Round 8 Juniors - England vs Scotland

By Peter Gill

In 'local derbies' the smaller neighbour, such as New Zealand against Australia, Canada against USA or Belgium versus Netherlands, often lifts its performance because the players concentrate intently throughout. Would this be the case here?

On Board 1, you hold ª754 ©Q10865 ¨K42 §A5. LHO opens 1NT, passed out. Partner leads a spade and dummy is ª9 ©974 ¨Q65 §QJ9874. Declarer overtakes dummy's ª9 with ª10 and leads a §3 to §2, §J and your ace. What do you lead now?

It didn't matter much at the table, because Richard Probst somehow made 3NT for England at the other table from the West seat, but the best switch is ©10. The technical term for this play is a 'surrounding play' because ©108 surrounds dummy's ©9. Declarer's hand is ªAKJ10 ©AJ2 ¨A1073 § 63. In practice he may insert ©J on ©10 and go down in 1NT, although there are several ways to make 1NT such as rising with ©A and continuing clubs, or ducking two rounds of hearts. At the table, the switch was ©6, declarer played low and scored 120, only to lose 7 IMPs.

After five boards, the more experienced England team were completely outplaying Scotland and led 27-0. Scotland the Brave never throw in the towel, and their plucky comeback began when Andrew Sinclair played this hand stylishly:

Board 6. Dealer East. East/West.
	ª A Q J 6 4 3 © J 4 ¨ K Q § Q 7 3
ª K 9 5 2 © A 7 2 ¨ A J 5 § K 9 8		ª 10 7 © K Q 8 ¨ 9 7 4 § 10 6 5 4 2
	ª 8 © 10 9 6 5 3 ¨ 10 8 6 3 2 § A J

West	North	East	South
Probst	Sinclair	Handley-Prit	Gaffin
		Pass	Pass
1¨	2ª	All Pass

Ben Handley- Pritchard led ¨7 to the ace, and ©2 was returned to the jack and queen. East played §4 to the king, followed by a spade to the queen. Although England like variety, they don't always try all four suits to start their defence.

Do you see how the hand should be played? Andrew Sinclair did. He carefully cashed ¨K, crossed to dummy's §A and ruffed a diamond. Now §Q was cashed and Andrew exited with ©4. There was nothing the defence could do. If they play another heart, then declarer ruffs and exits with his small trump to endplay West. In practice, Probst put another trump through, to prevent partner being end-played had he held a bare jack of spades, and declarer finessed for plus 110. At the other table, David Gold went down one in 2ª, four hard-earned IMPs to Scotland, trailing 4-27 now.

In Kelsey and Ottlik's legendary book Adventures in Card Play (the book that many people regard as the most advanced card play book ever), the technical term for this type of play is 'elopement'. Declarer 'elopes' with his small trumps by ruffing before the defenders crunch them with their bigger trumps.

Board 11. Dealer South. None Vul.
	ª K 4 3 © A J 10 7 6 ¨ 7 5 3 § 8 5
ª A J 2 © K 4 ¨ A K Q 6 2 § A Q 2		ª Q 8 7 © Q 9 8 2 ¨ 8 § K 10 7 5 4
	ª 10 9 6 5 © 5 3 ¨ J 10 9 4 § J 9 3

West	North	East	South
Probst	Sinclair	Handley-Prit	Gaffin
			Pass
1NT	Pass	2§	Pass
2NT	Pass	3§	Pass
3¨	Pass	4§	Pass
4¨	Pass	4ª	Pass
6NT	All Pass

1NT was strong (like a 2§ opening), East's first call was 'waiting', his second call an enquiry, and his third club call was natural. Andrew Sinclair found the sensible passive lead of ¨7, so the contract was doomed, North cashing ©A after the spade finesse lost. Had North led ©A, the contract can be made on a double squeeze, which operates as the cards lie as a single squeeze on North.

Scotland made 3NT at the other table, and were back in the match, trailing 14-30.

On vugraph, after Germany had failed in 6NT, Israel's Eldad Ginossar and Ophir Reshef showed which slam, if any, one should bid:

West	North	East	South
Reshef	Schueller	Ginossar	Sauter
			Pass
2§	Pass	2¨	Pass
2NT	Pass	3§	Pass
3¨	Pass	3©	Pass
3NT	Pass	4§	Pass
4¨	Pass	4NT	Pass
5§	Pass	6§	All Pass

The lead was ©A, 920 to Israel. After a diamond lead, declarer can make by taking a heart ruff in hand, but he may have to guess trumps if South ruffs in with §9.

