Page 9 - ABF Newsletter December 2024

rected each player to the correct room and seats. And then he had a big impact on which team made the final. After a not wholly unexpected eight con- secutive losses Mark brought the team together and told us that he had heard the Victorian captain say that he would have to wear the “bag of shame” on his head if his crew lost to the NT. (Whether the Vic- torian captain actually said that is beside the point – Mark just knew this would fire us up for the match.) We defeated Victoria by 9 imps, a 53-imp turnaround from our first meeting, and Victoria missed the final by just 1.1 Victory Points.
One can look at the results of any bridge event and focus on the scores, the bidding, the declarer play and the defence, but I don’t think any of those have as big an impact as the issues of captaincy, and team/ partnership accord. On the first page of our NT team system notes you will find a list of Our Values which include, “We treat each other with kindness and re- spect on and off the table”. To me, that is both obvi- ous and important, yet it was not what I always ob- served during the 2025 Playoffs. Here is an example:
]872 [A2 }643 {A7643
] A K 10 6 3 [K4
} A Q 10 5 2 {Q
Phil Markey, David Wiltshire, Sophie Ashton, Joachim Haffer
I reached the normal contract of 4] by South and got the [9 lead. I decided to win in dummy and try a diamond to the queen because if this succeeds you are halfway home. This drew the eight from East and the king from West who continued with the [7. I won, cashed the top two trumps (both following), crossed to dummy in clubs (the king covering my queen en passant) and led a diamond. East ruffed with the boss trump and tried to cash the {J, but I ruffed that, cashed the top diamond, ruffed a dia- mond and claimed.
Before the scores were entered West was already tearing strips off East. “We will take him down if you don’t ruff the diamond.” West insisted. Really? These had been the cards at that moment:
]8
[—
} 6 4 (led) {7643
]— ]J [J8 [Q65 }J97 }—
{ 10 2
] 10 6 3 [—
} A 10 5 2 {—
{J98
While it is true that East doesn’t need to be in a hurry to play the master trump, discarding at this point will not defeat the contract. Declarer will win the diamond ace and play another diamond. West
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: December 2024
Page 9