Dubious Logic

National and County Pairs

Matchpoint pairs is a funny game – how many time have you heard that? It took me a little time to extract a hand played Peter Sutcliffe and Peter Gemmell at the National Pairs regional qualifier. Competition for places in the final is very tight and they were a very useful fourth in a sizeable field, achieving a little over 60% in each session. Strange then that when the promised deals arrived they were accompanied by a rather gloomy note to the effect that the next event hadn't gone so well.

That was the Suffolk Championship Pairs – won by Julian Lang and David Morran – and our featured partnership could only managed a modest 50% overall. Here is a deal from the National Pairs;

The bidding was straightforward, North opened a weak two hearts and West described a constructive raise. South led his singleton king and declarer won and drew trumps. There are a number of possible lines. The early play seems to confirm two singletons with South and so the heart suit cannot be attacked, giving East time to try ways of getting rid of his loser there. Playing diamonds early might encourage the defence to play another round – that would be an error as declarer could now eliminate the suit and simply give up two clubs, end-playing whoever won the third round (there are not enough entries for this line without help).

Alternatively, East can play for another error by attacking clubs early. If North allows himself to win the second round from a doubleton then he will be end-played immediately – of course, if he holds KJ, KQ or QJ he has no recourse. That's the line Peter essayed and was momentarily disappointed to find the club layout easy for the defence to unscramble. There was still scope for error and South, after winning two tricks for the defence, got off lead with a small diamond. The nine spot in the closed hand obliged North to win this trick and succumb to the end-play declarer had been plotting all along..

Published Saturday 14.Apr.2001