NEWSLETTER NO 39 - January 2004
CONGRATULATIONS - The biggest and best yet!
Peter Lee's team won the GOLD CUP. It was a great tribute to them that they did this having suffered the very sad loss of one of their team members, Tony Lunn, who died suddenly in November. The Mayfield members in the team were Peter Lee, Bob Rowlands, Sean O'Neill, and John Frosztega who was co-opted for the final three rounds. Rolf Alexander's team also did very well reaching the semi-finals where they lost to the Hackett team. Had they won they would have played Peter's team in the final. And Roger Morton's team had a fine win in the 5th round of the competition by beating the 6th seeds - Crook, Sowter, Sharp, Kirby and Mcniff by 67 IMPS. Very well done to all of you. Peter has written an excellent article about the competition at the end of this Newsletter.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - TUESDAY 11 May 2004 - A free evening!
The 21st Annual General Meeting of the Club will take place on the above date at St John's Church Hall starting at 7.30pm, followed by bridge as soon as possible. Note the time carefully as we cannot get the hall earlier. The format will be as usual with the officer's reports being posted on the notice board in advance of the Meeting and hopefully taken as read at the Meeting. Please advise the Secretary, Pam Southon, of any business that you wish to be raised at the Meeting by 4 May 2004, otherwise it may not be possible to include it in the agenda. A copy of last year's minutes has been available at the club for the past 11 months and will remain so until the Meeting. If you require an individual copy please speak to Pam Southon. It is hoped that the accounts will be available in advance of the Meeting.
Members are reminded that, if they wish to propose an amendment to any of the rules, it must be given to the Secretary 4 weeks before the Annual General Meeting - 13 April 2004.
The Committee will be including an appendix to Rule 12 to protect the Club against litigation. Our thanks to Mike Stilwell for highlighting the need for protection.
Following the Committee's decision not to make any increases in subscriptions or table money, and to be generous in prizes and provide free coffee and a free Christmas Party over several years, there is now a considerable shortfall in our accounts and measures will be needed to remedy this, particularly as there has also been rent increase. This is the first increase we have had since we have been at St John's. Please note therefore that subscriptions will go up to £15 per person from 1st April 2004. It is anticipated that Chris Pullan will be voted in as the new Treasurer as David Dick is retiring at the end of this financial year and in due course your subscription should be sent to him.
EBU NUMBERS
The EBU have produced their scoring program where results will go direct to them and master points will be automatically be recorded. If the club decides to use this program you may need to put your EBU number on the name slip. So, like the boy scouts - BE PREPARED!
PARTY NIGHT
As ever a great success. Our thanks to Pam Southon, who spent the day preparing lots of goodies, and her team and to John Timberlake and the Committee men who ran the bar. This coming Christmas. it is expected that many members will be asked to help with the party food as it is getting too much for one person to cope with. So be warned YOUR CLUB NEEDS YOU. Rosemary ran the table prizes and there were some interesting ones this year, not least of which was a garden rake! Peter Southon was presented with a special bottle of wine for all his efforts as the Chief Director. He would welcome all offers to direct.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Norman Cup - 10 Feb(heat)/9 Mar(Final): There will be Open Pairs on 11 March for those who do not qualify for the 7 table Final.
Mayfield Teams Cup - 24Feb/23 Mar: Teams can have up to 6 players in them so that in the event that you can only get a team for one evening you can have up to 2 substitutes for the second night
Mixed Pairs Cup - 18 May: Members should note that, although unmixed pairs may turn up to play, they will be expected to pair up with other unmixed pairs where possible. Any pair left unmixed will still be able to play but without standing. Our thanks to Kath Coward for donating a magnificent new cup for this event.
Men's & Ladies Pairs Cups - 8 Jun
Dorothy Williamson Pivot Teams - 29 Jun: This format was tried last year and it proved successful and is therefore being repeated this year.
Please give all these competitions your support.
MEMBERS ACHIEVEMENTS
National
| Gold Cup | 1st Peter Lee, Bob Rowlands, Tony Lunn, Sean O'Neill, John Frosztega and (Frances Hinden and Geoffrey Allerton). |
| Year End - Mens Prs | 1st Bob Rowlands and partner |
Surrey
| County Pairs Plate | 1st Peter and Margaret Lee |
| Mixed Pairs | 2nd Liz Phillips, Bernard Pike |
| Senior Pairs | 1st Keith Jackson and partner |
Club
| Committee Cup | 1st Keith Jackson, George Foot 2nd Bob Canning, Ann Whitmont |
| Liz Phillips Cup | 1st Sean O'Neill, Tony Lunn
2nd Tim Cook, Chris Pullan |
| Pro-Am Cup | 1st Joan Underdown, Pam Cox 2nd Kerstin Tompsett, Bernard Pike |
Peter Lee's team are in the 4th round of the NICKO competition.
