The Welcome Pairs is the first event of the 2026 ANC which starts today at the Labour Club in Belconnen ACT. 54 pairs are competing in the Open event with 7 Tasmanian entries. IMP scored pairs converted to VPs with a Swiss draw.
This is a good opportunity to warm up for the Interstate events to come.
The Tasmanian pairs are:
Hugh Grosvenor & Tania Lloyd, Julie Rhodes & Hilton Francis, Mardi Grosvenor & Annie Bartlett, Pamela Lidl & Fiona Hickey, Catherine Elliott & Felicity Wivell, Maggie Crawford & Julia Corr and David Marshall & Merryl Darby.
Full entries and results can be found here.
After 3 matches Catherine & Felicity are the leading Tasmanian pair in 3rd place. Tania & I are next in 5th place followed by Annie & Mardi in 19th, Julie & Hilton in 27th, Pamela & Fiona in 38th, Maggie & Julia in 41st and David & Merryl in 45th.
In our first match Board 2 was tricky.
Tania's double of the 2D Multi opening shows either 13-15 balanced or any good hand. It's not quite clear to me which of these she thought she had. What do you think West's pass of this double should show?
I am not a big fan of the 2D multi opening but if you are going to play it you need to have good agreements about what the continuations mean. Pass here should show a willingness to play in 2DX. If it does not mean this North has a free option to pass since the opener is always going to have to bid their major. With this West hand I would be bidding 2S, pass or correct. If the opener has spades I want to play 2S, if they have hearts I want to play at least 3H.
Anyway over Pass I wanted to Pass but was worried that Tania would interpret this as liking diamonds so I chose to bid 2H. East sensibly passed this and Tania was in a tricky spot. She chose 3D. I presumed that this showed a good hand with diamonds so tried 3NT. A couple of things were unclear to me - which suit the opener had and where 9 tricks were going to come from in 3NT. However a wise old man of bridge once told me that if 3N is one of your choices, you should choose it.
East could have beaten 3N by leading a low S or a heart. However on the SJ lead 9 tricks were easy and 10 made on a defensive slip. 5C was the best contract but 630 had the distinction of being the biggest NS score, for 9 IMPs.
We went positive on all the hands in this match. The boards were a little flat but this converted to 20-0 IMPs and 16.9 VPs.
The second match did nnot start well when we bid too high on Board 9.
I pushed a little to bid 4H and it was hard to fault Tania for bidding over this. Alternatively she could have doubled then bid 4H herself. Anyway my 'values' were largely useless and I could not avoid losing 2 spades and a diamond. 12 IMPs away.
Board 10 was another difficult hand.
3D asked for a stopper. Over 3S maybe I should bid 4C. I did not expect Tania to have 6 spades so thought that she was likely to have more diamonds. Even with 2 or 3 small diamonds, 3NT may be the best contract.
The defence blocked the diamond suit so we survived the adventure. A lucky 8 IMPs.
Board 11 Tania opened 2H and Janet overcalled 2S. I tried a sporting penalty double. Despite the bad trump break, the rest of the cards were fairly friendly and the declarer could actually have made the contract if she picked the club Q and the diamond position. When she ducked the opening H lead everything went wrong and we emerged with +500 for 3 down and 10 IMPs.
Board 13 The declarer survived the heart lead when the suit broke 4-4. He now had 9 tricks when the clubs broke 3-3 however he did not spot this and went down when the diamonds split 4-1. A gift that you need in these sorts of events!
A 10 IMP win after we had a few bad boards was a lucky result.
Match 3 was the last match of a short day.
Board 20 was the first one that we played. We bid to 4H and the opponents bid 4S. We should have taken 4 tricks to beat this - DA, D ruff, HA, D ruff. Somehow we didn't manage to do this. 12 IMPs away.
Board 24 Alison and Ken did well to bid 6S and Alison played well to make it. Another 9 IMPs away.
Fortunately the traffic went our way on most of the other boards. A 2 IMP loss almost felt like a win!
Tomorrow is another day. 6 matches to go.