The long time leaders started yesterday day well with a 17-13 VP victory over the defending champions Italy, but then went down to a resurgent Sweden 12-18 VP. A blistering performance by Norway, who scored 199 IMPs in their two matches against Scotland and Ireland, to collect a maximum 50 VPs, saw them end the day right at the leader’s shoulder.

The Netherlands easily disposed of Austria, and then scored an important 17-13 win against Denmark. With the Danes also losing their opening match against Germany 8-22, the Dutchmen found themselves in third place, and with a reasonable cushion.

Despite their setbacks, Denmark only lost one place, and they are 10 VP ahead of France. Then come Turkey, a Swedish team that has been steadily climbing up the table, and Italy. The champions surprisingly lost their second match against Estonia 9-21, and it is clear that they are not going to make a successful defence of their title.

The luck of the Irish was certainly not in evidence, as they also failed to register a point in their other match against Belgium, and just as it appears that the race for the gold medals is now a two horse race, so to is the battle to avoid the wooden spoon, with Switzerland being the other contenders.

France marginally increased their lead by scoring 42VP in their two matches, but taking their cue from their elders, the Norwegian team collected 47 VP to ease one ahead of third placed Poland. The latter face a severe test today, as their first two matches are against the two teams in front of them.

Disaster Corner

The ability to tell a story against oneself, or see one’s sillier actions appear in print does not come easily, so we have nothing but admiration for Lauri Naber of Estonia, who reported this hand to the Daily Bulletin.

Here is the story in his words.

Round 17. Board 2. Dealer East. N/S Vul
	ª A J 5 3 © A K 6 5 2 ¨ Q 8 § Q 7
ª K 10 9 © 10 9 ¨ A 10 9 5 2 § K J 2		ª 8 6 © J 4 ¨ 6 4 3 § A 9 8 6 5 3
	ª Q 7 4 2 © Q 8 7 3 ¨ K J 7 § 10 4

I think that West’s 3NT was meant as a psyche against a possible vulnerable game by his opponents, but although four of either major will fail, he achieved a good result in a different way.

North started with the king and ace of hearts getting from partner the eight followed by the three, promising an even number of cards. Nobody can imagine what happened in his mind but having noticed declarer’s nine of hearts to the first trick he had a vision that the other heart from West was a small one and he thought that the nine was a deceptive play from ©Q109x, trying to persuade North to continue with hearts. As it happens, by playing the ©3 instead of the ©7, South had blocked the suit and if West had been in possession of the ªA it would no longer have been possible to collect five tricks. South’s subsequent explanation for blocking the suit was that if North had only four hearts the ©7 might be useful later…

So, for some reason, North thought that it would be good to cash the ace of spades, and that drew a discouraging two from South. That convinced North that there was no hope of getting three tricks from spades. If South had dropped the queen of spades under the ace, then North would have switched back to hearts, but in this case he did not, and tried his luck with the queen of diamonds. Declarer took it with the ace and played off his winning clubs.

South imagined that his ªQ had more value than his diamonds, and believing that the ¨J was with North (just look again at the diagram) discarded all his diamonds, thus enabling declarer to collect an overtrick. Never in your wildest dreams would you imagine such things could happen.

If this is not the worst defence of the tournament, then you should show one that can compete with it.