COUNTDOWN QUIZ RESULTS
| 1 | ANYMASTER | STAYMAN | 7 |
| 2 | TRASHMEN | HEARTS or MASTER | 6 |
| 3 | SLAMRICHE | MICHAELS | 8 |
| 4 | BEERGRADE | BADGER | 6 |
| 5 | 2NT DOUBLED NON-VUL from 50, 8,7,4,3,2 | 50 - (8 - 7) = 49 x (4 x 3) - 2 = 10 490 | 10 |
| 6 | FRANSREST | TRANSFERS | 18 |
| 7 | NOTABREAK | BARON | 5 |
| 8 | TUESPOPPY | PUPPET | 6 |
| 9 | BYJOVEACE | JACOBY | 6 |
| 10 | 2 HEARTS + 4 from 25,5,4,3,2,2 | 25 x 4 x 2 = 200 + 5 x 3 x 2 = 30 230 | 10 |
| 11 | ACELLOVER | OVERCALL | 7 |
| 12 | PLAYCHESS | PSYCHES | 7 |
| 13 | EIGHTSOME | GHESTEM | 7 |
| 14 | 6 CLUBS NON-VUL from 75, 9, 8, 3, 3, 1 | 75 + 9 + 8 = 92 x (3 x 3) + 1 = 10 920 | 10 |
| 15 | COPIERSIN | PRECISION | 10 |
The winner was Joan Cullen with a score of 123 out of a possible 124
The runner-up was John Osborne with 114.
The most common error was to forget to pluralise words. If any member would like to submit a
quiz for the next Newsletter your contribution would be welcomed.
NO TRUMPS - my thanks to Elizabeth Johnson who saw this poem in a church magazine.
| 1 2 3 4 5 | She was a damsel fair to see A gallant bachelor he. He offered her on bended knee One Heart. A richer rival came in view, Of mind he'd learnt a thing or two. He flashed before her eyes of blue Two Diamonds. They married, next a change of scene, His love became a mere 'has-been'. He spent his time, he said, between Three Clubs. And so, this once too pampered bride, Forlorn, neglected, pined and died. A quartet of grave-diggers plied Four Spades. The moral is, Don't wed for gold, A marriage bought is a marriage sold A loveless match is proved to hold No Trumps. |
CURIOUS and CURIOUSER said Alice!
In the September One Day Swiss Teams, we had reached hand 13 while scoring up. Our team mates were - 100 and so were we. Both sides had played in 3NT - 1. Was it a misboard? No. Here is the hand:
| Dealer N | ª J 7 | |
| Both Vul | © J 6 5 4 2 | |
| ¨ A K Q | ||
| § 10 9 4 | ||
| ª Q 10 6 5 | ª 8 4 | |
| © 10 8 | © A K Q | |
| ¨ 10 7 3 | ¨ J 9 8 6 5 4 2 | |
| § K 6 5 2 | § A | |
| ª A K 9 3 2 | ||
| © 9 7 3 | ||
| ¨ - | ||
| § Q J 8 7 3 |
At our table a diamond was led by East which was won by the Ace and North led a low club which was won by the singleton Ace. East continued the diamond suit, won with the King by North and another club was led and taken with the King by West and now the club suit was set up. The third diamond lead by West now gave declarer 8 tricks - 2 spades, 3 diamonds and 3 clubs.
At our team mates table the defenders took their top 5 tricks to take the contract one off.
Any other examples of identical game contracts just failing in both directions?
Perhaps more significantly, how did either side get into 3No Trumps with a combined total of either 21 or 19 points!
