Congress In The Rain
Newcastle Herald
Friday May 22, 1998
THE Charlestown Bridge Congress held last Sunday attracted a good field of 28 teams.
It was a great day for bridge given the wild and woolly weather conditions outside.
The Newcastle team of Mike Parfait, Roy Hardy, Louis Woo and Paul McGrath had a virtually unassailable lead after four matches, scoring 98 out of a possible 100 VPs. Their performance fell away somewhat in the last three matches but it was still good enough to secure a win overall.
Second were Lorraine Randall and Justine Harkness of the Central Coast who teamed up with Sydney identity David Weston. Another Newcastle team took out third place, Ken Wilks, Eileen Pickles, Audrey Monteath and Judy McLaughlin.
The best performance of the Charlestown Bridge Club entrants was Joyce and Doug Jones, Marg Kilby and Ken Fitchett.
The Congress was ably directed by former Newcastle player, Charles Klassen, now resident in Sydney. Gary Gilmer did a wonderful job as convenor. Congratulations to all those participants.
It was a happy day for slam bidders as well. Below is shown one of several that arose.
Imagine you are South. You are the dealer and there is no interference bidding. What contract would you and your favourite partner reach looking only at the North and South hands?
6S looks like a healthy contract doesn't it? All it requires is no worse than a 4-2 break in spades and one of the heart honours onside. However, it is difficult to find when South is the dealer and opens 1H.
It is just as well. 6S has no chance on the actual distribution. A typical auction might be:
WESTNORTHEASTSOUTH .........1H pass2Spass3C pass3Hpass4C* pass4D*pass5NT** pass6H***all pass
* = cue bids
** = grand slam force ? bid 7H with good trumps
*** = I don't hold good hearts
The slam in hearts is an excellent contract. There is only one lead that presents declarer with a problem.
No, not the lead from a doubleton club but rather a diamond.
If declarer decides to win in dummy and play no trumps there could be problems. Obviously, a finesse should be taken but declarer will need to finesse the ten ? not the queen.
On the other hand if declarer wins the opening lead in dummy and plays a top spade the problems will almost certainly disappear.
East will probably ruff and South can over-ruff. Then there will be a long heart in dummy to get back to the spades. If Easts resists the temptation to ruff South should hold his cards closer to his chest!
NORTH ; AKQJxxx k xxx l Ax ' T WEST ; T9xxxx k Kx l xxx ' xx EAST ; VOID k J9x l QJxxx ' Jxxxx SOUTH ; VOID k AQTxx l Kxx ' AKQxx
© 1998 Newcastle Herald