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“Mixed Success” once more on “29”.

As per yesterday, it is Board 29 once again we feature with the partnership of Jan Alabaster – Graeme Tuffnell nearing the end of the Zonal Mixed Team play-off match against Australia. This time, we see Jan “at the wheel” in a reasonable 6 contract. Yesterday's Board 29 might have made with careless defence. What about todays? There had been no opposition bidding.

 

All Jan needed was a 3-2 trump break and or the Q dropping in two rounds and all would be well. South led J and Jan, East, won in dummy, cashed A and played a trump to her hand. Unfortunately, North discarded a heart! The trump break was not so friendly!

She could only continue on her initial plan. After winning A, she played off her other two high hearts discarding dummy’s clubs. Then, she ruffed her remaining club in dummy.

Next came dummy’s two top diamonds. Both defenders followed though neither parted with Q. Had that card fallen, Jan would still have been in good shape to make her contract. The outlook seemed grim. Jan continued with a second trump to her hand, with these cards then still remaining:

Jan led her remaining heart. Had South discarded their club, Jan could ruff and exit a diamond, with South forced to ruff and be end-played. However, South ruffed with J and the defence would have prevailed had South exited with a trump as Jan would still have a diamond loser. Fortunately for Jan, South exited her club allowing Jan to ruff in dummy and discard the diamond loser from hand. The defence would also have prevailed had South ruffed low, effectively trapping declarer in dummy with just diamonds. As Jan commented “Everyone was very tired by this stage of the tournament.”

These were the four hands:

 

At the other table, 6 failed by one trick. New Zealand thus collected 17 imps and with 10 more secured on Board 32, the last of the match, won the zonal match by 17 imps, Board 29 being a rather significant pick-up.

Our Mixed Team: successful over Australia

Ian Berrington, Fuxia Wen, Jan Alabaster, Graeme Tuffnell, Liz and Blair Fisher

It is unfair to focus totally on the last few boards of such a match as there would certainly have been opportunities for both sides earlier but somehow what happens at the end seems to take on greater significance.

The above board demonstrates one should never give up even when one seems destined to fail. Jan’s sensible line should not have succeeded but one’s opponents can sometimes slip, as here.

Richard Solomon

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