ADDITIONS & AMENDMENTS FOR YOUR TELEPHONE LIST
| New Members | Amendments | |
| Alan Bailey Joan Beamish Jack Feld Christine Jones Bob Lewis Liz Martin Tony Scoullar | 020 8642 4418 01737 362259 01737 223501 01737 247637 01737 362259 01306 884353 01737 350626 | 020 8788 5277 |
A GOLDEN MOMENT
The Gold Cup is the premier British teams event. When my team, consisting of four Mayfield members (Tony Lunn, Sean O'Neill, Bob Rowlands and myself) and two other Surrey players (Jeffrey Allerton and Frances Hinden), went into the draw, it was much more in hope than anticipation. Bob had reached the final once before and Tony, Sean and I the semi-final twice before (and Bob a number of times), but none of the team had ever won it. We were not in the 16 seeded teams but in the next-rated group of teams given byes through rounds 1 and 2. Round 3 was won without great trouble, but we viewed our Round 4 match with apprehension against the seeded Liggins team (Liggins/Fawcett, Patterson/Collins, Lodge/Crouch), all of whom were past holders. However, the match went extremely well and we won comfortably. One amusing hand was where I doubled a 3© bid, which I thought was artificial, for a lead, holding KQJ108 of hearts and AK of diamonds. This turned out to be natural and a 5-3 fit, so with extra values, being macho, they redoubled. However the bad break led to three off and +1000 to us. In the other room they did not double 4©, fearing a better spot was available, and only scored +200.
After a win against Julian Mitchell's Sussex team in round 5, we got another strong seeded team in round 6 - Ian Monachan captain and sponsor, with the two strong pairs of Burn/Callaghan and Hyett/Mould. The match had an extra interest in that Burn/Callaghan had elected to leave our Gold Cup team after the 2001 event, to be replaced by Jeffrey and Frances. Bob and I sat out after 8 boards, 4 imps down, and were delighted to find that after the next set we were 56 imps up! This was mainly due to a sensational card from Tony and Sean, including bidding two close slams and making them through excellent play. Ian Monachan, who apparently only played while his team were ahead, decided to fly back home to Jersey and let his experts get on with it. However we continued to gain (justifying Monachan's view that they would never be ahead again?) and won very comfortably, reaching the quarter-final.
A few weeks later we were all stunned by the awful news of Tony's untimely death. He had been a friend and team mate of mine for almost 20 years, and his death was a terrible blow. We were lucky to get John Frosztega, himself a past Gold Cup finalist, to come in as a substitute to play with Sean, but they only had relatively little experience together.
While the semi-finals and finals had to be played on the Saturday and Sunday at the Peebles Hydro Hotel, quarter-finalists had an option to play on the Friday at Peebles or earlier elsewhere. Since we did not fancy making the long trip to Peebles to possibly lose in the quarter-final, or having 64 board matches (earlier rounds are 48 board) on three successive days if we did reach the final, we agreed to play Mike Walsh's Norfolk team in Cambridge the weekend before. They themselves had beaten the strong Waterlow team in the last round. Our match with Walsh was very close up to 40 boards, but we pulled away to win by 52 imps.
We travelled up together on the train to Scotland on the Friday (Dec 12th), expecting to be playing the Allfrey team in the semi-final containing Tony Forrester and Andrew Robson. However, when we reached Peebles we found that their quarter-final against Walker's Scottish team was very close, and indeed remarkably the margin in all three of the matches with 8 boards to play was 2 imps at most! When the music stopped Walker won, as had de Botton against Armstrong (the no 1 seeds), and Wilson against Debbage. The Wilson team, which contained Mayfield member Rolf Alexander and Surrey team mate Bill Hodgkiss, had come back from over 50 imps down.
Our semi-final against Walker's team of Scottish Camrose players (Short/Paterson, Coyle/Matheson, Murdoch/Walker) started remarkably well for us. Although we lost 8 imps on board 1 we gained 81-7 on the next 23 to lead by 66 imps. The next four sets of eight boards were quite close, Walker only getting 9 imps back. Coyle and Matheson were in a Scottish team which famously once went on to win the Gold Cup from over 50 down with eight to play in the semi-final, but here they only got 19 back, so the margin of 38 imps was quite comfortable.
A crucial early hand was the following:
| West | East | |
| ª K 6 5 3 | ª A 8 7 | |
| © K 9 | © A 6 2 | |
| ¨ A 8 2 | ¨ K 6 | |
| § K J 10 8 | § A Q 6 4 2 |
After a weak no trump by Bob, I reckoned I needed a very suitable hand from him to make 6§ a good contract. I had a method to show 5-3-3-2 with values for 4NT quantitative and five clubs but this might have led to a poor 6NT, so I bid a simple 3NT missing the cold slam. However the Scots bid to the no-play grand slam, converting a potential large gain to a large loss, with a demoralising effect.
