West did not want to have to play. East switched to the ten of clubs and the contract rolled home, +420 – another 10 IMPs. (Might West have contributed the ♦Q at trick one?)
Open Room
As you can see there is no defence and declarer was soon claiming +850. West might have shown two places to play with 4NT, but it would still be difficult to find the save in Six Clubs. Closed Room
No double no trouble and England had 5 IMPs, reducing their deficit to 10-20 IMPs.
Open Room
I’ll confess it is tempting to write a page or two about the modern style of opening bids and then try and explain this auction. Luckily for you, dear readers, I thought better of it. Closed Room
One Diamond was a transfer to hearts. As you can see there was no defence to 1NT. On the lead of the jack of spades, North won with the king and switched to the six of hearts. The defenders took four tricks in that suit, but thereafter could only take the ace of diamonds, -90 and 3 IMPs for England.
Open Room
East led the jack of diamonds and West took the ace and switched to a club, won by East who returned the suit. Declarer won in hand, crossed to the ace of spades and ran the queen of hearts, East discarding a diamond. Declarer crossed to the king of diamonds, cashed the king of spades and ruffed a spade with the jack of hearts. It would not help West to overruff, so he discarded a club, but declarer simply cashed the queen of diamonds and claimed. He can for example lead a club, overruff West’s nine of hearts and then ruff a spade with dummy’s ten of hearts, leaving him with a tenace over West’s trumps. No less than 14 declarers failed to make Four Hearts – and one of them was at the other table: Closed Room
Once again the lead was the jack of diamonds, but this time West played the five, declarer winning with the king. Declarer crossed to hand with a spade and ran the queen of hearts – an absolutely natural way to play, but one that was fatal given the wretched trump break. When East discarded a diamond declarer went back to spades, discarding a diamond on the third round, but West ruffed and the defenders quickly cashed two aces and had to come to a trump, -100 and 12 IMPs to England – earned by the more testing defence found in the Closed Room. They led for the first time, 24-21 IMPs.
Open Room
East/West are not far short of the values to make game, but the 4-3 heart fit did not prove to be a happy spot, even when South led the jack of clubs – a lead that would have been fatal had the contract been 3NT. Declarer won with the queen, played a spade to the king and ace, won the club return, pitched a club on the queen of spades and played a heart to the king. When that held he played another heart, allowing North’s jack to hold the trick. He won the diamond switch in dummy and played a hopeful heart. When North discarded he was three down, -300. Closed Room
East’s Two Diamonds was a transfer. North led the six of diamonds and declarer won and played the king of spades, going up with the ace when North won and returned a club. He cashed two top spades, discarding ♠A clubs and ruffed a club. Then came a diamond to dummy’s king to leave this ending:
At this point if declarer plays the ten of spades, discarding a diamond if South ruffs, he can come to nine tricks however North/South defend. South had followed in spades with the eight, five and seven, so this was not necessarily impossible to find. When declarer played a heart to the king he could not avoid one down, North winning the diamond exit, playing the jack of hearts and exiting with a club. Still, it was 5 IMPs to England.
Open Room
The defence started with three rounds of clubs and then West switched to the two of hearts. Declarer took the ace, drew trumps and relied on the diamond finesse for a heart discard, +140. Closed Room
As before, West cashed three clubs, East discarding two diamonds, and then switched to the nine of diamonds. Declarer won in hand, drew trumps, played a heart to the ace, overtook the ten of spades and cashed the last trump. When he played a diamond to the ace he was one down, -50 and 5 IMPs more for England who won 36-23. It was not enough for them, but it was a blow to Poland’s hopes – we will have to wait and see if it proves to be fatal. |
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