England - Germany 3:4

By Stefan Back

Although England scored a convincing 21:9 - victory over Germany in round 14, the Germans had their moments as well. On board 11 Tomasz Gotard and Josef Piekarek, winners of the Schiphol Teams 2002, found a defence that - at the time - could have been a prediction of the score of the soccer world cup final between these two countries. (We think you mean 4-3 Stefan! Editor)

Board 11. Dealer South. None Vul.
	ª A Q 10 3 2 © K 6 2 ¨ 8 7 3 2 § Q
ª J 6 © 10 7 ¨ A Q 10 6 4 § 9 7 4 2		ª K 8 4 © Q J 5 4 ¨ J 9 5 § A 6 5
	ª 9 7 5 © A 9 8 3 ¨ K § K J 10 8 3

West	North	East	South
Piekarek	P. Hackett	Gotard	Waterlow
			1§
1¨	1ª	Dble	Rdble
2¨	2ª	3¨	Pass
Pass	4ª	All Pass

After Gotard had led ¨9 to the king, ace and 7, Piekarek returned ©10 to declarers king. North continued with §Q to East's ace, who now played back ©Q to the ace. After §KJ, North discarding a heart and a diamond, declarer called for dummy's ©8.

	ª A Q 10 3 2 © - ¨ 8 3 § -
ª J 6 © - ¨ Q 10 6 4 § 7		ª K 8 4 © J 5 ¨ J 5 § -
	ª 9 7 5 © 9 8 ¨ - § 10 8

Piekarek ruffed high with ªJ, declarer overruffed with the queen and East contributed ©J (!) to make sure West ruffed the next heart. North then ruffed ¨3 and played his winning heart from dummy. Piekarek knew to insert ª6, which declarer had to overruff with ª10 to be able to trump his last diamond in dummy.

	ª A 3 2 © - ¨ - § -
ª - © - ¨ Q 10 § 7		ª K 8 4 © - ¨ - § -
	ª 9 © - ¨ - § 10 8

Declarer continued with ª9 to his ª2 and East's king. East's ª8 now forced out North's ace, which meant that the last trick "saw" the final score:

England: ª 3
Germany: ª 4

Down one and a perfect trump promotion, which led to a 6 IMP gain for the Germans, when in the other room North/South scored a part score in spades.

Match Winner

This deal from Round 14 gave a former Bulletin Editor a chance to write his own story.

Board 8. Dealer West. None Vul.
	ª J 10 9 7 © J 8 5 2 ¨ 2 § 7 4 3 2
ª 4 2 © K Q 7 4 ¨ K 10 8 5 § A Q J		ª K Q 8 6 3 © A 9 ¨ A Q 4 3 § 8 5
	ª A 5 © 10 6 3 ¨ J 9 7 6 § K 10 9 6

West	North	East	South
Mraz	Ratcliff	Kurka	Jourdain
1¨	Pass	1ª	Pass
1NT	Pass	2§*	Dble
2¨*	Pass	3¨	Pass
3NT	Pass	4¨	Pass
4©	Pass	4NT*	Pass
5©	Pass	6¨	All Pass

Two Clubs redoubled would have been a pleasant spot for East /West but South survived his ambitious entry into the auction.

North naturally led a club to the king and ace and declarer played the five of diamonds for the two, ace and nine. Declarer now played the three of diamonds from dummy and when South followed with the six he went into deep thought before eventually playing the king and conceding one down.

Tomas Mraz recalled that he had attended the junior camp in Fiesch some years ago when Patrick Jourdain was one of the lecturers. He turned to Patrick and said, 'You were giving me lessons then and you are still giving me lessons now!'

It gave Wales 11IMPs as the result at the other table was 3NT+3 - and they only won the match 58-41.

When the Faroe Islands caused a sensation

By Svend Novrup

The Faroe Islands is situated in the North Atlantic and has a population of around 45,000 inhabitants. Its has its own parliament but being in a union with Denmark it was not until 1980 that the bridge federation of the Faroes which was founded in the sixties was allowed to participate in the Nordic Championships. This was a tough task as the three Scandinavian countries and Iceland are of big general strength, and ahead of these championships the Faroes had defeated Denmark five times and Finland once as their only victories.

Eight months ago it was decided to try and make the European Championships. The costs were huge and seemingly completely out of reach but splendid support from Giannarrigo Rona and the Italian Bridge Federation (sponsoring expenses in Salsomaggiore) cut down the amount so much that with support of Landsstyret (the Faroe "government") and several sponsors in addition to hard work from the players, raising about 20,000 euros themselves, in the end made it possible for two teams to enter.

