Day 2: Nine from nine – Coutts top the qualifying

NZ National Congress – New Zealand Open Teams, qualifying (9 of 9 matches)

Team Coutts won all five of today's matches and finished the qualifying 1st of 70 teams – nine wins from nine, 128.65 VPs, just ahead of Joel (125.72) and Ware (121.82).

Coutts: 9 wins from 9

The match against Joel, the second seeds, was the big one: we went into it second, a few VPs behind them, and a narrow win put us in front. Our teammates Samuel Coutts and Brad Johnston, and Jessica Brake and Jack James, were superb all weekend.

As the top qualifier we had the choice of quarter-final opponents, and we chose Pelkman.

Team Edler

After their flying start, Edler ran into the two strongest teams in the Restricted on day 2, losing to Kooter (the eventual winners) and to Starr. They finished strongly with wins over Bartosh and Hodge, to end 14th of 40 with five wins from eight. A fine effort in a big field – well played, Simon, Jane, Pam and Barbara.

Hand of the day: the opening lead against a slam

Match 9, board 14. Dealer East, nobody vulnerable.

              ♠ A
              ♥ A K Q J 10 9 3
              ♦ Q 3
              ♣ A 8 6
♠ 9 4 3                   ♠ Q J 10 8 7 6 5 2
♥ 7 6 2                   ♥ 5 4
♦ A 6 5 2                 ♦ 7
♣ 10 4 2                  ♣ 9 3
              ♠ K
              ♥ 8
              ♦ K J 10 9 8 4
              ♣ K Q J 7 5

West   North   East   South
               4♠     4NT
5♠     7♥      All pass

I was North. East opened 4♠, George showed a two-suited hand with 4NT, West raised to 5♠, and I took a shot at 7♥.

East, Patrick Carter, led the normal card, the ♠Q. I won the ♠A, ran all my hearts, then played the clubs, throwing my two diamonds on dummy's long clubs. With the ♠K and five club tricks in dummy, that made 13 tricks unless the clubs broke 5-0. +1510.

A diamond lead would have beaten it: West wins the ace and gives East a diamond ruff. At the other table North-South stopped in 6♥, East led his singleton diamond, and the ruff put the slam one down. So the board was worth 17 IMPs to us.

The lesson: against a slam, the "normal" lead isn't always right. West, holding the ♦A, might have doubled 7♥ to tell partner not to make the obvious spade lead. Would Patrick then have found a diamond rather than a club? We'll never know!

For the keen: a double of a freely bid slam by the player not on lead is the Lightner double: it asks for an unusual lead, and specifically denies interest in the suit partner would normally lead (here, his own spades).

And a detail of the play: running all the hearts first gives an extra chance. If one defender holds five clubs and the ♦A, the last heart squeezes him: he must either let go of a club or discard the ace.

Tomorrow

The quarter-finals: Coutts v Pelkman, a 48-board match. Fingers crossed!

Hugh