In the other semi-final the Wilson team were ahead at one stage and had their chances, but in the end de Botton won by 30 imps. A pity, as one would have liked to see Mayfield members on both sides in the final!
So, into the final against a team consisting of Hallberg, Sandqvist, Paul Hackett and his twin sons Jason and Justin, together with captain and sponsor Janet de Botton (who appeared recently in the London top 100 Rich List in the Evening Standard). Both sides had 1995 Junior World Champions in their team (Jeffrey Allerton and the Hackett twins
We started well and were 37 imps up after 24 boards. However, things suddenly went away from us when we lost 24 imps in set 4, an incredible set with five makeable slams which they got all right. The situation was worse than it seemed as Janet de Botton had played all the boards she intended to, leaving it for the experts. Also Bob was complaining of severe backache affecting his concentration.
We were 10 imps up after set 5, but could have been 7 down had Hallberg/Sandqvist not tried to cash 2 spades against Frosztega's 6© contract when a diamond at trick 2 to partner's Ace would have led to one off. In the other room, against the same contract (space for Blackwood had been removed in the competitive auction), Hinden/Allerton got it right.
The margin was the same with 8 boards to play, and Bob and I came back in. We had some reasonable boards to start with but they found a good defence to beat a game and then we allowed Sandqvist to make an impossible 3NT. Had we chucked it? Thankfully no. Frances and Jeffrey, who had played very well all weekend, had a very good card and we won by 28 imps. One of our gains was:
| ª Q 9 8 7 5 | ª A K 6 | |
| © A 8 7 4 | © 9 5 | |
| ¨ 3 | ¨ J 10 9 | |
| § A 10 5 | § K 9 7 4 3 |
| Lee | Rowlands | Justin H | Jason H | |
| 1ª | 2§ | 1ª | 2§ | |
| 3§ | 4ª | 2© | 2ª | |
| Pass | Pass | |||
| +620 | +170 |
While our sequence was natural, the Hackett 2§ bid was artificial. Though the sequence showed about the values held by Jason, the club fit, crucial to making the game good, never came to light. Note that I opened the thin 10 count as I knew Justin would and we were leading.
Hand 62 was spectacular and disastrous for de Botton
| North | ||
| Dealer E | ª 10 5 | |
| Love All | © 4 | |
| ¨ K 10 9 8 5 | ||
| § 10 9 7 5 2 | ||
| West | East | |
| ª A 8 7 6 | ª 9 3 | |
| © A 10 8 7 3 | © K 6 5 2 | |
| ¨ J | ¨ A Q 7 6 4 3 2 | |
| § Q 8 3 | § - | |
| South | ||
| ª K Q J 4 2 | ||
| © Q J 9 | ||
| ¨ - | ||
| § A K J 8 4 |
Room 1
| West | North | East | South |
| Sandqvist | Lee | Halberg | Rowlands |
| 1¨ | 1ª | ||
| 2© | Pass | 3© | Double |
| Redouble | 4§ | 4¨ | 5§ |
| Double | Pass | 5© | All Pass |
I led the ten of spades, Sandqvist won, cashed the ace of hearts and played the jack of diamonds, not covered, to the queen ruffed by Bob, who continued with two top spades. Declarer could not get the diamonds going now and went 2 off for -100.
Room 2
| West | North | East | South |
| Allerton | Justin H | Hinden | Jason H |
| 1¨ | 1ª | ||
| Double | Pass | 2© | 3§ |
| 4© | 5§ | 5¨ | Double |
| 5© | Pass | Pass | Double |
| All Pass |
Jason led the King of spades to the Ace, ten and three. Frances cashed the Ace of hearts and then played the Jack of diamonds to the ten, two and ruff by Jason. Had he not ruffed or had he continued with a top spade and then a top club or trump, the contract would have gone off. But he bravely, but disastrously, underled his QJ of spades to try to get his brother in with the nine to make his remaining heart honour with a diamond ruff. When declarer held the nine, not only did his spade trick vanish but Frances had a crucial extra entry to get the diamonds going to make 5© doubled and score +650.
Although the financial rewards were hardly great (£200 prize + £50 expenses each did not cover our hotel and travelling costs), we were all extremely pleased.
For those interested in more detail a fuller article will appear in Mark Horton's "Bridge Magazine." For the really dedicated I have a copy of the full hand records for our semi-final and final.
My thanks to Peter Lee for this excellent article.
© Copyright Mayfield Duplicate Bridge Club 2004