After two days of qualifying, the Wilkinson Team was in a perilous position. Everyone had contributed to the dire situation so at least there were no recriminations. Day 3 began somewhat surreally. Our match started over 20 minutes late as our opponents had spent the previous 2 hours sitting in a carpark, formerly known as the M4. It must have had an effect on them as we racked up a pretty easy maximum of 25 VPs. Match 8 was a 15 all draw against the Bourke Team, so it was looking pretty hopeless as we surveyed the leader board and the posted draw.................
| 1 |
HANS |
159
|
v
|
2 |
BLOOM |
148 |
2
|
TRAVIS |
148
|
v
|
4 |
REITZER
|
145
|
5
|
HORWITZ |
141 |
v |
6 |
NASH |
140 |
7
|
FISCHER |
138 |
v |
7 |
LOWRY |
138 |
9
|
PEAKE |
137 |
v |
10 |
WILKINSON |
135 |
11
|
BOURKE |
135 |
v |
12 |
KLINGER |
133 |
Assuming a maximum win for us, we’d finish on 160. So what else did we need? Not a lot, just............
1. Hans to beat Bloom by at least 19-11.
2. Travis to beat Reitzer by at least 16-14 (or Reitzer to win by 19-11).
3. We had some leeway with the Nash v Horwitz and Fischer v Lowry matches. Both being close encounters would be good, but we could afford one to be a lopsided affair.
4. Klinger to avoid being maxed by Bourke.
So what happened in the matches we couldn’t control?
1. Hans beat Bloom 19-11.
2. Travis beat Reitzer 23-7.
3. Nash and Horwitz drew 15 all.
4. Fischer got 25 (which was proably fair as they’d had a much tougher draw than us and had been qualifying for most of the event).
5. Klinger and Bourke drew 15 all.
And how was our match going? With one board to go we were ahead 55-23 IMPs, 22-8 in VPs, no where near enough – another 16 IMPs were needed. But the last board to be scored was Board 20.
It was rather sedate at my table. West opened the routine 4S and everyone passed. The standard defence of four rounds of clubs resulted in +100. But at the other table........ North found a takeout double of the 4S opening and South did just that – took it out to 5H. East knew to apply the chopper to that contract and when the smoke cleared the result was +1400 which translated into 17 IMPs. So we’d romped into the semi-finals on the last board with with 1 IMP to spare.
Now that's how to "Swiss it in"!!
