Page 12 - ABF Newsletter June 2024

River City Gold Mixed Pairs by Kim Frazer Held at the Toowong Bridge Club in Auchenflower, the River City Mixed Pairs just goes from strength to strength. The event was upgraded to become a national gold point event a few years ago. The in- creasing popularity of Mixed Pairs events showed, with the event booked out early, and the 106-strong field included many of the top-ranked Mixed pairs from the Eastern seaboard. Toowong club members did a magnificent job with organisation, providing a multitude of all-day snacks, a yummy lunch on both days and après bridge snacks and drinks at the end of event prize-giving. The ladies in the kitchen were enjoying a well-de- served glass of champers when I left for the airport on Sunday night. Most of us will be familiar with my partner for the event, Laurie Kelso, who is more commonly seen wearing his director’s hat. It is not often that Laurie gets to play in national events, but he is an ex- ceptionally fine card player and I was delighted to accept his invitation to play with him – my first foray into the River City Gold Mixed Pairs. Laurie’s go to contract was 3NT and he was declarer in this a total of 14 times making 13 of those – often with an over- trick or two. Our opening round presented an early challenge as we came up against the very talented Sophie Ashton, who had paired up with well-known inter- national David Beauchamp. We started with three decent boards, including this one played in 1NT doubled. South opened 1NT and East doubled in the passout seat, showing values. Board 6. Dealer East. East-West vulnerable. \]KQ7 \[96 \}9854 \{J985 \] J 10 5 \[AJ74 \[853 \} J 10 2 \}AK76 \{Q74 \{K3 \]A86 \[ K Q 10 2 \}Q3 \{ A 10 6 2 The faces behind the scenes at the River City Mixed Pairs There wasn’t much to the play when West started with a spade, won in dummy where I ran the \{J around to West’s queen. West continued with spades and I again won in dummy and played another club. With the king falling, I could play off the clubs and exit with the \[K to make seven tricks. Sophie and Dave then reeled off three good boards to level the match and it was an overtrick and a partscore that swung the match our way for a small win. We won our next two matches and in Round 4 it was the battle of directors as we came up against Simon and Jane Edler. This board helped them to their win against us when I played in the poor Matchpoint contract of 3\}: Board 3. Dealer South. East-West vulnerable. \] 10 8 \[A3 \} A J 10 9 7 4 \{J82 \]A32 \]J65 \[ 10 9 7 6 5 \[KJ84 \}3 \}K2 \]9432 \]KQ974 \[Q2 \}Q865 \{A9 \{Q763 While ten tricks can be made, on the line of defence taken and having already lost a club, heart and dia- mond I did not pick the spade suit correctly and nine tricks was a poor result. In Round 8, Kelso - Frazer came up against the eventual runners up, Paul Gosney and Laura Ginnan. Gosney (East) found a nice endplay on North (Kelso) when declaring 3\]: \{ K 10 5 4 Page: 12 Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: June 2024