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Gold Coast Congress 1999
by Mike Pomfrey, appearing in Bridge Magazine UK
One of Australia's top annual events took place at Surfers' Paradise, some 50 miles south of Brisbane, from 20-27 February 1999. Players from all over Oz, as well as leading players from Indonesia, New Zealand and England, came not only for high quality bridge, but also sun, sand, surf and a wonderfully friendly welcome, both at the table and elsewhere. The Queensland Bridge Association had invited the EBU to send a team, in return for a similar invitation to last year's Brighton Congress. Bill Hirst, John Hassett, Ron Morrish and I were the lucky recipients of Aussie hospitality. It would take too long to thank everyone who made our stay so memorable, so I'll just single out Tony Jackman, QBA vice-president and congress convenor, who made all the arrangements, looked after us brilliantly and even gracefully accepted being nobbled by having huge quantities of beer poured into him.
Championship Pairs
The main congress events are a matchpointed pairs, comprising a two-session qualifying round, after which everyone plays in one of many three-session finals, and a twelve by 14-board Swiss teams, with semi-finals and final for the leading teams after ten rounds. Qualification is extremely fierce, with only the leading pair in each 14-table section guaranteed a place in the pairs final, and two teams from each of two pools of around 130 making the semis.
Pre-duplicated boards are used throughout both events, so everyone can discuss the hands, and the pairs finals use an ingenious barometer method in which every table in one section plays the same boards simultaneously and passes them to the adjoining section on the next round. Despite the large numbers, results are posted very quickly indeed.
As so often seems to be the case, the plate final, including the legendary Tim Seres, top Aussies Bobby Richman and Ishmael Del'Monte, Brian Senior and both the EBU pairs, looked at least as strong on paper as the top event.
Early on in the finals Roger Penny's directing skills were tested to the full. Well-known local player Andrew Pryde earnestly quizzed Ron on the implications of my competitive double before carefully laying down the dummy. He got as far as displaying four spades and four diamonds before the three stunned other players pointed out he was on lead to Ron's contract! Roger of course had the rules for such an everyday occurrence at his fingertips.
Ron and I thought we had a top here from the pairs finals session
1.
ª 8 4
© K 10 7 5 4
¨ Q 2
§ 10 9 6 4ª A K 5
© J 8 6 2
¨ K 10 8
§ K J 2ª Q J 9 7 6 2
© 9
¨ 6 5 4
§ A Q 5ª 10 3
© A Q 3
¨ A J 9 7 3
§ 8 7 3The bidding at our table:
West North East South
-
Pass Pass 1D Double 1S Double 2D Pass Pass 2S All Pass The bidding at Bill/John's table:
West North East South -
Pass 2S Pass 2NT Pass 3H Pass 4S All Pass Our East's action, or rather lack of action, was rather feeble. Lest you think I was bidding frivolously, this was one of only two psyches in 368 hands (the other one worked, too). Ten tricks proved easy.
It was left to Bill and John to show that Four Spades is not impregnable. Three Hearts showed a maximum weak two with a singleton heart. (By the way, does nobody consider that East hand worth a one opening?)
Knowing of the stiff heart, Bill started off with the ace of hearts. It's their style to McKenney when there are no more cashing tricks in the suit and John duly signalled with the ten of hearts. A low diamond came next. Would you, as declarer, put all your eggs in one basket by playing the king? No, nor did this one, and that was curtains.
I had a shock on this board when I scraped up a double of a strong no-trump and heard LHO raise promptly to 3NT.
ª A 9 5
© A K 9 5
¨ K 8 3
§ J 9 7ª 6 4 3
© 10 8 7 4 3 2
¨ 6
§ Q 10 5ª K Q J 7
© --
¨ J 10 7 5
§ A K 8 4 2ª 10 8 2
© Q J 6
¨ A Q 9 4 2
§ 6 3
West North East South
Pass
1NT Dble 3NT Pass Pass Double All Pass After some deliberation I doubled again on the grounds that opponents are unlikely to have nine running tricks. Obviously a club lead beats it out of hand but I chose the king of spades. Declarer won, immediately misguessed the diamonds and gloomily cashed her eight tricks.
Suppose declarer starts with four rounds of hearts. East is almost bound to come down to SQJ H- DJ1075 CAK (unless he's brave enough to unblock in clubs). Now you exit with a black card and you're bound to get the diamonds right.
