| 48th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 3 | Bulletin 14 - Saturday 26 August 2006 |
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Open Teams - Poland v Italy (Round 29) by Jos Jacobs On Thursday morning, Poland were in 7th spot, a mere 6 VP behind both Sweden and Iceland, with The Netherlands only 3 more VP away. This meant they would have to score good wins in all three matches to catch at least one of them up. In the morning match, however, they suffered a serious setback when England beat them 18-12. This meant that even more would depend on the outcome of their afternoon match against Italy. For their opponents the situation was far less tense as they only had the luxury problem of whether they would become European champions with two days to go or not. If Italy could manage to be 58 VP up at the end of Thursday’s play that would be enough for them to clinch the title, as their last-round match is a bye. On board1 the Polish immediately took the lead never to lose it again. However, it was not a slam you would be very proud of:
Open Room
Once Duboin showed four hearts in his 12-14 NT Bocchi did not investigate any further. On a normal heart lead, the defenders took the first five tricks. After that, the ♣A meant down two. Poland +100. Closed Room
One might say North’s jump overcall drove the Poles to slam. When both minors behaved 12 tricks were easy enough. Poland +920 and a tremendous start for them: 14 IMPs. After a few quiet boards it was bingo again on board 6:
A remarkable hand: both South and West might open 2♣ Precision style and what is more: they both actually did! Open Room
1 Clubs 2 Relay 3 No major 4 Short spades 5 End Signal Three Spades showed shortness in the suit. Even with the hearts 5-0 the play presented no problem as the pointed suits behaved very nicely. Poland +420. When Nunes passed, Gawrys quickly seized his chance to open 2♣ as well. This was not the right moment, however, as you will see from the auction below. Closed Room
Nothing special to the play, down three. Italy +800 and 9 IMPs back. On board 10 the Polish declarer in 3NT drew the right conclusion from the lead:
Open Room
2♠ showed a diamond suit. As Tuszynski could not lead his partner’s suit he chose the ♥4, which ran to Bocchi’s ♥7. A club to the king was won perforce by the ace and Kowalski returned a heart to the ten, jack and ace. The ♣K brought the bad news, so Bocchi cashed one more top club and led a spade to the queen. He now exited with the ♥Q so North could win two tricks in the suit but would then have to play a minor. In the meantime, Bocchi had discarded a diamond on the ♣Q but his low spade on the last heart. Tuszynski did return a diamond, of course, to the king and ace but after Bocchi cashed the ♦Q on which South played the nine, he had to guess which diamond to lead next. When he continued the ♦10 Kowalski won the jack and returned a spade but North’s ♦8 made the last trick. Both keeping his low spade and playing a low diamond instead of the ♦10 would have send declarer home…Poland +100. Closed Room
Fantoni led the ♣4 and Gawrys put on dummy’s ♣8 to bring down the ace from South. Nunes continued the ♥6 covered by the ten and jack and ducked in dummy. Fantoni now led the ♥K won by dummy’s ace. Declarer now simply cashed out, making two hearts, three clubs, two spades and a diamond for +600 and 12 IMPs to Poland. What would you do against a 15-17 NT in front of you, holding a balanced 19-count?
Closed Room
One can easily synpathise with South’s pass over 1NT but it was not the winning action this time as North held much more than his fair share of the missing hcp. Down three in peace, Italy +150. In the Open Room, the defence against 1♣ was much easier: Open Room
A spade lead makes the play a little bit more interesting as declarer has to overtake a diamond to lead clubs from dummy twice. On the actual club lead the contract was never in danger. Poland +600 and 10 more IMPs to them to lead by 40-9. A much better slam than the one bid before was on the cards a few boards from the end:
Open Room
The combined holding of the ♣J109 between the two hands makes this an excellent slam as it needs either of two minor-suit finesses to roll home. Poland +510. Somewhere in a women’s match, we even spotted a score of +1510… Closed Room
Once Fantoni rejected the transfer the Italians were committed to a slam. Italy +1010 and 11 IMPs back to make the score 45-26 now. On the penultimate board, it looked as if the Italians were ready to do it again:
Open Room
The Poles found the good save and Italy scored just +300. Closed Room
North led a club and won the ♥A at trick 2 to lead a diamond to partner’s ace for a club ruff. That meant a quick one down and another +100 to Italy. The swing of 9 IMPs brought Italy once again to within striking distance of their opponents with one board to play. On the last board, the choice of which side suit to establish decided the match:
Open Room
1NT showed the 17-19 range. On a club lead, Bocchi immediately went after the diamonds, playing the ♦A and ruffing a low diamond in hand. Next came a spade to the king and another diamond but now North ruffed in front of dummy and led a heart. Bocchi had to put up the king, his only chance, and thus was down two when South took the ace and played another diamond. Poland +200. Closed Room
On the lead of the ♦10 Gawrys assumed diamonds would break badly and thus went after the hearts. When the jack was won by the ace and a spade to the king also held, three tricks later, he lost two trumps and a heart for a fine score of +620. These final 13 IMPs to Poland made it a victory to them by 58-35 or 20-10 VP. They had reduced the gap to 6th place to 11 VP. It also looked that the Italians would have to postpone their celebrations for one more day but this did not come true… |
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