All News

Dougal McLean returns North.

Auckland-Northland won back the Dougal McLean Inter-Provincial Trophy after an exciting weekend of on-line bridge. This region won the Open competition handsomely, were pipped at the post by Wellington in the Intermediate event and finished second in the Women’s event and 4^th in the Seniors competition to hold off by 4 points a strong challenge from Otago-Southland who finished with a first place, two third places and one fourth.

Along with the Auckland-Northland Open Team, the other impressive performances of the weekend came from the Waikato Bays Women’s team who won their competition by just under 40 vps and even more emphatically, the Otago Southland Seniors who were 48.62 vps clear of second in their competition. That Waikato Bays Women’s victory was all the more impressive in that their two pairs played throughout. Both they and the Otago-Southland Seniors won all bar one of their 12 matches, great consistency.

These then were the top 3 in each competition and the overall Dougal McLean placings.

Open							Seniors
1	Auckland-Northland				192.09		1	Otago-Southland			201.53
2	Central Districts				173.63		2	Canterbury			152.81
3	Waikato Bays				150.09		3	Wellington			149.52
Women							Intermediate
1	Waikato Bays				194.41		1	Wellington			189.67
2	Auckland-Northland				154.27		2	Auckland - Northland			189.11
3	Otago- Southland				148.13		3	Otago-Southland			175.82
Dougal McLean Trophy
1	Auckland - Northland				39		5	Canterbury			22
2	Otago-Southland				35		6	Central Districts			20
3	Waikato Bays				27		7	Top of the South			6
4	Wellington				23

 

The winning teams were:

Open: Bill Humphrey – Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin, Ian Berrington – Malcolm Mayer, William Liu – Steve Boughey

Women : Kate Terry – Judy Pawson, Christine and Jenna Gibbons

Intermediate : Lee Miller – Chris Woods, Walt Davis- Barbara Tumilowicz, Jeffry Craanan – Marian Loader

Senior: Jeff Miller – Graeme Stout, Murat Genc – Arleen Schwartz, Peter Hall – Peter McCaskill

We will be looking at some boards from other teams during the week but for today, we will focus on the close battle in the Intermediate competition. Of course, there were many other important decisions throughout the weekend though first place was decided on the last of the 144 boards the regions played during the weekend.

Victory came down probably to an inspired choice of final contract and to the opening lead:

 

What is your choice from the above North collection?

It would be a comfort for North-South to know that 4 can always be made even if it could be defeated on the most challenging lead. Also, at the other table, a rather conservative East-West auction finished in 2 with declarer making their part-score. To win the whole event, Chris Woods (West for Wellington) had to make 4. Ironically, Chris was in the inferior major suit game (a 5-2 as opposed to a 5-3 fit) but the game which was more likely to make, as long as he did not get a club lead.

These were the four hands:

 

Had Lee Miller bid 3 instead of 4, Chris may have bid 4, confirming a 5^th heart..and there they would have rested. On a minor suit lead, 4 looks destined to be one down. Declarer can protect against a 4-1 trump break with South having 4 hearts by leading A and small to dummy’s K. However, with North having 4 hearts, it is very unlikely that West would take a second round finesse after starting with A.

Lee’s 4 bid looks like fast arrival after a slightly aggressive 2 response. The danger lead here is a club. South would certainly continue with two more rounds forcing declarer to ruff. West can afford one round of trumps though unless they take that unlikely heart finesse, the contract would fail if all South’s trumps are drawn. If West then plays a diamond, a fourth round of clubs defeats the contract. The winning line of playing a diamond after at most one round of trumps is therefore risky if South had 5 clubs. With the bad spade break, declarer must lead their diamond while dummy still has a trump. Had South started with 5 clubs, a fourth round of clubs then would likely beat what might have been a cold contract had the heart break been more favourable.

  
 
  Chris Woods and Lee Miller, at an earlier success

Chris was not put to the test because North chose a trump lead, allowing him to draw trumps, give up a diamond and not worry about the bad heart break. West’s 2 losing hearts disappeared on dummy’s high diamonds…7 imps to Wellington and the title by just 0.56 vp. Wellington won the head to head battle by 13 imps, collecting 14 off the last 2 boards: close!

Over the 4 competitions, every pair in 4, the most common contract, failed while the only making pairs in 4 did not get a club lead.

That was tough on Auckland-Northland who at the half-way mark had led Wellington by 20.54 vps averaging just under 17vps per match. They found life a little harder second time round.  

Our usual thanks to David Stephen for directing and Kevin Walker for scoring this event.

Richard Solomon

 

Go Back View All News Items