In the first round of the final session this board proved crucial in the clash between the eventual plate winners, Bobby Richman and Ishmael Del'Monte, and runners-up Bill Hirst and John Hassett. Bobby had just gone off in a hopeless slam and the momentum seemed against him.
ª A 9 2
© K 8 5
¨ A J 7
§ K J 10 8ª J 10 8 6
© A J 2
¨ 9
§ Q 9 6 5 2ª 7 4 3
© 9 6
¨ K Q 10 8 6 4 2
§ 4ª K Q 5
© Q 10 7 4 3
¨ 5 3
§ A 7 3
West North East South
1C
3D 3H Pass 3NT All Pass Against 3NT John found the fine lead of a spade. Bobby won in dummy and played a heart to the queen and ace, and Bill returned the nine of diamonds to John's ten. Another spade was won in dummy and declarer was at the crossroads. You might think he would be content to make the same tricks as those in Four Hearts but not a bit of it. Backing his judgement, he led the ten of hearts, pinning the nine! All that remained was to pick up the queen of clubs for eleven tricks and a complete top. After that effort Bobby and Ishmael proved unstoppable.
Pairs results
Championship
1 Richard Brightling & Seamus Browne
2 Stephen Lester & Jan CormackPlate
1 Bobby Richman & Ishmael Del'Monte
2 Bill Hirst & John HassettI apologise to the Championship winners that all my material came from the Plate. Knowing Richard and Seamus, I'm sure they will forgive me; when we played them later in the teams Ron and I were walking on water and they were charming and good-humoured throughout. Such an attitude was typical of all the Aussies we met and an object lesson to some of the prima donnas you find elsewhere.
Commiserations to the very close runners-up in the Championship, for whom an appeal decision on the very last round denied them the crown.
Swiss Teams
The second half of the Gold Coast week is given over to a long Swiss teams - twelve 14-board matches with pre-duplicated boards. This year the field of 260 teams was split into two pools. After ten rounds the leading two only from each pool go on to a semi-final and final. Very tough.
As with other international Swiss events, the whole field is seeded, so all the favourites get a theoretically easy first-round draw. How the organisers are supposed to rank the 116th best team against the 117th, God only knows, but that's by the by. There is an unfortunate side-effect, though. Swiss is a lottery at the best of times but what's the effect of the seeding? All the leading teams score maximum points in the first match, they meet each other in a tight second-round match, and you are back to square one after two rounds. Why seed at all?
Opponents had the wind behind them in this match, though we had the odd triumph.
ª Q J 10 8 6 2
© A K
¨ A Q 9 6
§ 4ª --
© 10 9 5 4 3 2
¨ 72
§ K Q J 6 3ª A 7
© Q 7 6
¨ K 10 8 5 3
§ 9 8 2ª K 9 5 4 3
© J 8
¨ J 4
§ A 10 7 5
West North East South --
1S Pass 2NT Pass 4NT Pass 5H Pass 6S All Pass South's 2NT showed a sound raise to Three Spades or 16+ with spades and 4NT was RKCB. East led a club. I won, ruffed a club with the ten of spades and tried the eight of spades. East was caught napping and I was home. The nine of spades held, I ruffed a club, cashed the ace-king of hearts and exited with a spade.
Instead of bidding boxes, the Australians use what they call "written bidding" - a pad in the middle of the table on which players write their bids. Being a little short-sighted, I found this quite tedious, forever squinting at tiny scribbles, but John and Bill uncovered a previously unknown hazard. The conventional symbol for pass is simply a diagonal line across the relevant box. On one hand John was sleepily contributing a string of passes as opponents bid away merrily. Unfortunately he was actually writing crosses, the convention for double! Poor Bill was left in the unenviable position of taking out all these doubles. When opponents reached Five Hearts doubled he eventually lost heart and passed, but eleven tricks proved to be cold.
