Inferior Decisions Made In World Championship Finals
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday June 4, 2001
It's hard to enthuse about the performance of the finalists in the 2000 Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup (the open and women's zonal world team championships respectively) on the following deal:
South dealer; both vulnerable.
The Venice Cup final was between The Netherlands and the US. At one table, with the US North-South, the auction was:
West North East South
-- -- -- 2D*
Pass 2H** Pass 2S
Pass Pass Pass --
* Multi, weak-two in either major
** pass or correct
Opening lead: HK
South's hand was unsuitable for a weak-two opening. Seven trumps is too many, and it would have been more descriptive to open three spades, with greater preemptive impact. However, with West and East both too timid to complete after the two-spade clarification, North-South won the auction clearly. Two spades is one of those contracts where the defence has to take its six tricks before declarer can discard a loser. The Dutch pair started well, king of hearts, spade switch, ace of hearts, diamond to the king and diamond back to the ace, but now East stumbled (presumably not picking up a count signal from West when the ace of hearts was cashed), playing a third diamond, conceding +110 to North-South. It is worth noting that declarer had concealed her 6 when following to the first two rounds of hearts, and this cost-nothing piece of deception may have snared an East who had earlier missed the count in hearts. The lesson is don't relax, and concentrate hard.
At the other table, South again trotted out the Multi, but this time East did protect, and West bounced into a good contract of four hearts. Against best play, with declarer utilising the favourable club position, it takes a diamond lead from the defence (whether West or East is the declarer) to defeat four hearts. Our North led a top club, and switched to a spade, but our West did not enter +620 on the scoresheet. Regrettably for the US, she failed to draw a third round of trumps after a finessing position in clubs through North had been established, allowing South to overruff a club, and the defence to take four tricks. Just another flat board.
In the Bermuda Bowl final, USA1 v Brazil, both Souths rated their hand as worth a three-spade opening. Neither East-West pair found a bid, and both declarers were only one down, so the defence again failed to shine. USA1 was an easy winner in its final, while The Netherlands won a squeaker.
Winners at the recent Mudgee Congress were: Pairs, Matthew McManus & Tony Robb; Teams, Helen & Robert Millward, Richard Cowan & Margaret Foster.
© 2001 Sydney Morning Herald