The best form of defence The Welland team is here to defend ts title from two years ago in Menton. It is probably a commentary on man’s inhumanity to man (or more specifically to wife) that the team has continued to line up in the partnerships it employed in Menton, namely the Rosenbergs in tandem, but Roy Welland with Jill Levin and Crystal Henner-Welland. This group of six promised to be a tough one. A Czech and Italian team might be less formidable than some, but the other three teams were clearly going to be a challenge. Zimmermann was packed with French internationals, as was a team including Mmes Cronier and Lustin with Paul Hackett as well. Michael and Debbie Rosenberg lined up against Ilan Herbst and Roni Barr of Israel with Jan van Cleeff at the other table. The first five deals produced little in the way of IMPs one way or the other. Then came: Dealer East, E/W Vul.   ♠ J 3 ♥ K 4 ♦ 9 ♣ Q J 10 9 8 6 5 3 ♠ 9 8 2 ♥ 10 8 5 3 ♦ A K 7 3 ♣ A 4 ♠ 10 7 6 4 ♥ A Q J 7 ♦ Q J 8 ♣ K 7   ♠ A K Q 5 ♥ 9 6 2 ♦ 10 6 5 4 2 ♣ 2 West North East South Michael Herbst Ilan Barr     1♦ Pass 1♥ 4♣ Pass Pass Dble Pass 4♥ All Pass Ilan had no reason to find the spade lead here. His choice of a diamond ran round to Michael Rosenberg’s ace, and a heart to the queen for a club to the ace and a second heart up saw the cards lying as well as could possibly have been hoped for. The defence took their spade winners at the end, for +420 to E/W. In the other room East opened a nebulous Dutch club, and Crystal overcalled one spade. Now when E/W reached 4] the spade lead saw South overtake to lead three more rounds of the suit and promote the ]K into the setting trick. Three boards later Ilan was in the hot seat again. Dealer North, E/W Vul.   ♠ A Q 3 ♥ A K 4 ♦ K 2 ♣ A 8 6 4 2 ♠ 10 9 7 2 ♥ Q 8 ♦ 6 4 3 ♣ K Q 5 3 ♠ J 5 ♥ J 10 6 5 ♦ A 10 7 5 ♣ 10 9 7   ♠ K 8 6 4 ♥ 9 7 3 2 ♦ Q J 9 8 ♣ J West North East South 2NT Pass 3♣ Pass 3♦ Pass 3NT All Pass       A Puppet Stayman auction had suggested dummy would put down both majors. Even so, I’m not sure many players would have duplicated Debbie Rosenberg’s lead of the {5. Herbst put on dummy’s eight, and when it held the trick he thought long and hard about what to do next. From my seat on the sidelines I was sure the right line was to overtake and lead a diamond to the nine. Perhaps Ilan was not prepared to assume Rosenberg could not have ducked smoothly from 1043 (notice how effective that play is whether declarer has Kx or Ax!). Anyway, he let the diamond eight hold, and let a diamond to the king, which also held. Now he was in the wrong hand to establish diamonds, so he ducked a club to West as east followed with the ten, and back came a low spade. He won the queen and now had reached the crossroads. He could succeed by ducking another club, thereby getting to test both black suits. Instead he chose to lead three rounds of hearts. East won and played back the spade jack, and declarer was dead now. In the other room Bobby Levin as North got a low heart lead to the queen, which he won in hand with the ace to play a diamond to the queen and a diamond to the king and ace. When east returned the heart jack Levin could build an extra heart trick easily enough for his ninth trick. In another match Alain Levy played 3NT on a low heart lead. He won to advance the {K, ducked, followed by another diamond to the {Q. now he led a low heart from dummy, and ducked the ]8. East failed to overtake, so West won the eight, and continued with the [10 – another subtle error. Levy needed no more help: he won in hand and ducked a club to the jack and queen, then ducked the club return round to East.   ♠ Q 3 ♥ K ♦ --- ♣ A 8 6 ♠ 9 7 2 ♥ --- ♦ 6 ♣ Q 5 ♠ J ♥ J 10 ♦ A 10 ♣ 10   ♠ K 8 6 ♥ 9 7 ♦ J 9 ♣ --- in this ending, back came the ]J, which had the effect of squeezing West out of his remaining diamond. Levy won and cashed the spade queen and the club ace then exited with his fourth club, endplaying West to lead diamonds into the tenace. As it happened, the match against the Czech squad turned out to be relatively flat in the eight middle boards of the set, Welland picking up two small swings and losing one. But the first and last deal produced excitement. Dealer North, Love all.   ♠ Q 10 9 8 ♥ A 7 ♦ A Q 10 4 ♣ A J 4 ♠ K ♥ K J 2 ♦ J 9 8 7 6 3 2 ♣ 3 2 ♠ 7 6 5 ♥ Q 5 3 ♦ K ♣ K Q 10 9 8 5   ♠ A J 4 3 2 ♥ 10 9 8 6 4 ♦ 5 ♣ 7 6 West North East South 1♦ 3♣ Pass Pass Dble. Pass 3♠ Pass 4♠ All Pass   Before the first trick had been completed, the Tournament Director was at the table. South’s action over the double had been decidedly slow, and the question was raised as to whether that had conveyed Unauthorised Information to North, thus preventing a raise to 4[. This seems a legitimate point; it turned out to be moot though, since declarer won the club lead and passed the [10, then ruffed the third club high and drew a second trump to find the bad news. Now ]A and another heart put West on play with the ]J for a low diamond through dummy. At this point in the hand declarer had to take the diamond finesse. There were no longer enough entries to the South hand to take advantage of the 3-3 heart break. It was a little unlucky that the 7-1 diamond break produced the one lie of the cards that meant that taking the diamond finesse would lead to defeat. But in a sense it was not THAT unlucky. Debbie Rosenberg also played 4[ (after a 2} overcall by East she doubled and North drove to game). On a club lead she won the }A and played ]A and another heart. She ruffed the third club with the [J, overruffed with the [K, then won the diamond shift with the {A. when the {K fell she could lead out the {Q and claim ten tricks, being able to overruff East and set up hearts comfortably enough. The final deal exemplified the benefit of the slow approach over the fast. Dealer North, N/S Vul.   ♠ A K Q 9 7 5 ♥ K J ♦ J 2 ♣ 10 6 3 ♠ 10 4 3 ♥ 5 2 ♦ A K Q 8 5 4 ♣ Q J ♠ J 6 ♥ A Q 6 4 ♦ 10 9 7 ♣ A K 9 4   ♠ 8 2 ♥ 10 9 8 7 3 ♦ 6 3 ♣ 8 7 5 2 Roy Welland Jill Levin West North East South 1♣ Pass 1♦ 1♠ Dble.(1) Pass 2♠ Dble. Pass Pass 3♦ Pass 3♥ Pass 4♣ Pass 5♦ All Pass (1) 4 hearts Welland drove to game at his second turn and found out immediately that his partner had a balanced hand, probably with no spade stop. When Levin bid 3] at her third turn she could not even have half a spade stop, so 5{ became the obvious contract. Again, although this was clearly the best game, three rounds of spades required North to hold the {J, rather less than a 50-50 chance, but the cards cooperated. In any event, Welland was going to gain on the hand even if 5{ had gone down; since in the other room E/W bid 1}-3NT; North was not tested on opening lead, so 3NT was down two. (as matter of general strategy once South passes over 1} you are unlikely to gain by jumping to 3NT on unsuitable hands –since North is far more likely now to be the player with the long suit on lead.) The two game swings on these two boards gave Welland close to the maximum, and left them in excellent shape with one match to go. Going into the final match of the day the defenders, Welland, were well placed, needing only to avoid a blitz to ensure qualification. In fact they administered one, with Bobby Levin and Crystal Henner-Welland having a very nice card. This was a decision that Bobby Levin faced. He held:   ♠ J 1086 ♥ A 107 ♦ A 985 ♣ J 10 And heard his partner open 1] in third seat. After a 1[ overcall he bid 2], passed round to his RHO, who bid 3{. He doubled for penalties, but his partner ran to 3], passed round to his LHO, who balanced with 3[. What should he do now? Levin correctly realized that the combination of his RHO passing 3{x and then balancing with 3[ suggested he had 2-3 in spades and diamonds. Since his partner had run from 3{x she had to be short in diamonds. So he doubled and led the{A and followed up with the {9. This was the full story: Dealer North, N/S Vul.   ♠ J 10 8 6 ♥ A 10 7 ♦ A 9 8 5 ♣ J 10 ♠ A K 9 7 3 ♥ 4 ♦ K Q 10 6 4 ♣ 7 2 ♠ Q 5 ♥ 6 5 3 2 ♦ J 7 2 ♣ A 9 6 5   ♠ 4 2 ♥ K Q J 9 8 ♦ 3 ♣ K Q 8 4 3 West North East South Pass Pass 1♥ 1♠ 2♥ Pass Pass 3♦ Dble. Pass 3♥ Pass Pass 3♠ Pass Pass Dble. All Pass   The defence took the first four tricks via two diamond ruffs and still had a club and a spade to come for +300. While 4] cannot be defeated thanks to the fact that West has a singleton heart and doubleton club rather than the other way round, this was still a decent result and was actually a partscore pick-up at the table.

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