Dealer: E Vul: E/W
NORTH
♠ 1093
♥ J74
♦ 8653
♣ A52
WEST EAST
♠ J42 ♠ Q765
♥ AQ1095 ♥ —
♦ Q10 ♦ KJ942
♣ 1097 ♣ Q643
SOUTH
♠ AK8
♥ K8632
♦ A7
♣ KJ8
The leaders after the first round of the practice teams event are the Collins team (113 IMPs), who are well ahead of the Bonnell team (34) who are followed by the Mobbs team (22). The best result last Friday was 69 per cent for Tony Hinde and Judy Mobbs. It’s not often that you can achieve a top score on a board when playing at the one level but that did happen on Board 6 (above) last Friday when Tony and Judy were left to play in 1H doubled.
Sitting South, Judy opened 1H which was doubled by East, who had the perfect shape for a take-out double, but not quite enough high card points.
West elected to pass, thereby converting the take-out double into a penalty. West led the Queen of diamonds which ran around to South’s Ace.
Now that Judy expected West to hold most of the missing trumps the winning line is to play a low heart towards the Jack. West does best to play the nine, allowing the Jack to win.
Declarer would be delighted to see the Ace or Queen appear at this time. East showed out and the five-nil split was revealed. In a case like this declarer should not attempt to take out West’s remaining trumps. Declarer can win two spade tricks and at least two club tricks to go with the Ace of diamonds and the Jack of hearts. Eventually West will be placed on lead and will have to concede a trick to South’s King of hearts. That gave Tony and Judy a score of 160. Without the double it would have been just 80. Two other North/South pairs who made their contracts opened 1NT. The decision of two North players to raise partner’s bid of 1H to 2H, believing that their two tricks ( Jack of hearts and Ace of clubs) would be helpful, regretted their decision.
Results: Monday, 20/03/23 ( 6-table teams Round 1): Collins (113) 1; Bonnell (34) 2; Mobbs (22) 3. Friday, 24/03/23 (6 & ½-table Mitchell): N/S T. Hinde J. Mobbs (69.6) 1; N. Bonnell H. Price (53.8) 2; Jenny Smith R. Hart (52.5) 3. E/W C. Duggan M. Johnston (61.4) 1; W. Milne J. Sipple (56.8) 2; D. Moran N. McGinness (53.6) 3.
