The rankings after the first three rounds of the NEC Cup are:
GREAT BRITAIN scored THREE solid wins to lead the NEC CUP after the first day's play with 69 VPs. Some distance back is JAPAN - PABF OPEN with 57 VPs. Three other teams, CHINA, USA and JAPAN TAKAYAMA, are in a neck-and-neck struggle for third place, while JAPAN YAMADA, TATAI and PABF WOMEN are closely bunched not too far back in sixth through eighth places. JAPAN YOUTH, who played a tough match against your editors yesterday morning, are in ninth place and JAPAN NAITO is bringing up the rear but determined to make a better show of it today. While some of the hands yesterday were challenging, the overall standard of play was quite high. For example, TATAI-HARA played a virtually error-free set against us in the second match yesterday, and are in seventh place. It would not be a stretch to say that any team in this field might beat any other in a head-to-head 20-board match. We include for your interest in this and the next two issues, the datums for each match. As long as you remember the direction you played in, you will be able to see how you fared compared to your counterparts in that session. A table containing all of the head-to-head match results as well as the teams' VP totals and rankings can be found immediately before the datums.
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Team USA was on the trail of the event leaders in Round 6 of Sunday evening's Flight A Ouchi
Cup final, but they were having a tough time of it. After four of the six boards, they were trailing
team Kanehara by 10 IMPs, 1 IMP to 11. Mark Itabashi's partner for the NEC Cup had not yet
arrived from the US in time to play in the preliminary event and Nakatani-san, recruited Yuichi
Masamura to play with Mark and round out team USA to six players. Mark and Yuichi filled out a
convention card in some haste and fortunately discussed 1NT auctions where responder holds
both minors and a good hand. Flash ahead to the penultimate board of the sixth match.
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Mark opened a slightly sub-minimum strong notrump
and, sensing bigger and better things, Yuichi bid 2 ,
minor-suit Stayman. Mark was only too happy to bid
his six-card club suit, the main reason for his 1NT
opening, and Yuichi showed his heart shortness
next. Mark, no shrinking violet he, cue-bid his spade
control and Yuichi, remembering that four of the
agreed minor was Roman Key Card Blackwood,
made the bid that every bridge player lives for.
When Mark showed two of the five key cards and
the queen of trumps to go with his spade control,
that was all Yuichi needed. His next call was slam.
With only the From there on everything came up roses. They won Match 7 handily and going into the final round, USA-Masamura sat in third place, 13 VPs behind the leaders, whom they were scheduled to play. When the fourth-place team defeated the second place team by a healthy margin, our heroes needed only a 5-IMP win to take over first place. This they did with IMPs to spare, as was reported in yesterday's Daily Bulletin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Now, does anyone need a partner for the final weekend's pair games?
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Here are three pairs of hands from the first final session of the 1999 OUCHI CUP, adjusted for directions and perhaps for vulnerability. Ask your partner to examine the East hands and bid them for your pleasure. WARNING: All that glitters is not gold. West Hands (East hands)
(1)
(2)
(3) |
| THE NEC CUP: ROUND ONE | |||||||||||
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Half the field reached game with the North-South cards. 3NT made three of the four times it was bid but 4 lost the obvious four tricks. This is not an easy combination to bid. After 1-1NT; 2 , is there a call that stands out?
We suspect that those who reached 3NT got there after North rebid 2NT, then 3NT over South's forcing 3. You can envision declarer misguessing the play in 3NT, but that won't always happen. Two Norths (Hirata and Nagasaka) passed 2 and saw their partners scramble nine tricks. Both of them gained on the deal. If not 2NT or pass with the North hand, what else? Perhaps a hopeful 2, rooting for partner to continue with a minor suit fragment or 2NT. In USA vs YOUTH, Harada, playing a strong club system, passed Kohno's limited 1 opening. Imaginative. Too imaginative, perhaps.
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Only Paul Hackett/Brigitte Mavromichalis were permitted to play peacefully in 4 with the North/South cards. Everywhere else, East/West competed to at least 4. TATAI's Hirata/Shimizu bought it undoubled, down 100 against Nagasaka/Takano but they lost 5 imps when Hara went down in 5 (more on that later). YAMADA's Hirata/Shimizu (every team should have one) and Naito/Moriyama of NAITO took the money (300) against 4, but at the other tables, North/South went on to the five-level. You might feel that East/West should have been content to take their chances against 5, but Ohno/Yamada and Masamura/Furuta (perhaps one or two others) competed to 5 and went down 500. Shimamura/Fukuda tried 6 (we don't know whether they were pushed) against China's Liu/Zhang and went two down undoubled, a 14-imp loss when Fu/Ju made 5 doubled at the other table. Kohno was the other declarer to go down at 5, but the play was not straightforward.
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If West leads a count spade or the position is otherwise clear, East might switch to a low diamond at trick two. Declarer will finesse And go down. Kohno had a chance after two rounds of spades. He ruffed and cashed two rounds of trumps, then the clubs, West following with the jack. Kohno exited with a heart, showing his hand, but West produced a surprise third club. Kohno was careful to ruff in dummy to take the diamond finesse, West genuflecting to show his appreciation.
The endplay was legitimate, however. Kohno had to cash only one trump, then the high clubs before crossing to the second trump. Now West can ruff in or not, but he will eventually be given the lead to concede a ruff-and-discard or lead a diamond.
 "Exercise is vastly overrated!" | |||||||||||
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East/West have a vulnerable save of sorts against North/South's non-vulnerable 4, but the defenders can get a trump trick or a second heart for 500 if they start with ace and another heart, take their minor winners, and play a third heart. The only North/South pair to achieve this result was CHINA's Fu/Ju. Most Souths opened 1 and over North's 1, East had to choose between 1, 2, and 3; in our opinion only the last of these would convince West to bid 4, but we are more conservative than many of our colleagues. The pairs that took the push to 5 under pressure were Hackett/Mavromichalis and Shimamura/Fukuda. TAKAYAMA's Nagasaka/Takano had an accident and played in 6 , four down, to turn over 12 imps to TATAI.
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At most tables, South declared 3 and made three or four, depending on whether West protected the correct red queen in the endgame. There were a few anomalies, however. Messrs Fu/Ju and Itabashi/Simpson played a heart partial and made it, the Chinese pairs accomplishing this from the South side. That seems somewhat bizarre, but Tatai/Hara reached 4 from the North side, two down (an 8-imp loss) and Mavromichalis/Hackett played 4 from the South side and made it (a 10-imp gain). Anyone who brings us the details will earn our special scout-of-the-day award.
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There was a
swing in four of
the five matches
on this deal, usually where one North/South pair missed
game, but GREAT BRITAIN gained 10 imps when
Mavromichalis/Hackett made 5 while Naito/Moriyama
failed in 3NT by North, presumably on a heart lead; the
defense can take two hearts, two spades, and a club.
 "I love this game, but It's sure hard on the neck." | ||||||||