by Chris Larlham & Paul Barden
Ed: Having received enough material to fill a book, we've
combined Chris Larlham's and Paul Barden's articles into one.
As Catherine Ashment puts it:
Editors Jagger and Mestel
Request articles; then they molest all.
Putting commas in place,
Chopping bits for the space,
Then rewrite the rest till it reads well!
Apologies to both of them for butchering their articles!
Chris takes up the tale:
This year, Cambs & Hunts was able to field its first
choice team of 8 in the annual inter-county competition for the
Tollemache Cup. Paul Barden & Jonathan Mestel, David
Kendrick & Fiske Warren and Chris Jagger & Gareth
Roberts (3 of the 4 pairs who won the silver medal in 1995/96)
were joined by Giles Woodruff & John Young, the latter
having arrived on a free transfer from Northants.
Having failed to qualify for last year's final, the team
were unseeded and were drawn in group B. The final total of 124
VPs (77.5%) was the highest in the 4 groups; Yorkshire were
second in group B and the other qualifiers were Bedfordshire
and Warwickshire (Group A) London and Dorset (Group C) and Kent
and Northants (the latter on a split tie from the North East -
Group D). 12-board matches are played against each of the other
8 teams in a group, with each NS pair cross-imping with each EW
pair - so good and bad results count double. The first session
on Saturday afternoon consists of six half matches; on Saturday
evening two full matches are played and on Sunday the remaining
six half matches.
Here are a few hands from the first session on Saturday
afternoon. I spent the weekend watching Fiske Warren cope with
David Kendrick's less than orthodox style; the first session
was not their best. The second board accounted for more than
the ultimate margin of defeat:
At the Kendrick/Warren table the bidding started 1
-(3
)-3
whereafter East made a slam try before resting in
5, which would have been fine (6 making on a diamond guess) except that
Fiske decided to double the final contract for -750. The
opponents bid and made the slam against Giles and John, Paul
& Jonathan flattened the Kendrick/Warren result and Chris
& Gareth collected 50 from a club contract. The first half
of the match against Manchester resulted in a win by 57 IMPs,
with Jonathan finding a good false card.
Paul: Opponents had a Precision sequence to 3NT,
after Jonathan had overcalled in spades. I led a spade which
declarer won in dumy to run the J. I
fatuously ducked, but declarer continued hearts and I won and
we cleared the spades. Declarer cashed his hearts, and
Jonathan's first pitch was 9,
ostensibly encouraging. Declarer was sufficiently impressed to
try the diamond finesse for his ninth trick, so that was two
off.
Chris: The half-time score against Oxford was less
than happy: 56-105. Fortunately the first half of the match
against Cornwall was a bit of a rout with Cambs & Hunts
winning 111-14. Then against Wiltshire the following slam hand
came up.
Fiske opened an Acol 2 (every time
he did so there was an expectant glance from his LHO at David
who illustrated his failure to alert by raising his clenched
right fist in the air, rather like a black power salute); David
raised to 3 and bid 4 over Fiske's 3
rebid. This
was somewhat fatuously doubled by W and Fiske bid 5 over which David had nothing more to say than
5. Fiske was now concerned that David
had a wasted ace of hearts and that he had a diamond to lose as
well as a spade and passed; as David was not slow to point out,
had he passed the double of 4 he would
have discovered from Dave's failure to redouble that he didn't
hold the ace of hearts and must therefore hold the ace of
spades for his original raise to 3.
Fortunately the loss on the board was reduced by a double of
Giles & John's 6 contract that was
as insulting as the double of 4 had
been fatuous.
The half-time score was 64-34 to Cambs & Hunts, thanks
partly to a 3NT contract Chris & Gareth defeated:
Paul: The other three tables made 4, against us by North after a transfer sequence. Even
if a trump lead is found, declarer has only to guess the clubs,
and if he fails to do that he can hardly avoid squeezing West.