The determined work started in November with the decision to ban any drinking of alcohol during the training as well as the weeks of the championships and a decision to work on the physical and mental side as well as the bridge. Friends in Denmark set up a four country event over Easter in Graasten, Denmark, in which both Faroe teams met with Denmark, Sweden, and Germany. An invitation to the Bonn Nations Cup followed, and here the team defeated Sweden 21-9 and Czech Republic 25-5 as the best of several good results which boosted their confidence. These experiences were of great value, and it was two very motivated teams which arrived in Salsomaggiore ready to show great determination but also wanting to show that they can go through the full event with three functioning pairs in both series and be just as fresh at the finish as in the beginning.

It was a tough start, 0-25 against Italy but they did not expect much there, and now they sort of got the feel of the championship. After 9-21 against Czech Republic and 11-19 against Lebanon they even started to win: 20-10 against Portugal and 19-11 against Slovenia. Already at this point the results made headlines at home. Following nice results like 10-20 against France and Israel they were ready to deliver a real blow: 18-12 against Russia.

In the meantime the women had started. The Faroe ladies team had lost 47 out of 48 matches ahead of Salsomaggiore but now got off to a 15-15 against Czech Republic followed by a sensational win against the Venice Cup silver team from France - in the same round as the open victory against Russia. Can you imagine what it means to a tiny nation to defeat Russia and France at the same time in the same sport? The players are now media stars, and others may just as well take note of them:

Open: Bogi Simonsen - Roi Joensen, Hedin Mouritzen - Joannes Mouritzen, Arnbjoern Sivertsen - Hans-Jacob Petersen. Npc: Finn Ougaard.

Ladies: Marjun Restorff - Arnleyg Mikkelsen, Laila Danielsen - Maria Christiansen, Majken Johansen - Jona Grunnveit. Npc: Mortan Rasmussen.

I am the coach of both teams and have been guiding their training since the start in November.
We have established a lot of Faroe records. Whenever Marjun (usually only first names are used in the Faroes) or Joannes play, they establish a new record of caps. Joannes started with 53 caps and will get to 75 before the finish. Marjun had 43 and celebrates her 50th cap Saturday, just to mention some of them.

A couple of hands. Against Poland Bogi - Roi had a dream of playing Balicki - Zmudzinski fulfilled, and they did so with no respect. They played a lot of very steady bridge, and already board four was very nice.

Board 4. Dealer West. All Vul.
	ª A K Q 10 4 2 © 9 6 2 ¨ K 9 § 8 3
ª - © Q J 10 5 4 ¨ 8 5 2 § A Q 10 7 4		ª J 5 © A 3 ¨ Q J 7 3 § J 9 6 5 2
	ª 9 8 7 6 3 © K 8 7 ¨ A 10 6 4 § K

West	North	East	South
Balicki	Bogi	Zmudzinski	Roi
2©*	2ª	Dble*	4ª
Pass	Pass	4NT*	Pass
5§	Pass	Pass	Dble
All Pass

The double of 2ª showed minors and 4NT carried the same message. North - South not only did their best by doubling but extracted the maximum penalty. ªA was ruffed by West who ran the © Q to ©K. Roi now brilliantly worked out that his partner held Kx in diamonds and switched to a low diamond. ¨K, ¨A, and a diamond ruff meant down two and 500 for the Faroes who never the less lost on the board when East-West did not sacrifice against 4ª at the other table.

The most amusing hand, however, was when Bogi tried a deceptive "comic NT" (not in the system)!

Board 7. Dealer South. All Vul.
	ª K 5 © 6 3 ¨ A K Q 8 4 3 § 10 8 6
ª A J 10 9 2 © Q ¨ J 6 2 § A J 3 2		ª 8 7 6 © A K 10 9 8 7 5 ¨ 9 § K 9
	ª Q 4 3 © J 4 2 ¨ 10 7 5 § Q 7 5 4

West	North	East	South
Balicki	Bogi	Zmudzinski	Roi
			Pass
1ª	1NT	Dble*	All Pass!

The double showed a hand with one long suit.

Now, opening with the fourth best of the longest suit could have netted East-West 1400 but when East cashed a top heart they could get no more than six tricks. Roi made certain that Bogi recognized how well it was that he had a heart stopper. +180 to the Faroes. In the other room E-W bid and made 4ª for another 620 to the Faroes. 13 IMPs to the islanders.