Day 4 of the 2025 APBF Championships is the middle day of the event. It’s time to make a move and establish our position if we want to place highly. Another hot day where the air conditioning of the hotel is a blessing.

Our non-playing captain for both this event and the world championships later in the year in Denmark is Laura Gynan from Melbourne. She has worked tirelessly both before the event, making sure we were organised and prepared, and during the event. She is responsible for selecting and posting our lineups for the matches and liaising with the tournament officials and other team captains to resolve any directing decisions and scoring problems that occur. She also makes sure we are ready to play each match and have everything we need – credentials, system cards, pens, scoresheets, snacks, water. She makes sure we know where we have to sit and provides scouting reports on the pairs that we are playing including any parts of their systems that we need to be prepared for. In her ‘spare time’ she finds and arranges restaurants for dinner and lunch.

In essence she makes sure that the players can concentrate on playing to the best of our abilities without having to worry about normal life and everything going on around us. She is our administrator, psychologist, strategist and concierge. An integral and important part of the team.

Match 3 RR 2 vs Hong Kong, China (David & Maurits, Phil & Terry)

A small loss by 4 IMP (26-30) for 8.72 VPs.

This match started badly on the third hand (Board 19). David and Maurits had a highly competitive auction where they had weak hands with a big spade fit and the opponents had strong hands with a big club fit. The Hong Kong pair bid to 7C, and Maurits was all set to lead a small C from Kxx to give the declarer a losing option. David decided to sacrifice in 7S which was marginally cheap if they were going to make 7C (-1700 instead of -2140). The opponents chose to bid 7NT and when the C finesses worked this rolled home. At the other table a more sedate auction saw Phil and Terry play 5C only for a 17 IMP loss.

Board 27 was another grand slam hand. Phil and Terry did well to get to 7NT avoiding playing in their 5-4 spade fit. 7S by W would go down on a D lead. 7NT had 13 top tricks as long as declarer played the D suit correctly. Here the 5-0 break helped since cashing one of the A or Q would reveal the break and allow a marked finesse. If they had both followed to the first D, declarer would have to guess which honour to cash next to pick up a 4-1 break.

Match 4 RR 2 vs Korea (Phil & Terry, Hugh & George)

We beat Korea by 70 in the first RR so the team was optimistic but mindful of the need for a good result. Often playing the weakest teams is most worrying since there is everything to lose and a big win is only what was expected.

Not as good as the first time but a decent win by 27 IMPs (47-20) for 16.55 VPs.

Board 12 was interesting. George and I bid a good vulnerable slam, albeit by way of a somewhat confused auction – we both thought that we were asking for Keycards! This made easily. At the other table Phil and Terry somehow bought the contract in 3S which was misdefended and made. 17 IMPs in the plus column.

I made a poor decision on the last hand and was punished when I went 3 down in 3H doubled. The opponent’s bidding was strange but that is no real excuse. A disappointing end to the match.

This match moved us into a medal position for the first time.

Match 5 RR 2 vs Indonesia (David & Maurits, Hugh & George)

An important match against a strong team that has been leading for most of the event. Laura pointed out to us before the match that they had played only 2 of their 3 pairs in all the matches except one and that their scores were trending down. At this point they were second. Maybe they are tiring? When the lineups were posted it turned out that the third pair were coming in for only their second outing. Maybe this was an opportunity for us.

Both of the Indonesian pairs play strong club systems so this may also cause some swings.

A win by 13 IMPs (39-26) for 13.72 VPs.

Board 19 was unlucky for us. Our opponents bid 6NT which depended on the H finesse. When that succeeded the contract made for a loss of 13 IMPs. If I had held the H9 instead of dummy having it the contract would still have failed.

Board 23 was a hand where the system differences played a big part in our favour. At our table the Indonesian W opened a strong 1C with his 1-4-4-4 19 count. I overcalled 1H and the next hand passed showing 0-4. When this came back to the opener he decided to pass with 4 hearts to the KQ and a singleton spade. This turned out to be a bad decision when they could make game in diamonds or NT and I was able to make 9 tricks in hearts. 13 IMPs to us.

Board 29 saw the Indonesian West venture into our game forcing auction with questionable values. This worked poorly when we now bid to game which I was able to make largely due to the information that I had gained from his bid. I could also have let them play the contract which would probably have resulted in a similarly good score for us. 13 IMPs to us when David and Maurits remained silent in the bidding then defended well to beat them 2 in the same contract that I had played.

The day finished with us in second place. Team morale is high, and the captain is pleased with us!

Two tough matches against NZ and Japan to end the second round robin tomorrow.

All the scores and hands are available here.