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Higson Cup Final 2008. By Boris Ewart
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You need the luck to
go with you to win any event and most of the time it ran with us on
Sunday. First Session. Isolated Menaces-1 v
The Lucas-2ª by Ray Ashleigh made
it difficult for us to reach a slam in a minor. I could have bid 3ª over the strong 3© call to show some
values with no ª stop but
I don’t think this would have shown a possible 5-5 shape. 1 Imp loss. |
A more off-centre
Lucas-2ª led to
5§ by me. I won the ªA, drew trumps and ran
the ©10 to East.
The ¨K return
at this point defeats 5§ but East
returned the ©5. I eliminated
the ©
and played the ¨4 to see the ¨K pop up. After
a good deal of thought I decided to duck as I thought it was more
likely that E was 7-4-1-1 than 6-4-2-1. East now had to give me a
ruff-and-discard. Bernard
& Rhona were a little high with their sacrifice of 7ª-Dbl – 800 so a loss
of 5 IMP. |
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I led the
ª9 to the
ªJ and Ann
Super played the ©AK to discover
the bad news. The §10 then
went to my §J and I
exited with the ª6 to the
ª10. Ann
then played the ¨2 to the
¨K and cashed
out for 1 down. Bernard received the
same lead and after the ©AK played
the ¨K, N wasted
the ¨10 and S
ttok the ¨A. The §9 then went to the §10 and §J but then N made the
mistake of cashing the §A – so 9
tricks. A 10 IMP gain. |
I led the
ªJ to the
ªQ and ªA and Michelle found
the good ¨5 switch
to the ¨Q and ¨A. Ann should have played
§AKQ to pitch
the ª6 loser
but played the ©K to my
©A. I cashed
the ¨K and put
Michelle in with the ªA for the ¨ ruff. Bernard
was in 2©as West
on the ¨K lead to
the ¨A. He played
§AKQ pitching
the ª2 then completed
the Scissors-Coup by leading the §6 to discard
the ª6. He could
then not be stopped from making 10. A 7 IMP
gain. Result – 17-3. |
Isolated Menaces-1 v Agamemn0n
If Mike
Clarke had made a normal 3¨
game-try then he might
have reached the making 6¨
or 6©. At the other table
Kath Nelson opened 2ª as North
and Bernard Goldenfield eventually reached 6NT
by West on the auction 2ª-Dbl-3ª-3NT-No-6NT. Thankfully
Kath did not lead the §J so a 13
IMP gain. |
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I led a
routine §10 and 3NT
was soon 2 off. At the other table Bernard Goldenfield had the ©5 lead to the ©J and ©K. He played back towards
the ©9. North
popped up with the ©A and switched
to the §10. Bernard
correctly played ¨KA to drop
the ¨Q and could
now develop 11 tricks. If the ¨Q had not
dropped Bernard was going to take the ªK finesse.
A 11 IMP gain. |
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