Of the 20 tables, the only other pair to achieve the par of 920 were Norway's Ellestad - Joerstad (or Jorstad?, pardon any missing accents and umlauts), who received a spade lead from North, after West had responded 3§ to the strong 2§ with typical Norwegian gusto.

Board 15. Dealer South. North/South Vul.
	ª A 10 8 5 3 © 10 8 3 ¨ 9 8 6 3 § J
ª K 9 6 © A K ¨ A J 10 § A 10 8 5 4		ª 7 4 2 © J 9 7 6 4 2 ¨ 7 4 § Q 7
	ª Q J © Q 5 ¨ K Q 5 2 § K 9 6 3 2

West	North	East	South
Probst	Sinclair	Handley-Prit	Gaffin
			1§
Dble	1ª	2©	Pass
3NT	Pass	4©	All Pass

¨2 lead would not have been everyone's first choice. Ben Handley-Pritchard won the ten, cashed ©A, ©K, ¨A and ruffed a diamond to draw the last trump. He cashed another trump, then played §Q, pinning the jack for plus 420. Next time, South should lead the suit his partner has bid.

PROBST Richard, England

At the other table, 3© made three. ªQ was led to the king and ace, followed by §J switch to the queen, king and ace. Declarer cashed the two top hearts, and exited with a spade to South who gave his partner a heart ruff, but the diamond loser now went on §10. When he won ªJ, South should have played a top diamond. This alters the timing, so that the defence can gather five tricks. For the second time in the match, the English North/South had missed the defence against a part-score, but had their team-mates bring back a making game in the same denomination.

Defending 3© on vugraph, the Israeli declarer tried ¨10 at the same stage where our guy tried a low spade. Barry Rigal on vugraph pointed out that the best play is any club off dummy, so that there is no longer any communication to the North hand. Now, if South plays a top diamond, declarer ducks and can pitch his third spade on ¨10.

Board 16. Dealer West. East/West Vul.
	ª Q 6 4 © A K 9 8 ¨ K 9 8 3 § Q 2
ª K J 9 © 10 7 5 3 2 ¨ A 4 § K 10 8		ª 8 7 5 3 2 © - ¨ J 10 7 6 § 9 5 4 3
	ª A 10 © Q J 6 4 ¨ Q 5 2 § A J 7 6

West	North	East	South
Probst	Sinclair	Handley-Prit	Gaffin
1§	Dble	Pass	3NT
All Pass

Probst's artificial 1C included weak no-trump hand types, which is what he thought he had. Ronald Gaffin made a good practical decision to bid 3NT as it turned out, and he had no difficulty in making his contract. At the other table, West passed, and North opened 1©, leading inevitably to 4©. David Gold made 4©, a contract which failed at eight out of fourteen tables in other matches. On vugraph for example, Ophir Reshef led ©2, and when declarer led both clubs and diamonds from North towards South's honours, two more rounds of trumps left declarer with no chance. 11 IMPs to Israel who won the match 17-13.

Scotland trailed now by 15 to 50 IMPs. Maintaining their concentration, they gained three IMPs on Board 17 with a good 4ª save for 300 against 420 in 4©. There were only 22 minutes left for the last three boards, on the first of which Scotland doubled an ambitious England contract in the Closed Room for 500 and 12 IMPs. They collected four more IMPs on Board 19 by defeating English part-scores in both rooms, but were still going to lose 11-19 in VPs until:

Board 20. Dealer West. All Vul.
	ª J 6 4 © A J 8 6 3 ¨ K Q 10 4 2 § -
ª 7 5 © K 10 2 ¨ 7 5 § Q 9 8 6 3 2		ª K 10 9 3 2 © 7 4 ¨ J 8 3 § J 7 4
	ª A Q 8 © Q 9 5 ¨ A 9 6 § A K 10 5

West	North	East	South
Probst	Sinclair	Handley-Prit	Gaffin
Pass	1©	Pass	2§
Pass	2¨	Pass	4NT
Pass	5¨	Pass	6©
All Pass

At the other table, South took a more delicate approach, leading to a 5© contract. Declarer took the spade lead with the ace and pitched two spades for plus 1430, worth 13 IMPs to Scotland. Even in these days of light opening bids, it does seem right to insist upon slam with those South cards, as all 19 HCP are working points, with no useless jacks or the like.

Well, it wasn't a win, but I expect that the Scottish players were over the moon.

They had held the mighty England team by losing only 14-16, and looked forward to their next match with renewed confidence that they might win a match.