But at one table South just raised 2NT to 3NT. Gareth led a
club, declarer played the 10 from dummy, and Chris did well to
duck, and declarer now failed to find a ninth trick. In fact he
could always make his contract. Three rounds of hearts put West
under pressure, and he will do well to guess to pitch a
diamond. Now East continues clubs. North ducks the king and
wins the next club (discarding a diamond from dummy), then
leads the queen of diamonds, which West must duck. Now four
rounds of spades discarding dummy's hearts leave West on play
to concede the ninth trick to the king of diamonds.
Chris: Overnight, we were lying second, just behind
Yorkshire and with Berks & Bucks and Oxford close behind.
We immediately dropped another VP to Berks & Bucks. Against
Oxford we had a lot of ground to make up and after two quiet
boards Giles and John pulled back 20 IMPs when they found a
cheap save in 6x against 6:
|
|
|
South |
West |
North |
East |
| 1 |
X |
2 |
5 |
| P |
6 |
P |
P |
| P |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paul: All four tables had the same auction, but John
bid 6 which was doubled for -500.
Jonathan must have seen me flinch when North showed out on the
ace of clubs at trick two, because he dropped the king under
it. We picked up 71 to win the match 13-7, putting us in first
place and Oxford out of the running...
Chris: Against Cornwall, the target was a mere 12
IMPs for the 20th VP: 3 boards brought in 65 unanswered IMPs
and the only blemish was when both the Cornish pairs had no
difficulty in bidding and making 6NT. Paul & Jonathan
stopped in 4NT; Fiske told me that it was the sort of hand
where a good pair might well stay out of slam but he didn't
descend into detail so I can't tell you exactly why. Chris
& Gareth must have had an interesting auction because they
played in 6, making all 13 tricks when
both clubs and hearts were 3-3.
|
|
|
South |
West |
North |
East |
| P |
P |
2 |
P |
| 2 |
P |
2NT |
P |
| 3 |
P |
3 |
P |
| 4 |
P |
4 |
P |
| 4 |
P |
4NT |
P |
| 6 |
P |
P |
P |
|
|
|
Editors: This multi sequence showed 22-23 balanced,
and South showed five hearts and four clubs, some slam
interest. Over this, North has a problem - normally with a
misfit he would bid 4NT, but his AK holdings seemed too good,
so he bid 4, supposedly showing a fit
for at least one suit. 4 was a cue,
allowing partner to show what he had, and 4NT was non-forcing,
denying hearts, so inferentially showing clubs. Hence South
opted for the club slam. Paul and Jonathan had a similar
auction but bid 4NT instead of 4, and
North, with no fit, and already having shown slam interest,
decided to let matters rest there.
Paul: One interesting hand we didn't play that Tom
Townsend gave me:
Tom played in 6 with the South
cards after a 2 overcall by West. West
led the jack of diamonds round to the ace. The only danger here
is two trump tricks, and the standard safety play here is to
cash the king then play a club to the eight, or if West shows
out on the second round rise with the ace and lead a club
towards the jack. But that wouldn't work here since East with
Q10xx in clubs could win the third round and force declarer in
diamonds. Tom found the ingenious variation of cashing K then crossing to A to lead a club towards J95. East, suitably impressed,
took his doubleton queen of clubs and gave West a heart
ruff.
Chris: Into the home straight against Wiltshire and
Yorkshire, Wiltshire being also Yorkshire's other match.
Provided we didn't have any disasters we were sure to qualify
in that Yorkshire could gain at most 1 VP from Wiltshire. We
had an overnight lead of 14-6 which was turned into a
comprehensive 20-0 with 102 unanswered IMPs on three boards. We
also hung on (just) to our 11-9 overnight lead against
Yorkshire.
The team were a pleasure to captain, maintaining their good
humour despite the odd setback and rarely needing the services
of the TD. Let's hope they can go one better in the final next
February.