| 21st European Youth Team Championships | Page 4 | Bulletin 4 - Monday 16 July 2007 |
Juniors Round 5 Italy v Croatia... and much more by Peter Ventura This report will cover the match between Italy and Croatia in the Juniors, with some additional interesting stuff from a few other matches in Round 5. The Italian home team was outside the World Championships places before their clash with Croatia. Would they come any closer after these 20 boards?Croatia kicked-off faster. On the first board Irene Baroni/Alberto Sangiorgio were on their way to a spade slam but stopped in five. That was 10 IMPs to Croatia, since there were only ten tricks to take and their counterparts stopped in 4♠. Italy equalized immediately as Baroni/Sangiorgio on Board 2 defended nicely and defeated 3NT, which was allowed to make in the other room. We had the score 11–10 to Italy when this came along.
Open Room
Closed Room
The auctions were identical in both rooms, exept as to who doubled 5♠. In the Closed Room, 1♠ showed five spades, so Andra Boldrini put some pressure on North by pre-empting 4♠ over South’s 2♣. Gracin tried 5♣ but Manno bid what he believed he could make. The defence has three red tricks to take, which Baroni/Sangiorgio indeed did in the Open Room, but in the other room the defence slipped. South led the club ace, which was ruffed in hand. Andrea Manno played one round of spades and then a low heart towards dummy. South followed low and now Manno hesitated for a few seconds, as he considered if he could gain anything by playing the seven. It would have been more wise to do that before playing the suit perhaps, but eventually he played the ten and North won the queen. Gracin found the crucial diamond shift and declarer again hesitated then played low and Dondivic’s king took the trick. South now erred by playing another diamond, which let declarer discard a losing heart in dummy. South claimed that he was misled by the hesitation when declarer played a heart towards dummy. South called the Director, who felt there was a reason for thinking, thus no adjustment was appropriate; N/S –850. Italy had increased their lead, and was now in front by 25 to 10 IMPs. On the same board Martin Rehder of Germany was declarer in 5♣ in the match against Slovakia. This was the auction:
You could say that East/West deserve each other, since one can wonder why West didn’t take any action over 2♣ holding a six-card suit – or the reason for East’s silence over 3♣ – but that’s another story. However, the ten of hearts was led to the ace. Declarer drew the trumps and then eliminated hearts before he exited with a spade. East came in and put declarer to the test by advancing the deceptive two of diamonds. Rehder was not fooled, as he hopped up with the king. Another diamond endplayed E/W, since East cannot overtake the diamond queen and West has to play a spade for ruff and discard.
Open Room
Closed Room
In the Closed Room 2♠ asked for a spade stopper. Dondivic won the opening lead of the spade king in dummy and then cashed the two top diamond. He ruffed a diamond, finessed the queen of clubs and pitched a spade on the club ace. A heart to the king held the trick and Manno won the heart continuation with the nine. From here on the defence could cash a spade trick and East had to have two trump tricks with A-J over South’s Q-6-4-3; one down and N/S –100. In the Open Room 1♣ showed an unbalanced hand or 15-17 balanced and 1♦ was a transfer to hearts. West led a deceptive club and Baroni rose with the ace, then played a heart to the king and ran the jack of diamonds. From here on she couldn’t succeed; one down, N/S –100, but no swing. Was there a way of making 4♥? Yes, but declarer must reduce his trump length, so he doesn’t end up in the same position as Dondivic did. In the match against Latvia, Merijn Groenenboom of the Netherlands made 4♥ after this auction:
West led the king of spades, which was won with dummy’s ace. Next came the singleton heart and the queen held the trick. Declarer finessed in clubs, discarded a spade on the club ace and then ruffed a club in hand. Now declarer crossed to dummy with the diamond ace and took another club ruff, then crossed to the diamond king and ruffed a diamond. At this point declarer had taken all nine tricks and when the heart king had to come the game was made. Note though that East can set the contract by rising with the heart ace at trick two. In any case, well done by Groenenboom, and a helpful board for the Netherlands on their way to a 20-10 victory. In the match where Norway defeated Austria by 25-5, Erik Berg showed his skills on the very same board.
Here West led the ten of hearts, East played low and Berg won the trick in hand with the queen. When declarer continued with the ten of clubs West played the king, so after winning the ace Berg ruffed a club with the trump king, in case West held a singleton club and 10-9 in trumps. When West followed Berg crossed to dummy with the king of diamonds and then played the club queen, on which he pitched a losing spade, and then played a club from dummy in this position:
East cannot gain anything by ruffing the club, since South would then discard another losing spade. But if he discards something, declarer will ruff, then cross to dummy and play his established club. The brilliant play might have produced a be(r)guiling smile on the Norwegian declarer. At half time in our match the score had moved on to 44–14 in Italy’s favour.
Open Room
When Martinovic chose to show only one of her minor-suits, Stanicic couldn’t visualize how valuable his hand was. Therefore the Italians were allowed to buy the final contract in 4♠ when Martinovic refused to reopen. Declarer lost three spades and a club trick, so that was N/S –50. Closed Room
2NT was for the minors and 3♣ was invitational with heart support. This is the kind of board where you wonder who is taking insurance against whom. However, declarer went three off, losing three spades, one club and a trump trick; N/S –150 and two more IMPs to Italy. At only one table in the Juniors E/W reached 6♣. That happened in the match Denmark versus Romania, where Jonas Houmuller and Lars Nielsen-Kirkegaard recorded 1090 in the following way. Closed Room
3♦ was a good raise in hearts. North led the diamond ace and exited with a spade, so Jonas Houmoller had twelve easy tricks from here on, when the king of clubs was onside. In the Girls, Dekker/Barendregt and Macdougall/Brown, for the Netherlands and England respectively, also bid and made the small slam. Sometimes even 1♣ can be too high...
Open Room
Ognjen Stanicic opened 1♣, promising two or more clubs, and was left to play there. He managed to take four tricks, so N/S recorded +300. This could have been copied in the Closed Room, but Boldrini produced a bid, which helped the Italians out of the ‘marvelous’ 2-2 trump fit. Closed Room
South led a heart to the ten and queen. Declarer played a diamond to the ten, queen and king. North didn’t see any reason not to continue playing on hearts and when the smoke had cleared declarer was quite satisfied with nine tricks in his basket for N/S –150, and that was 9 IMPs to Italy. With seven boards left to play Italy was leading by 56 to 14 and nothing much changed in the final stages of the match, so the final match score was 61–20 IMPs, 23–7 in VPs. |
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