| 48th European Bridge Team Championships | Page 4 | Bulletin 9 - Monday 21 August 2006 |
| |
||
|
Women Teams - England v Norway (Round 8) by Tony Gordon Going into this match England were fifth and Norway were eighteenth and the result followed the form book. Board one should have been a defensive test for West, but only the Norwegian West was put under pressure.
Closed Room
Catherine Jagger led the ♠Q against 4♥ and although it seems best to duck to deny East an entry Solvi Remen covered with the king, so Sarah Teshome won her ace and switched to the ♦10. Inserting the jack would have lent interest to later proceedings, but declarer rose with the ace and drew trumps. She continued with three rounds of clubs, so Jagger won the third round and cashed two diamonds for one down and +50 to England. Open Room
After effectively the same auction, Ann Karin Fuglestad also led the ♠Q against 4♥ and again declarer covered with the king; however, Marianne Harding continued with a spade and not a diamond at trick two so Nicola Smith was better placed at this table. She ruffed and drew trumps and then played three rounds of clubs, but Fuglestad rose to the occasion and unblocked the queen on the second round enabling her partner to win the third round with the jack and play the ♦10 through declarer. Smith covered with the jack, but Fuglestad completed her fine defence by winning with the queen and exiting with a spade to give declarer a ruff and discard that was of no use as she was marked with four diamonds. Smith ruffed in dummy and hopefully ran the nine of diamonds, but when that lost to the king she was also one down for a flat board. The next three boards were also flat although England escaped a game swing on board four when the Norwegian North missed a squeeze that the English East could have prevented. However, the first big swing went to Norway on the next board where North opened 1♣ and found her partner with a 3-3-4-3 12 count. The English South responded 2NT whereas the Norwegian South jumped to 3NT. West had an automatic spade lead that gave away the ninth trick so Norway gained 10 IMPs. Three boards later England finally got on the scoreboard when they defeated game contracts in both rooms to gain 7 IMPs, and at the halfway point Norway led 11-8. Swings were in short supply over the next six boards which saw England gain 4 IMPs to edge ahead, but then came something more substantial:
Open Room
Heather Dhondy led her singleton club against 4♠ doubled and declarer could not avoid losing two clubs, two diamonds, a heart and a spade for three down and +500 to England. That seemed a gain of two IMPs at best as 4♥ seemed certain to make, but the Norwegian declarer lost her way at the other table. Closed Room
Jagger began with the ♣3 to Teshome’s ace and she shifted to her trump. Declarer rose with the ace and threw dummy’s low spades on the ♣KQ, which was not the best approach as the ♠K would have been her tenth trick; however all was not yet lost. When Remen exited with a spade Jagger took her ace and played king and another trump which left declarer searching for her tenth trick. Her solution was to win in dummy and try for a 3-3 diamond break, but when that failed she was one down and England gained 11 IMPs. The winning solution was for declarer to win the third round of trumps in hand in order to ruff a spade in dummy. Now she can return to hand with the ♦K and cash the last two trumps to squeeze East in the minors.
Closed Room
The ♥Q lead from Teshome saw the defence take the first five tricks with four hearts and the ♦A, so declarer was quickly one down for +100 to England. Open Room
The Norwegian’s 1NT opening is 8-12 HCP at this vulnerability and they had no safe haven after Dhondy’s double. They eventually settled in 2♥ where Harding emerged with four trump tricks and the ♦A for +500 and 12 IMPs to England who now led by 24 IMPs. England added one more IMP over the last two boards to make the score 37-12 in their favour and the 20-10 VPs victory moved them up to fourth place. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
| Page 4 |
