Apologies for the delay with this last post. Celebrations, travel home and recovery got in the way. Now I have a few days in Sydney before heading to Canberra for the ANC. Anyway back to the Asia Cup!
We are down to the last day. The finals and bronze medal play-offs in the teams and the finals of the pairs competitions.
The Australian Seniors Team are going for gold against a strong India B outfit. The Australian A Mixed Team are playing off for bronze against Hong Kong China A.
George and I and Fraser and Joe are in the final of the Men's Pairs.
Justin Mill & Jane Rennie and Will Jenner-O'Shea & Vanessa Brown are in the final of the Mixed Pairs.
In the Women's Pairs there is no final just a complete round-robin. Australia is represented by 5 pairs: Barbara Travis & Lori Smith, Gwyneira Brahma & Deana Wilson, Jane Reynolds & Viv Wood, Pamela Nisbet & Carolyn Miller and Karen Creet & Judith Tobin.
All pairs not playing in the finals are eligible for the Friendship Pairs. Australia is represented by Rachel Langdon & Nikolas Moore and Jenny Thompson playing with the event organiser Prasad Keni from India.
The Seniors Team Final: Australia v India B
Australia got off to a strong start in the first of three 16 board sets.
Board 3 was a 15 IMP gain to Australia when David Hudson & Peter Gill defended 4SX for +300 while Paul Lavings & Michael Courtney defended 5HX for +800.
Board 4 Michael & Paul showed good judgment to get to 5C for 10 IMPs in when the Indians stopped in 3C.
After 16 boards Australia gain 25 IMPs (33-8) to lead by 19.5 IMPs including the India B carry-forward of 5.5 IMPs.
The second 16 board stanza saw Terry Brown & Ian Thomson replace David and Peter.
Board 27 was the biggest Indian pickup so far. Ian & Terry sold out to 3S when they could make 4H. 3S could be beaten but made 9 tricks. 11 IMPs to India.
Australia hit back on Board 29 where Ian & Terry defended 3C for 2 down and +200 while Michael & Paul defended 4S for 2 down as well for another +200. Nett +400 was worth 9 IMPs.
At the end of the stanza Australia had picked up another 3 IMPs 31 to 28. Australia had a lead of 22.5 IMPs going into the final stanza.
Australia chose to remain with the same lineup for the last 16 boards.
Board 1 went well for Australia. Ian & Terry did well to make 4S. At the other table Michael & Paul doubled 4S and beat it one trick. I'm not sure what the play was at either table. Double dummy 10 tricks were available but looking at the hand it was not simple. 11 IMPs in and a lead of 33.5 with 15 to go.
The next 10 boards were relatively flat so with 5 boards to go Australia led by 30.5.
Board 11 Ian & Terry played 2H in a 5-2 fit with a combined 26 HCP. 3NT and 5C were both makeable so this was 7 IMPs away when India bid 3NT. Australia lead by 23.5 with 4 to go.
Board 13 Ian & Terry played 4C for +170 when a slam was available in hearts or clubs with a combined 25 HCP. This was a loss of 11 IMPs when India bid 4H for 680. Australia lead by 12.5 with 3 to go. The home town supporters are getting hopeful!
Board 14 was flat.
Board 15 was a part score swing to India for 5 IMPs. Australia lead by 7.5 with one hand to go.
Board 16 was played first in the open room. Ian and Terry bid to 5C and were doubled for -800 when the contract went three down.
When Michael bid 5D the Indian commentators on Viewgraph thought that the Indians had come from behind. These hopes were quickly dashed when West bid 5S. The defence against 5SX slipped a little but still resulted in 800 for an exciting flat board.
Australia hung on to win by 7.5 IMPs. Congratulations to our team. A great debut at this level for David Hudson.
The Bronze Medal Playoff: Australia A v Hong Kong China A
The Hong Kong team had a carry forward of 6.5 IMPs.
The first 16 boards went largely in Australia's favour.
The exception was Board 10. Matthew Thomson & Cathryn Herden for Australia would have been disappointed not to reach slam. The Hong Kong pair bid to the grand slam. This was probably quite a good contract and with a friendly layout 13 tricks were easy. 17 IMPs to Hong Kong.
Despite this Australia won the set 36 to 28 to lead by 1.5 after the carry forward was applied.
The second 16 boards saw 54 IMPs traded but the score was 27-27. Australia lead by 1.5 with 16 boards to go.
The final 16 was very one-sided with Australia dominating 81 to 9 to run out victors by 73.5 IMPs.
Congratulations for the Bronze medal go to Matthew Thomson & Cathryn Herden, Sebastian Yuen & Christy Geromboux and Maurits van der Vlugt & Dagmar Neumann.
Womens Pairs
The Womens Pairs was played as a complete round-robin due to the disappointingly low entry.
Congratulations to Barbara Travis and Lori Smith who won gold for Australia. Full results are here.
Mens Pairs
George & I and our teammates Fraser & Joe both qualified for the finals of the Mens Pairs. Generally in international events pairs from the same country play in the first round to avoid 'chucking' late in the event. So we started against them.
My 2S opening was a bit out there. In favour: Dealer, not vulnerable, good spades, no defence outside. Against: only 5 card suit, 4 of the other major.
On the diamond lead I could have played for 10 tricks by cashing 2 top diamonds and ruffing a diamond in my hand. Drawing trumps ending in the dummy then cashing my winning diamonds. This relied on diamonds and spades both breaking 3-2 with the short diamonds being in the same hand as the long trumps. Since it looked as though they could make at least 9 tricks in clubs I was focussed on not going more than a couple down. I played a heart from the dummy and ended up with 9 tricks.
Hand 2:
Joe's 3NT bid was a little enthusiastic! He won the H lead and finessed the SJ. When this lost he went 6 down for -300!
Hand 3:
We had a slightly convoluted auction to 4H. This turned out to be best for us. In Australia, Joe's 2C overcall is fairly mainstream. In many other countries overcalling 2 of a minor shows a six card suit or a better hand. In this case the overcall warned us off 3NT and resulted in the 4-3 heart game.
Hand 4:
George had to decide whether to play safe for 8 tricks by playing out clubs late in the hand or playing a trump hoping that they broke 3-3. He played a trump - if they had broken 4-2 he would have made no more tricks. When they broke 3-3 he made 9 tricks.
Remarkably this was 40/40 matchpoints for us in the first round. It's pretty rare to score 100% over 4 boards. Later in the event the organisers might have been suspicious!
Strangely we were not able to keep up this rate for the rest of the event. We finished 2nd for a Silver Medal, Fraser and Joe ended in 5th. Full results here.
The Australian Team as a whole performed creditably in the 5th Asian Cup with 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze. The official medal tally on the website shows Australia as second to Honk Kong China however it seems to have missed the bronze medal. If counted Australia finish first! Seems like a steward's enquiry is in order!
update An email to the event organiser from David Fryda at the ABF seems to have done the trick.
