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 | ♠ Q872 | ||
| ♥ AQJ2 | ♥ K10863 | ||
| ♦ AKQ8 | ♦ 1095 | ||
| ♣ K32 | ♣ 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:
- Ordinary balanced
- Balanced powerhouse
- 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