Summer Festival of Bridge Blog 11
Posted 02 February 2010 by Ron
Try this problem:
The opponents bid 1NT (15-17) : 3NT. What do you lead from:
Final Roundup of the Summer Festival of Bridge
The major event at the Summer Festival of Bridge is the National Open Teams, preceded by the 14-round qualifying South-West Pacific Teams. The SWPT was won by MILNE (Liam Milne – Michael Whibley, Adam Edggton – Andy Hung, Nabil Edggton – Alex Smirnov) with 268 Victory Points ahead of STERN (David Stern – Robert Grynberg, Tania Lloyd – Stephen Burgess, Phil Gue – Paul Wyer) on 263 and DE LIVERA (Arjuna De Livera – Ian Robinson, Richard Brightling – Ian Thomson, Matthew McManus – Michael Ware), also on 263.
In the first stage of the NOT finals, MILNE defeated BLOOM (Martin Bloom, Peter Gill, Paul Gosney, Sartaj Hans – Tony Nunn) narrowly, 83-81, and DE LIVERA 53-42. That took MILNE direct to the semi-finals, where they chose BILAL (Gulzar Bilal, Sarfraz Khan, Seamus Browne, Khokan Bagchi, Michael Smart) as their opponents and won by 145-77. In the meantime, DE LIVERA had used their second chance to reach the semi-finals, where they met LILLEY (David Lilley – Zoli Nagy, Andrew Braithwaite – Bill Haughie, Nye Griffiths – Justin Williams) and defeated them by 142-116 after a close early tussle. In the final DE LIVERA beat MILNE by 141-101.
Board 2 of the NOT semi-finals:
South dealer : East-West vulnerable
At one table:
| West | North | East | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| - - - | - - - | - - - | 1![]() |
1![]() |
2![]() |
2![]() |
Dble |
| Pass | 3 (1) |
Pass | 3NT |
| Pass | Pass | Pass |
(1) Stopper ask
Lead:
A
East played the
J and West continued with a low spade to the 10 and queen. When the diamond finesse failed, declarer lost five spades, a diamond and a club for three down, – 150.
At another table:
| West | North | East | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| - - - | - - - | - - - | 1NT |
| Pass | 3NT | All Pass |
West led the
K. East played the
J on the
K lead and West shifted to a club. East took the
A and returned the
10, queen, ducked. Declarer now had nine tricks and when East let a heart go, it was ten tricks for +430 and +11 Imps.
As declarer in no-trumps, it is normal to duck a round with A-K-x-x-x-x in dummy with no entries. The same can be applied in defence. Assuming declarer has a spade stopper, such as Q-J-x, if West starts with a low spade lead here, declarer has no chance. This caters for partner having two spades with the spades 2-2-3 around the table.
A first and then a low spade works only when partner has three spades.
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