Suffolk Championship Semi-Finals
As I've mentioned in the past, part of the attraction of bridge is that match upsets are more common than you'd otherwise suppose. That's all very well, but what about being on the other side? The tournament that qualified four teams to the final stages of the Suffolk Championship had seen many of the ante-post favourites falter. In the knock-out stage I suspect the bookies would now have made my team front runner.
Sometimes it's easier to play from behind and our opponents, Shannahan, played fearlessly and capitalised on whatever fortune came their way. To such an extent that at the three quarters mark they were 19 IMPs ahead and when the last board was placed on the table they still enjoyed a lead of 11 IMPs. This was the fateful deal:
- 1098762
- J96
- 53
- Q6
- AJ53
- A102
- AQ74
- A8
- ---
- Q87
- KJ10982
- KJ52
- KQ4
- K543
- 6
- 109743
West's four clubs asked for aces, an answer already known but a prelude to the subsequent king ask. The five diamond response showed either the minor or the major pair. Concerned that the hearts and spade kings be opposite and a club loser and a losing diamond finesse happen (not to mention perhaps, a slow heart trick as well), West guessed low and played in game. In the other room, desperate measure were called for:
East's three spades announced a spade shortage but the response to 4NT had not been discussed. There is a certain similarity between the two auctions yet the end results were wildly different. The grand slam is not an enticing prospect: it either requires both the king and queen of spades to fall in three rounds or the same player to hold sole control of both majors – you'd not want to be in it twice. However, as you can see, the first chance matured and the brave SHANNAHAN team (Paddy & Norma Shannahan, Mike O'Reilly / Mick Spencer) had lost a cruel 14 IMPs on the final turn of the cards and the match by 3 IMPs - sometimes it's easier to play from behind.
In the final Chambers (Chris Chambers / Jim Gobert, Ed Colley / Jonathan Green) will meet Birley (Sylvia Scott-Laws / Ron Hosier, Judy Birley / Pat Dougan) after they defeated Hanson (Pauline Hanson / Basia Malinowska, Harold Morris / Anne Wilmer) by 7 IMPS.
Published Saturday 22.Jan.2005