• eBulletins

A vital board in the Open Teams Final

Posted by Leo G on Tuesday, 24 October 2017 at 22:18

The final in the Open Teams, between the JACOB and FISCHER teams, was a close tussle all the way - with the lead changing several times near the end of the match.

Three boards from the end, the JACOB team was ahead by a few imps, thanks to fine play as well as their 14.1 imp carry-over. This was Board 26 of Session 4:

The bidding was accurate and right-sided the 3NT contract. The ♥4 lead went to East's Ace and the ♦9 came back, ducked by declarer to West's Queen. West, now slightly end-played, (although the 3♠ would give declarer something to think about) came back with ♥10, won by South's ♥J. A small ♠ was played, ducked by West and won by dummy's Jack. Now a small ♣ was played to declarer's Jack. The successful finesse meant that declarer had 10 tricks, as he could throw a small ♥ and a small ♦ on the last 2 clubs and play a ♠ to his ♠KQ.

Nah! That's no fun. He threw the ♠Q on the 4th club and the ♠K on the 5th - West shedding a small ♦ and the ♠A! To prove that he had been paying attention, Johnno now played 9♥ to the King and exited with the ♥7, end playing West to give South the last two ♦ tricks!

No such excitement at the other table where the bidding ended somewhat abruptly.

2♠ came home giving JACOB 12 imps. Another 3 imps on the penultimate board and a wash on the last one gave the JACOB team the trophy 92.1 to 74.

Well done and Congratulations to the winners Tom Jacob, Brian Mace, Justin Williams and Johnno Newman and to the runners up Stephen Fischer, David Morgan, Richard Brightling and David Hoffman.