Suffolk Championship Teams

The preliminary stages of the Suffolk Championship Teams have just been completed. First the field is split into two halves, the lower plays a round-robin for the Suffolk plate and the top teams are halved again, qualifying four into the knock-out phase.

There were a number of deals to test all the teams in the first cut and this was one of them, raising questions about how much you can – or should – provoke the opponents:

E-W Vul.
Dealer North
  • J106
  • 54
  • J3
  • AQJ1086
  • AK
  • AQJ2
  • AKQ8
  • K32
N
W
E
S
  • Q872
  • K10863
  • 1095
  • 5
  • 9543
  • 97
  • 7642
  • 974
West
North
East
South
3
Pass
Pass
3NT
Pass
4*
Pass
6
End

There is no obvious action with the West cards over North's pre-empt and my partner chose a modest 3NT – it had the benefit of pragmatism. If you were to double, how would you proceed after three spades – four no-trump? Would that be this hand? Maybe four no-trump immediately – unless you are a very practised partnerships these will be grey areas. However 3NT has a wide range, even directly over a pre-empt (as opposed to fourth seat as here), and it is usual to play an investigative advance of 4. The no-trump hand is split into three categories:

  1. Ordinary balanced
  2. Balanced powerhouse
  3. Running suit and a stop

With (a) he treats 4 as Stayman, with (b) he bids 4NT and with (c) he bids his suit. You can, if you wish, use the 4 response to show a minimum (or max…) and divide you 'ordinary' ranges further. Alternatively you can use point-count step responses.

I didn't think that I could have a slam try after passing 3 so I was reasonably comfortable with my 4 call, figuring that it was more likely to taken as Stayman than anything else. I was somewhat taken aback by the leap to 6. Still no-one doubled and partner was pleased with dummy and collected twelve tricks in short order; +1430.

At the other table our team-mates were a little more active:

West
North
East
South
3
Pass
5
6NT
End

Jeff Orton was faced with an even harder decision but backed his judgement to the hilt – right he was, he too had twelve tricks and +1440 – flat board.

Suffolk Championship Teams 2009-10
Semi-Finalists
Moore (A. Moore, J. Moore, D. Price, J. Price; +24) will play
Malinowska (B. Malinowska, J. Mayhew, M. Honess, A. Wilmer; +18)
Sherer (M. Sherer, E. Newman, W. Tweddell, R. Hanley; +19) will play
Chambers (C. Chambers, J. Gobert, M. Allnutt, P. Gemmell; zero)
Plate
1.Green (R. Green, C. Bamberger, J. Orton, G. Beeton)+78
2.Less (N. Less, D. Carter, P. Warren, B. Knight)+31

Published Saturday 19.Dec.2009