1st East Anglian Bridge Weekend
The inaugural East Anglian Bridge Weekend took place last Saturday/Sunday. It grew out of the old 'Norfolk and Suffolk Green Point' previously held in Thetford and organised by Norfolk. Suffolk's contribution was, let's say, "supportive". To realise the new event all that changed; the Suffolk chairman, Jeff Orton, architect of the successful Felixstowe Congress, practised a cross between shuttle-diplomacy and military planning with an added measure of creative problem solving.
The result was a new event with not two but three sponsoring associations when Cambs and Hunts were added to the mix. There was a new venue too, the lecture halls at the University Campus Suffolk's iconic Waterfront Building. The format was classical, Swiss Pairs on the Saturday, Swiss Teams on the Sunday. One other thing was unchanged; Suffolk players failed to challenge for the top places.
I was playing with a first-time partner, Ingar Hansen who hails from the far north of Norway (I stopped myself describing the wintry flurries on Sunday as 'snow'). This was our first board together:
Dealer North
- 743
- A65432
- 43
- 83
- J2
- ---
- J9862
- AKJ1097
- A1095
- K98
- AKQ5
- Q4
- KQ86
- QJ107
- 107
- 652
1. Forcing to 3
2. Possibly 12-14, I intended to raise 3NT to 4NT
3. Game Forcing
4. Control bids
5. I should really have bid 6; perhaps unfamiliarity started to take its toll
Believing seven needed partner to hold the heart ace, until I saw dummy I couldn't picture a hand partner would sign-off in game with great clubs. It would have been talking point to start with a grand but the diamond slam was worth 9 IMPs against 3NT in the other room.
1 st East Anglian Bridge Weekend
| Swiss Pairs | ||||
| 1. | Derek Oram & Celia Oram | 112 VPs | ||
| 2. | Ian Aldridge & Eric Campbell | 96 | ||
| 3. | Christine Jepson & Catherine Curtis | 95 | ||
| Swiss Teams | ||
| 1. | Giles Ip & Gabriel Ip, Paul Darby & Steve Dannell | 118 VPs |
| 2. | Jonathan Mestel & Jon Cooke, Paul Fegarty & Catherine Curtis | 101 |
| 3= | Maureen Kimbley & Bogdan Drobny, Gerard Faulkner & Roger Amey | 92 |
| 3= | Peter Gemmell & Paula Leslie, Ingar Hansen & Christopher Chambers | 92 |
Published Saturday 16.Mar.2013