The fifth round featured a top-of-the-table clash between the two 'English' teams, a trio of Hacketts captained by South African Wayne Chu, and Hassett. Every one of the fourteen boards was full of interest but here is my favourite:
ª 9 6
© J 10 6 3 2
¨ A 9 7 3
§ A 8ª A J 5 4 2
© A 9 5 4
¨ J 8
§ K 3ª K Q 7
© Q 8 7
¨ 6 5 4
§ Q J 10 6ª 10 8 3
© K
¨ K Q 10 2
§ 9 7 5 4 2
West North East South --
-- Pass Pass 1S Pass 2S Pass Pass Dble Redble 2NT Pass 3D Pass Pass Dble All Pass I'm a great believer in Total Tricks and hardly ever allow opponents to play at the two level in a suit of their choice (so start raising on those doubletons, guys). On this occasion Jason's top-heavy raise seemed to have caught me. Ron's 2NT showed two places to play and Three Diamonds doubled looked far from comfortable. Jason led a trump to dummy's king, the king of hearts went to the ace and Wayne switched to spades. Jason clearly thought a trump continuation was called for but in fact there is no defence. You win in hand, run the jack of hearts, covered and ruffed, back to the ace of clubs, cash the ten of hearts, ruff a heart and you are home.
A forcing game doesn't work either as you can discard a club on the third spade and cross-ruff.
When the music stopped in the Swiss, the four semi-finallists were Chu, Hassett, Chen and Reiner, the last being the only home representatives.
The semis and final were played under match conditions, with screens, a total contrast to the hurly-burly of Swiss. Reiner-Hassett resembled a typical Aussie-England cricket encounter with Hassett making a good opening stand before suffering a mid-order collapse. Typical was:
ª 7 4
© J 10 7 6
¨ Q 6
§ J 9 6 3 2Your partner, Matt Mullamphy, opens One Diamond, RHO overcalls One Spade and you dredge up a double. Despite your best endeavours to put on the brakes, partner blasts his way to Six Hearts and the ace of clubs is led. How do you feel?
No worries, sport. Partner has:
A 10
A K Q 8 3
A J 9 8 5 4
-The diamond finesse works, both red suits break and thirteen tricks are a doddle.
The England tail wagged but, sadly, not quite enough. Goughie slogged a few fours before running himself out in the last over, Reiner hanging on by 10 IMPs.
When you are behind in a match there are two ways to generate swings. One is to punt, but it often works better to give opponents enough rope to hang themselves. We had plenty of opportunities, the last board of the third quarter being a spectacular example.
ª K J 9 8 4
© --
¨ K 9 8 2
§ A 8 6 5ª Q 7
© A K Q J 4
¨ A Q J 10 7 3
§ K 3ª 10 6 5 3 2
© --
¨ 5 4
§ Q J 10 7 4 2ª A
© 10 9 8 7 6 5 3 2
¨ 6
§ K 9 3Open Room (Hassett N/S):
West North East South --
-- Pass Pass 1D 1S Pass 2H 4D Dble All Pass Closed Room (Hassett E/W):
West North East South --
-- Pass Pass 1D 1S Pass 2H Pass 2S 3C 3H Dble All Pass In the Closed Room Peter Newman bid what he thought he could make but he was soon disillusioned. John Hassett led a spade and Bill returned his trump. Feeling confident, Peter rose with the ace and played the four of hearts, his jaw dropping when John produced the eight of diamonds.
After the same start to the auction I looked suspiciously at my screen partner, Matt Mullamphy. I couldn't believe he would operate at the match score so I tried the effect of a pass. It all worked out swimmingly. Matt must have been as disappointed as Peter with the outcome to his contract - two down when continued diamond leads established the four of hearts at the end.
The other semi seemed to be going the same way, with Chen forging steadily ahead, but Chu staged a great recovery in the last set and just made it. So the crowd got what they wanted, an Aussie-England final. In some ways it was a bit of an anticlimax, Brian Senior's VuGraph team struggling to generate excitement on a dull set of boards. The home team played solidly throughout and Chu only rarely threatened to pull it back.
Teams results
Winners: Andrew Reiner (absent npc), Peter Newman, Paul Yovich, John Spooner, Matt Mullamphy.
Runners-up: Wayne Chu, Paul Hackett, Jason Hackett, Justin Hackett.There only remained the superb dinner dance and, for us, a chance to see a little of a truly great country. John, Bill and their wives headed north to Fraser Island and the Great Barrier Reef. Ron and I went south for the wines of the Hunter Valley, bushwalking in the rain forests of the Blue Mountains and a few days in Sydney as guests of Ruth and Peter Jamieson. Simply breathtaking. If you ever get the opportunity to go, don't miss it.