European Youth Teams Championship - Match 9 vs Netherlands

At the not-quite-halfway stage we are sitting just above Ireland. Here is the full table:

The top eight teams (in bold) qualify for the upcoming world-championship in Italy, maybe top nine if Italy qualify as looks likely. It will be interesting to see if England can claw themselves back into the mix. However, it's clear at this stage the real battle shaping up is between the bottom two. We meet head-to-head on Monday.

Both teams have been inching along. Today Ireland took five VPs from Israel, a great result.

As we (they) are half way through the tournament the teams have started to mix a bit more socially.  Game of badminton anyone? 

This morning we face Netherlands and then Italy. 

Being the only pair who plays a weak NT I was hoping this might give us an edge. I was speaking to the Dutch pair who weren't playing and they weren't too concerned about it. "12-14, many pairs play 9-12!" 

On the very first board their methods were tested, and the Dutch East-West were forced into a shaky game:

Our South (Michael) opened the weak NT and West doubled for penalties. We play that all two level bids are natural escapes so North (Donald) tried 2♠. East made a takeout double and West had a punt at 4♥. Luckily for him (we were robbed) 4♥ has good play and made exactly.

On the other table they opened the Dutch North-South played 2♠. Our East (Tamsin) found the best lead of the Jack of Diamonds, which ought to lead to six losers for declarer, but somehow he made it. Two good results gave the Dutch an 11-0 lead.

I was watching this with the incoming NPC Alisdair MacLeod (who takes over from me today) and from watching another match we assumed this board would be flat, before the result popped up and we saw the game swing for Netherlands. Not surprisingly, they were the only pair to bid 4♥ here.

The Dutch followed that up by making a delicate 3NT that we failed at - these sorts of hands are so important but very difficult to discuss afterwards as it takes a good memory and a lot of effort to work through the defence and declarer play, so I guess we'll never know why we lost another 10 here.

However, after Italy overbid and Jamie made a 3NT that went down on the other table (good lead Donald), we were briefly ahead.

I was watching the featured match of Italy-Israel, as we are playing Italy later and their team features the great Giovanni Donati, a young bridge professional who has partnered all the Italian greats. The Italians weren't messing around and were close to finishing when we were just over half way. This was some good defence:

The Italian East opened 1♣. Your bid as South?

The Israeli South bid 3NT, my choice too. This has eight tricks, with the chance of a ninth in Spades.

At the table the Ten of Clubs was led. This means East could safely play a low Club and preserve his King. Declarer crossed to dummy to lead a Spade up. This looked promising, as East grabbed his Ace. Declarer now has nine tricks (1 Spade, 7 Diamonds, 1 Club). The problem is the defence have five tricks (1 Spade, 2 Hearts, 2 Clubs). It's not always easy to cash all these tricks but the Italians did it no problem, leading to 3NT-1.

What about when our teams played the hand?

Well done Michael for also getting to 3NT as South. This got the Four of Clubs lead from West (not the Ten). There's no record of the play but I imagine this low Club lead caused East to waste his King of Clubs, and now the contract is cold. Still needs some good play.

Unfortunately on the other table we also led a low Club, and conceded 3NT. Not quite defending at the level of Donati yet.

Still, I'll take a flat board.

Overall we lost by 59-26.

Round 9 Victory Points: 3.1

Total VPS so far: 20.42 (17th place)

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