| 19th European Youth Team Championships | Page 2 | Bulletin 1- Monday, 2 August 2004 |
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The PABF Youth Teams 2004 Though the Zonal Qualifying competitions are only played in odd-numbered years, the Pacific Asia Bridge Federation hold Championships every year, though the 2004 event was known as the PABF Congress. It was held at the Grand Hotel, Taipei, an excellent venue. The Youth Teams saw a filed of 15 teams, half from the host country and half the remainder from Hong Kong. Both these countries seem to have a large pool of youth players including, in striking contrast to England, a substantial number of female players. This may not be very politically correct of me, but if we could just import a dozen of these small slim young ladies, I would imagine we would suddenly attract a lot of new male youth players to our tournaments (if I were only 20 years younger – all right then 25). The Youth teams was played as a complete round robin qualifier with the top eight playing a further round robin final. The draw worked out beautifully in the fin al with first playing second and third playing fourth in the final round with all four covered by 4 VPs. As it turned out, Taipei B demolished Lupus of Hong Kong by 25-5 to win the title, pushing their opponents down to fourth as Taipei A and Draco (Hong Kong) drew the other match. Draco met Singapore A in an early match. It proved to be quite low-scoring with only one major swing – not my idea of Youth bridge at all!
For Singapore, Kelvin Ng made a support double as North and Meiqi Huang jumped to 4ª, as who would not? After a club lead and trump switch, Huang had the rest for +680. Si Jian Huang preferred to overcall 1NT to show both unbid suits – unless the agreement is that this is specifically four hearts and longer clubs, I can’t say that I like the bid, but maybe that was the agreement? Yu Cheung Ip in turn preferred to stress the diamonds before worrying about spade support. That worked out beautifully for him when Wai Lap Chiu could make an invitational jump to 3ª at his next turn. Ip had a wonderful hand in support of spades, given his 2¨ rebid, and he rightly cuebid 4§ on the way to game. The heart cuebid was just what he wanted to hear and his next move was to ask for key cards, bidding the slam when he got the required response. The lead was the ©9 to dummy’s queen and Chiu cashed the ªA and ªQ then, fearing a bad diamond split, played off the top diamonds (though it is not quite clear when this will help to make on a four-one diamond break). The even split meant that Chiu had cost himself the overtrick as the fourth diamond was ruffed and over-ruffed. There was a trump entry to dummy so that was +1430 and 13 IMPs to Draco.
How would you balance with the East hand – a heavy overcall or a double with shortage in the other major? Neither is ideal and our two Easts chose different actions. Ngin’s choice of double worked out better this time as it persuaded Chiu to keep quiet and Ngin could make a simple raise of the 2§ response, ending the auction. The singleton spade lead netted the defence its ruffs to hold Huang to nine tricks; +110. Chun Lee King’s 2§ overcall saw M. Huang bid the diamonds,
when a take-out double looks rather more normal and would have caused
considerable excitement in the Northern quarter due to the six-card
heart suit. Note that 4© is only defeated because two rounds of
clubs forces South to ruff, thereby creating a second trump winner
for West. Anyway, Yim Ka Wing showed the club support and eventually
King took the push to 5§ over 4¨.
After identical starts to the two auctions, the respective Easts took very different approaches. Ngin raised all the way to 4ª and when Chiu doubled for take-out had succeeded in driving her opponents to the five level – of course, Ip fancied his values to give 5© good play. Well, 5© did indeed have good play – looking just at the North/South cards. Alas, the four-zero trump split meant that it could not be made in practice. Ngin cashed the ªA then switched to her low club, which did not trouble declarer unduly. According to the hand record, declarer won dummy’s §10 then played the ©Q from hand, the king being beaten by the ace. There were two trump losers; down one for –100. King did not raise spades at all until after the opposition had
found their heart fit. But here, with no momentum in the auction,
North/South were unwilling to go the good heart game and sold out
to 3ª. With the ace and king of diamonds where they needed to be,
that contract duly rolled home for +140 and a gain of 1 IMP for
Draco. Round 11 of the qualifying stage started with a possible grand slam on Board 1, but few pairs in any of the events managed to get there. One pair who did were the Draco (HK) representatives, Jacky Ip and Abby Chiu.
(i) Like a forcing no trump When Jacky Ip responded 1ª, effectively a forcing no trump, Abby Chiu decided to conceal the sixth heart to get his all-round strength across and give the partnership more room to explore the best game. Ip showed his clubs and, having shown a 5-3-3-2 shape, Chiu had something to spare so cuebid, just in case partner might be interested. When he received a return cuebid of 3©, Chiu could see the possibilty
of seven if Ip had good trumps to go with the invaluable ©A. Four
Clubs was key-card for clubs and the response showed two key cards
plus the queen of trumps. Knowing that his partner held ©A and at
least §KQxxx, Chiu could jump to a grand slam that was In a big match from the final, between Taipei A and Taipei B, S Y Wang for Taipei B totally outplayed C W Liu of Taipei A on this deal.
Who would you expect to succeed, Liu, as North, on the lead of the §J to his queen, or Wang, South, on the lead of the ¨Q? Liu won the §Q and played a spade to the queen and king. Y M Chen switched to the ¨9, which held, and continued with a low diamond to dummy’s ace. Liu cashed the ace of hearts then finessed the ª10 to the jack. On the heart return he put in the jack, losing to the queen, and Chen returned a spade to the ace. Liu cashed out for down two; –100. S Y Wang received the diamond lead, which he ducked, but won the second diamond. He played a club to the queen and king and won the ©10 switch with the ace to play ace and another club. East returned a low heart so Wang put in the eight, losing to the queen. Tzeng returned the ¨9 to dummy’s king and Wang crossed to the ©J, cashed the long club, and then cashed the ©K. The king of hearts squeezed East in front of dummy’s ªA10 and ¨5 to provide the ninth trick. That was very well played for +400 and 11 IMPs to Taipei B. From a much less promising beginning, Wang had managed two tricks more than declarer in the other room. There were a number of Youth players in the Women's Teams also.
At both tables West opened 1¨ and was left to play there. For Cygnus (Hong Kong), Charmian Hor-Yung Koo led the queen of hearts and Joice Mandolang Tueje won the ace and ducked a club to Koo’s ten. Koo continued with a second heart to the ten and jack and Pui-Yi Chan played back her low heart, on which Tueje pitched a spade. Koo now played a club to her partner’s ace and Chan played the ©K, ruffed with the six and over-ruffed. She was forced to ruff a club in dummy, and now played a diamond to the queen and king. A fourth club was ruffed with dummy’s jack while throwing a spade from hand, and there was still the ¨10 to lose for down one; –50. Things went rather better for declarer, Yee-Mei Chow, at the other table, after Suci Amita Dewi had led a spade to the queen and ace. Chow played a diamond to the jack and a second round to her ace before playing ace and another heart. When a spade came back, Chow won in dummy and led a diamond to the ten, queen and king, and had eight tricks, three diamonds, four spades and the heart; +90 and 4 IMPs to Cygnus. And finally, Hong Kong Youth player, Kwok Fai Mak won the Open Pairs, partnering his non-playing captain, Dickie Lai. |
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