MAYFIELD
DUPLICATE BRIDGE CLUB
NEWSLETTER
No.53 – JANUARY 2011
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING – Tuesday 19 April
2011
The 27th Annual General Meeting of the Club will take place
in St John’s Hall on the above date at a start time of 7.30pm followed by
bridge as soon as possible. The usual
format will apply with the Officers’ reports being posted on the notice board
and, in some cases, on the web site in advance of the Meeting. It is hoped that these will be taken as read
at the Meeting.
Any business you wish to raise at the Meeting should be advised to the
Secretary, Adrian Patrick by 12th April. This will enable him to
include the item on the Agenda. A copy of last year’s minutes has been
available at the Club for the past 11 months and will remain on the board until
after the Meeting. If you require an
individual copy please speak to Adrian Patrick. It is hoped that the accounts will be available in advance of the
Meeting.
Nominations for the Committee should be made no later than 12 April
2011 and a list will be displayed on the notice board. New nominations are always welcome so do not
hold back!
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Norman Cup – 8 Feb/8 Mar (final): This has been changed to a new format,
averaged over the two evenings. The
format may be reviewed again for future years.
Mayfield
Teams Cup – 22 Feb/29 Mar. Teams may have up to 6 members but no player
may play in 2 different teams.
Surrey Sim
Pairs – Friday 25 Feb. Due to low attendances, we may decide not to
enter future events but make a donation instead (to be discussed at the AGM).
Cliff Street
Trophy – Friday, 25th March
Mixed Pairs
Cup - 10 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.
Men’s &
Ladies’ Pairs – 14 Jun.
Dorothy
Williamson Handicap Teams – 31 May. As in previous years we will introduce a
handicap for this event.
Note: The date of Committee and Liz Phillips Cups is 26 July 2011.
PLEASE GIVE ALL THESE COMPETITIONS YOUR
SUPPORT
SLOW PLAY
It is pleasing to note that slow play has improved but do not be
complacent. If you have not started a
board when the 2 minute warning is given then an average will be awarded.
MEMBERS SUCCESSES
Surrey Competitions
County Pairs 2nd Adrian Patrick & Dean Morley
3rd Peter Lee & Bob Rowlands
Senior Pairs 1st Tony Turnage & Partner
4th Liz
Phillips & partner
Green Point Swiss Teams:
‘B’ Flight 2nd Ulla Adilz, Pam Jardine,
Kerstin Tompsett & Rosemary Little
Aileen Filose 2nd Heather West & partner
Surrey Teams of 8 1st Peter Lee, Liz Phillips, Ian
Swanson, Bill Hodgkiss,
Arun Suri, Tony Scouller, Roger Morton &
John Frosztega
They now qualify for regional stage
of Garden Cities Trophy
Surrey Multiple Teams 1st Peter Lee & others
4th Peter Cogliatti, Andrew Barnett,
Heather West & Keith
Jackson
Mixed Pairs 1st Liz Phillips & Peter Lee
Teams for Mayfield
NICKO Both teams through to 3rd
round
Affiliated League:
Division 1 ‘A’ team leading with
38/40 after 2 matches
‘B’ team second with
18/40
Division 2 ‘D’ team leading with
11/20
Club Competitions
Liz Phillips Cup 1st Arun Suri & Roger Morton
2nd Rosemary Rice & Roger Sugden
Committee Cup 1st Peter Cogliatti & Andrew Barnett
2nd Alan Rainbow &
Chris Lemon
Pick-up Teams 1st Malcolm, Channing, Heather West
Dean Morley & Adrian Patrick
2nd Arun Suri, Tony Scouller
Ann Madden & David Dick
Pro Am 1st Pam Jardine & Peter Lee
2nd Ron Maclaren & Philip Brooks
EBU Sim Pairs 1st Liz Martin & Richard Wheen ) North/South
2nd Julian Hemsted & Dean Morley )
1st Arun Suri & Tony Scouller ) East/West
2nd Roger Morton & Bernard Pike
CHAIRMAN’S
NOTES
These are my last words to you in the Newsletter as Chairman as
I am standing down at the AGM. I wish
my successor all the best.
In October we held an Invitation Event to try to drum up more interest in the Friday bridge. We had 13 tables with 30 Mayfield members and 22 visitors. We were delighted to see so many of our own players there but would appreciate it if you could come on other occasions. We gained a couple of new members but still struggle to attract a reasonable amount of people. Please try to support Fridays, particularly those who would not want it to be cancelled altogether.
We were thwarted by the snow in our efforts to hold the usual Christmas Party and we apologise for this. We plan instead to hold a Wine and Cheese Party on 19 April in conjunction with the AGM to celebrate the start of the new bridge year. Cocktails will be at 6.30pm followed by the AGM at 7.15pm. Bridge will start after the AGM and there will be a break for refreshments and then more bridge. For non-cheese lovers there will be other snacks provided.
The snow caused havoc to our bridge from the end of November until the New Year and we are sorry for having to cancel on so many occasions. Unfortunately Tadworth is high up and the snow does not clear so quickly and the car park becomes particularly treacherous. We were anxious not to have any of our members with broken limbs for Christmas. We easily got into the routine of sending out emails, putting a notice on the web and telephoning the 18 members not on email (now 16). Thank heaven for modern technology. In future we would appreciate it if those 16 could check with either their partner, a member with email or a committee member if there is a chance that the bridge might be cancelled. Thank you.
