Schapiro Spring Fours
The Schapiro Spring Fours were contested over the May bank holiday weekend. This is the premier venue event in the national calendar. Now generously sponsored by a legacy from the late Boris Schapiro, it attracts the top teams in the country and from elsewhere. There was representation from Norway, Poland and the Netherlands as well as a number of overseas stars backing up sponsored teams.
In these pages I usually exhort local players to join in national competitions but perhaps the Spring Fours might be an exception; in truth it's a very hard tournament. The schedule is to play two sessions of 32 boards a day. It's noticeable that club players look a little tired towards the end of a 'long' 28 board pairs event and the recent Suffolk Pairs final at 46 deals was cause for comment to that effect. Moreover the tension of the matches can be exhausting in itself. Once it was common experience to play multi-stanza events such as the Gold Cup but less so these days and the advantage that the professional teams have is, if anything, more marked.
We managed three from Suffolk in our team, Jonathan Green played with a Londoner, Richard Hillman who captained, Jim Gobert and I made up the four. We started reasonably but lost a life – fortunately you have two – in the three-way matches that formed rounds one and two. We managed to defeat the seeded team De Botton (with Burn, the Hackett twins, Malinowski and Sandqvist) but lost to Gipson (Gipson, Marshall and Smith) from Essex by two IMPs. Thereafter we kept alive for three rounds but eventually faltered to Rees (Chris Jagger, Pagan, Kurbalija). We missed our chances in this match, see if you can take them; you are North and have to find a lead here:
- 10
- Q98
- QJ52
- 108743
Unless something is peculiar, the opponents' spade fit is no longer that seven cards (no repeat, no support) and partner has five of those. Could he have enough in diamonds to help? Possibly, king-ten-low might suffice to go with a spade and a heart. Alternatively he might hold king-knave-low over dummy's queen-low of clubs. Prospects were never rosy but the latter looked the better chance.
Not on the day: partner held ♠AQ652 ♥K103 ♦109876 ♣---. It wasn't the extra trick declarer got with the club nine, it was the tempo to knock-out both spade honours. A diamond would have won twelve IMPS instead of losing one; it's both vul.
- AKQ6
- J95
- 983
- 764
Two spades was weak, double take-out and yours an unenviable decision. Opponents don't usually risk a wild pre-empt vulnerable and though pass looks tempting, those old rubber-bridge players will tell you that when West opened, he knew he didn't hold the top honours.
Indeed, the opener had seven to the knave-ten-eight-seven and bought the nine spot in dummy. That was –870 when partner, endplayed in the plain suits, understandably led one of those rather than a trump. This was a flat board – a blast at 3NT with the hand above would have been a mere –100 and thirteen IMPs in.
Published Saturday 19.May.2007