| 1st European Open Bridge Championships | Page 5 | Bulletin 14 - Saturday, 28 June 2003 |
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Eyes on the
Prize
Going into the final four sessions of the Open Pairs, Americans Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell were leading – and attracting attention. They were first up on the vugraph presentation, and they made a second appearance before the first final session was completed. When all was said and done, they were still in the lead, by a bit more than 2 percentage points. As usual with the two, often referred to collectively as Meckwell, there was lots of action at their table. Rodwell started the day by making an overtrick in 1NT for 39 out of 50 matchpoints. On the second deal, against Alain Levy and Michel Bessis, a less-than-robust raise by Levy got the pair too high.
Levy’s feather-light raise did not provide the dummy Bessis needed. Just one more queen, perhaps that of clubs, would have been sufficient. As it was, nine tricks was the limit and Bessis was minus 50. The Americans were off to a good start with another 36 MPs. The next four rounds were not so kind, and the leaders dropped into second place with a total of 58 matchpoints out of a possible 200. Their comeback began on the following deal.
1NT was ostensibly 14-16, but as vugraph commenator Eric Kokish pointed out earlier in the day, some 13-point hands get upgraded, as was Meckstroth’s on this occasion. It served the pair well, guiding the spade contract to the South hand. West started with his singleton trump, taken in dummy. Meckstroth cashed the other top spade and ran five rounds of hearts, discarding all of dummy’s diamonds. The defenders got only a club and the high spade. Plus 650 was worth all of the matchpoints. Meckstroth played well on the following deal in an awkward spot to land his contract.
2§ showed a good hand but not necessarily a fit for the overcalled suit. With a void in each hand, notrump was not an ideal spot, but Meckstroth handled it adroitly. West started with a low diamond to the king and ace, and Meckstroth returned a diamond to dummy’s 8. A third round of diamonds was ducked by West. Meckstroth, in his hand, played a low heart, ducking when West played the queen. West cashed the ¨Q and East, who had discarded the §10 and ª3 on the second and third rounds of diamonds, now discarded the §3. West continued with the ©K, taken in dummy with the ace, and Meckstroth played the ©9 to East’s jack, West discarding a club. It seems best for East to stick North in by returning a heart to dummy’s 10, forcing him to lead away from the ªK, but West has an awkward discard on the fourth round of hearts. If he pitches a club, declarer can play a low spade from dummy, losing two spades but no other tricks. East can win the ª10, but if East returns a club, the ace and king will drop West’s queen. If West discards a spade, declarer can lead any spade from dummy. If West wins the queen, he will be endplayed after cashing the ace. If he wins the ace and sticks declarer back in dummy with the queen, dummy’s spots are good enough to overcome East’s length. All that was moot, however, because East returned a club.
Meckstroth cashed the high clubs and put West in with the queen.
West had to give dummy two of the last three tricks. Plus 120 was
good for 34.44 matchpoints. On most occasions when you play 4ª doubled, making, it’s very close to a top. Not in a field such as the Open Pairs in Menton. Have a look:
There was nothing East-West could do. Meckstroth lost two spades and a club for plus 790, but only 31 MPs. Sixteen other pairs recorded the same score, and there were two lower-level spade contracts that were doubled, making with overtricks, of course. Still, you don’t sneeze at 62% of the matchpoints. Consider the poor South players who went undoubled in 4ª. Plus 620 was a mere 13 out of 50 MPs. The Americans received another gift on Board 14 when a defender against Meckstroth’s 3© ducked the setting trick, winding up minus 140 for about 7 MPs when taking the trick would have given his side a score four times higher. By the end of round seven, Meckstroth and Rodwell had rehabilitated their game, which at one point stood at 44%, to nearly 61%. The next four boards were two bad ones and two averages. It was time for another rally. As it happened, it occurred in round 11 against the pair sitting second to Meckstroth and Rodwell after the 10th round – French stars Michel Abecassis and Jean-Christophe Quantin.
The previous day, Meckstroth had played 3NT with the heart suit wide open, but the opponent on lead had a more attractive suit to start proceedings with. That happened to let the contract through with overtricks. Quantin might have been similarly lucky – he has nine tricks if he can gain the lead in time -- although on this occasion Meckstroth could lead his partner’s suit but would have to switch to something else at trick two. Meckstroth cut out the middleman by simply leading his best suit, to devastating effect. On the lead of the §9, Quantin put up the queen in desperation, but Rodwell won the ace and returned the 3, Quantin discarding a diamond. Meckstroth won the §10, unblocked the ©A and returned a club to Rodwell, who won the jack, cashed the ©K and went back to clubs. Meckstroth and Rodwell had the first seven tricks for plus 150 and 43 MPs. They did even better on the next deal.
Rodwell’s 2¨ was alerted as showing a “decent” three-card heart raise. North-South can make game – indeed, 11 of the 26 pairs bid game in hearts or notrump. Had Abecassis passed 3©, the likely minus 170 would have been worth 32 MPs for his side. The void in hearts and long suit were too tempting, however, so Abecassis tried one more time. Meckstroth expressed his doubts, and Rodwell started with a low heart to the jack and queen, ruffed in the closed hand. West played a low club, ducked by Rodwell to Meckstroth’s king, and the defense was deadly accurate from there. Meckstroth switched to the ª3, to the queen and ace, and when declarer played dummy’s diamond, Meckstroth hopped up with the ace, played a spade to Rodwell’s king, ruffed the spade return and played a club to Rodwell’s ace. Rodwell still had the ª10 to cash for plus 800 and 49 out of 50 MPs. On the penultimate round, the Americans were slightly below average (they doubled 1ª for penalty but could not manage more than plus 500 against their vulnerable game). The final round – a wild one – improved the American’s score, but it could have been better.
1§ was Precision, 1© showed 8+ HCP and five or more spades or 11-13 balanced. 2¨ showed the latter. West had reason to double both of Meckstroth’s artificial bids, with strong holdings in both suits. When East stuck his nose in with 2ª, Meckstroth had visions of a big number for the plus column of his scorecard. It got better when West ran to the three level, and even in their nine-card heart fit, East-West were going for at least 500. Rodwell, however, pulled the double to 3ª and Meckstroth had to settle for the notrump game. He made 11 tricks easily enough on a heart lead for an above-average score, but plus 500 would have been worth 46 MPs. The final deal of the set also featured lots of action.
West obviously was encouraged by his partner’s redouble – perhaps he envisioned East with the ¨A K x, in which case his hand would be worth seven tricks. It is interesting to note that only a club lead defeats 3NT – it is necessary to remove the entry to the diamonds, since South can hold up his king to cut declarer off. Whether Meckstroth would have found the lead will never be known since East ran from the double. Lesser players might have doubled simply from being in the rhythm of doing so, but not Meckstroth. The contract could not be defeated, so the Americans were minus 130, but they scored 36 to end their session still in first place with a 58.32% game. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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