We know that sometimes it is essential to have your mobile phone on for emergencies but please could you please make sure that it is on silent/vibration mode. For ladies this can be difficult as they do not always have a pocket to keep it in but do your best. Thank you.
Would anyone be interested in purchasing glasses and tumblers from the 1998 World Cup in France? George found them in his home and presented them to the Club but I feel they are worthy of a better destiny. Please make your offers to me.
Finally, my thanks to Malcolm who is also retiring from the Committee. Not only has he been Chief Director and Chairman (sometimes as a dual role) during his ‘reign’, but he has looked after the website, produced interminable statistics and been a very helpful advisor to me. He will be much missed on the Committee but I am sure he will still be the willing soul he is and give of his advice when needed. Good luck, Malcolm and have a well deserved rest from the Committee.
We welcome to the club Robin Griffiths, Tarun Badiani, Mark & Cindy Gregory, Inu Kassam and Nigel Matthew.
Andrew Barnett had phoned me
with the dubious suggestion of playing in the Eastbourne Seniors Swiss pairs an
event for which I was shocked to hear I qualified.
We played above ourselves and
rode our luck, but lost in round 5 and drew the leaders and eventual winners in
round 6 recording a narrow win. Hoping for a decent finish but no realistic
chance of winning we continued to play solidly until the penultimate board came
up. Sitting West I picked up the
following hand:
|
♠ Q10 |
|
♥ K104 |
|
♦ AKQ954 |
|
♣ J2 |
The bidding was routine 1D 1S by
partner 1NT 2C (checkback) 2D 3NT.
The lead was the 5 of clubs and
partner bless him put down the following:
|
|
|
♠ J9852 |
|
|
|
♥ AQ6 |
|
|
|
♦ 7 |
|
|
|
♣ AK63 |
Plan the play.
All pretty routine. We have
avoided the slam and are sitting better than those pairs that might have bid 1D
1S 2/3D 3NT. In teams we just run the 4th highest lead round to our
Jack and 9 tricks are in the bag. However this is pairs.
It seemed opportune to run the
lead to my Jack anyway this duly won, what now? The choices are;
a) cash the diamonds when they
break 3-3 we have 12 tricks, if not we only make 10.
b) play on spades guaranteeing
11 tricks.
In golf needing a birdie at the
17th we go for it, here I had no idea that the wrong ‘guess?’ would
cost us dear. I chose b) thinking this
would produce a reasonable score, regrettably we only got 53/118 match points.
Somebody of course bid and made 6NT don’t they always, as the diamonds did
break 3/3. 12 tricks would have scored 106 and might have converted a 17-3 win
into a 20-0 and the title as we eventually finished 3vps behind the winners who
we had previously beaten.
This is an
illustration of the frustrations of the game or is it the beauty? In that one
has no idea of the running score until after one has finished. Everyone has a
chance and you need a slice of good fortune to go with good play to win any
event.
Playing in a recent Gold Cup match I was in 3NT with no adverse bidding with the following.
♠ 1032
N (dummy) ♥ A
♦ A8653
♣AJ94
S (declarer) ♠ KQ9
♥ K1083
♦ K972
♣K5
On the lead of the heart 5, with East encouraging with the 7, how do you play 3NT after winning with the Ace? With plenty of points and stops, making the contract seems easy. A natural line seems to be to clear the diamonds (making at once, with 5 diamond tricks and 2 in hearts and clubs, if they are 2-2), but is this correct? My concern with this approach is illustrated by what happened in the other room, where West, holding ♦J104, won the third round and continued with the heart 2 to partner’s Queen. The likely heart division was 5-3 with the leader holding J9xxx. If you win, as declarer did, you go down (as happened) if you play a spade and East holds the spade Ace, and taking the club finesse (though it worked and gives 9 tricks – 4 diamonds, 3 clubs and 2 hearts) is no safer. If you duck, you go off when West holds the spade Ace.
The better play, which I was awake enough to find, was to play a spade to the King at trick 2. In the event, East ducked his Ace and I was now able to clear diamonds for nine tricks. Had East risen with the Ace and played the heart Q, I would have ducked once and won the next round, and would then be much better placed, with good chances to duck the diamond to the safe hand, East. Taking the diamond suit in isolation, the best way of doing this is to play a small diamond from the table, making when East has a stiff Q (when you duck) or when East has two or three diamonds. However crossing to table loses chances in the club suit, so better is to play a low diamond from hand, covering if West plays low, otherwise playing Ace then King. If West has the remaining diamond, one can then resort to playing the King of clubs and a club to the Jack, making 9 tricks if it wins. If West were to beat the spade King with the Ace, one still has good chances by winning the heart Queen and trying to develop the diamonds to keep East out, or ducking one round and trying to develop the diamonds to keep West out. Note that where development of the diamonds does not work, one still makes if the finesses against the club Queen and spade Jack both work.
This hand is a good illustration of thinking at the start of the hand, and trying to project how the play might go with the various alternative options.