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Babich Winners

Another Babich New Zealand Wide Pairs took place on the evening of Friday November 2nd…and seems to have been an enjoyable evening around the country. We had 55 clubs participate this year with 986 pairs playing, slightly down on last year’s record 1018 pairs who played at 59 clubs. Nevertheless, a good number from which the New Zealand Bridge Foundation will benefit financially, a very worthy cause.

The largest heat was the 19.5 tables at the Wellington Club while there were also sizeable sections at Christchurch (17), Nelson (16.5), Napier (16), Cambridge (14), Otago (13.5), Oamaru (13), and Mt Albert,South Wairarapa, Upper Hutt and Warkworth (all 12).

Here are the top 10 placings:

Pair

Club

Direction

%

1.   Brett Glass- Gary Foidl

Huntly

E-W

73.61

2.   Linda Bitchener- Charles Anderson

Upper Hutt

N-S

71.99

3.   Tim Horner- Anne Baird Horner

Otaki

N-S

71.38

4.   Alex Barshai- Jena Robinson

Thames

Howell

69.66

5.   Kinga Hajmasi – Andrew Michl

Royle Epsom

E-W

69.58

6.   Lyn Anderson – Anne Grant

Kaikoura

E-W

68.72

7.   Estelle Cashmore- Sabrina Peters

Thames

Howell

67.51

8.   Barry and Sue Belin

Waiheke

N/S

67.48

9.   Andrew Tarbutt – Tracey Lewis

North Shore

E/W

67.41

10.Neil Stuckey – Christine Wilson

North Shore

E/W

67.40

Thus, three of the top 10 sat North-South and 5 East-West. There were four slam opportunities North-South and only two East-West, though the experienced Brett Glass and Gary Foidl not only bid both the East-West slams but made them too. Board 6 was about finding the HQ though Board 16 required a first round spade finesse. If you were in 6S, would you be prepared to take it:

Board 16
West Deals
E-W Vul
Q 7 3 2
A J 9 8 7 2
6
7 2
A J 10 9 8 4
Q
A K J 10 5 3
 
N
W   E
S
 
K 6 5
K 4 3
8 7 4 2
8 5 3
 
10 6 5
Q 9
A K Q J 10 9 6 4

EW 6; NS 4; E 5; NS 5; W 4; Par −300: NS 7×−2

West North East South
Gary   Brett  
1  Pass 2  3 
4  Pass 4  5 
5  Pass Pass 6 
Pass Pass 6  All pass

 

South allowed Gary to Key Card (4Club-small) though Brett was not too impressed with his shapeless 6 count and denied holding any key cards (4Diamond-small) even though he had the Spade-smallK. Gary bid on to 5Spade-small regardless while South kept on bidding. Finally, Brett thought he owed his partner a bid with his one Key Card (Spade-smallK) and bid the slam.

After the club lead, Gary was convinced South had no spades and backed his hunch to take two spade finesses and make his slam.

As was stated in the booklet, there can be a price to pay for pre-emption when you end up defending.

The winners.

The prizes are listed in the booklet received by all players after play though there are two extra prizes donated by Pianola after the booklet went to print. There is thus a third prize in the “below Open” and in the “below Intermediate (Top Junior)” sections, the former being wine, the latter a life-time subscription to Pianola.

Thanks to both Babich Wines and Pianola for their sponsorship of the event.

No pair can win more than one prize. Hence, as the second placed pair are Intermediate players, the top “below Open” prizes are handed down to the next three pairs in that category.

We hope all the prizes will be presented to the pairs at their clubs.

Prize

Pair

Club

%       Position

1st overall

Brett Glass- Gary Foidl

Huntly

73.61        1

2nd overall

Linda Bitchener- Charles Anderson

Upper Hutt

71.99        2

3rd overall

Tim Horner- Anne Baird-Horner

Otaki

71.38        3

4th overall

Alex Barshai – Jena Robinson

Thames

69.66        4

5th overall

Kinga Hajmasi – Andrew Michl

Royle Epsom

69.58        5

Top below Open

Lyn Anderson – Anne Grant

Kaikoura

68.72        6

2nd below Open

Estelle Cashmore- Sabrina Peters

Thames

67.51        7

3rd below Open

Sue and Barry Belin

Waiheke

67.48       8

Top Junior

Lesley Keuning- Toby Schweikert

Taihape

60.29      96

2nd Junior

Sue Glue- Michelle Gunn

Greymouth

59.97    110

3rd Junior

Alicia and Gary Froger

Gore

59.69    113

Nearest 50%

Pat Cantrell-Pary- Walt Crawshaw and

Dennis Pezaro – John Hogg

New Plymouth

 

 

Wanaka

49.97    477

 

 

 

49.97   477

 

 The battle for closest to 50% was extremely tight, decided by 0.01% and even then tied.

Prizes, as well as master-points, are decided on the across-the-field scores. However, the highest score at a club was achieved by the pair who finished overall in second place, Linda Bitchener and Charles Anderson who scored 73.86%. As with many pairs, their score reduced a little when scored over the whole field though they still retained second place.

I hope you all enjoyed the evening, no matter what score you achieved, and also enjoyed reading the booklet afterwards. The event will raise around $8,500 for the New Zealand Bridge Foundation.

“A” Point winners can be seen on the Compass website. Check out not just to the winners and full results but to Pianola information and an on-line hand-by-hand review of the 28 hands available to be played. (Only 1-24 were scored across the field.)

We hope to have pictures of the winners in a few days’ time.

Thanks to all those at the clubs who helped in the organisation of the event and to the team at X Club who got the results out so quickly.

Mark down the date of the 2019 event, Friday evening 1st November 2019.

Richard Solomon

 

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