THE 20th NEC BRIDGE FESTIVAL
Hosted by Japan Contract Bridge League
Supported by NEC Corporation
February 10 – February 15, 2015
At Pacifico Yokohama, Yokohama City, Japan
Official Site Teams and Players Results Daily Bulletins
Saturday 14th 2015
Hackett Victorious in the 2015 NEC Cup
This is a popourri of boards from the NEC 2015 final between Hackett and England / Netherlands.
The finals feature regular teammates for the England team taking on one another. The two Davids, Gold and Bakhshi, and the Hacketts are part of the current Bermuda Bowl team; Brian Senior along with Gunnar Hallberg and John Holland have all been on England and GB teams over the last two decades. Some of them have progressed to the Senior teams now, but they remain at the very top of the competitive tree. Of course the Davids’ teammates, Ricco van Prooijen and Louk Verhees won the Bermuda Bowl in 2011 and remain regular members of the Dutch national team. A good, highly competitive match was expected.
Este es un extracto de algunas de las manos de la final elegidas para ser publicadas en el boletin oficial, la final fueron 4 segmentos de 16 tablillas cada uno:
Segment 4: Board 62 Dlr East, Vul None
Hackett unearthed the club fit, went past 3NT, found a cue-bid and tried for slam denying a heart control. Senior promised a heart control and simultaneously denied a spade card by passing 4
x, and Hackett had heard enough, assuming that the spade loser might go on hearts or diamonds. A man can dream, can’t he?
Well, with trumps 2-2, he was absolutely right in his prediction; we will forgive him for missing the grand slam. It was 120-102 now and there were just two boards to come. Rich Colker was writing the
headlines, the silversmith was designing the medals, but The Alliance was not prepared to hear the fat
lady sing.
We do not have the detailed system files to know if Verhees was specifically making a club slam try (we think so) or if 3
somehow rejected a club effort. Facing a 14-16 notrump West doesn’t have a drive past 3NT but we think East has pretty good trumps, controls and a potential ruffing value, albeit in a minimum — but a jackless one.
Segment 3: Board 47 Dealer: South N/S: Vul
Holland’s initial pass had the rather random effect of right-siding van Prooijen’s game. After a top spade lead nine tricks were by no means cold but declarer was far closer than he might have been. He won, led a heart to the jack and a heart to the king as Hallberg echoed to show an even number and Holland ducked twice. Yes, the winning defense is to win and play a third heart. But since South was a passed hand and the tempo of the earlier play had made it clear who had the 
A, van Prooijen unblocked clubs and led a diamond toward his king with hearts still blocked.When the 
K scored declarer claimed nine tricks for a 10-imp pick-up since Gold’s spade lead against 3NT by North had set up the fifth winner for the defense immediately. It was 82-80 now for Hackett.
Segment 2: Board 28 Dealer: South N/S: Vul
The club suit got lost in the Open Room’s checkback auction so when Hackett did not find secondary spade support he simply invited with 2 and Senior carried on with his super-max. Once again the pair did not have to pay so severely for not investigating for alternate strains. But Hackett did not have to be balanced and Senior did not really have the “goods” as far as stoppers in the red suits were concerned (though he was certainly balanced — which is not to be taken as a clinical diagnosis). Perhaps a 3 bid by someone would have saved the day here but this was not that day and the contract was tenuous at best. Van Prooijen led the 2, Verhees contributing the four, and Senior cashed three rounds of clubs before playing A and a spade up. When the queen lost to the king he knew this was not going to be his day. The defense now cashed their three diamonds and two spades for down two, –200.
In the Closed Room the 1NT opening allowed South to show his two suits efficiently and now the pair cuebid to 5, which was cold. The hand virtually played itself once Bakhshi guessed to duck the second spade; +600 and 13 more imps to Eng/Neth, who now led by 14 at 55-41.
Segment 1: Board 4 Dealer: South N/S: Vul
Where David Gold held the East cards his combination of doubling then bidding 3 showed better than an invitation in that suit. Bakhshi wasn’t interested in bidding on but he found that 3 was too challenging to make against the lie of the black suits and the 5-0 trump break. There were two hearts, two clubs and an inevitable spade to lose.
Meanwhile, against 3NT Verhees led a low club and the jack scored as van Prooijen gave count. Senior led a low spade to the ten and if Verhees had ducked he would surely have defeated the game (as the cards lie) since declarer had no legitimate route to a ninth winner without giving up a spade, which would have let North pitch a discouraging diamond or an encouraging heart. Verhees took the K and (as the Bulletin Editor who was defending single-dummy did) exited with a spade. This would only be wrong if East had all the soft red-suit honors and no A. Step forward with that precise hand, Mr Senior. Declarer now had nine winners and took no time at all to cash them; 12 imps to Hackett, up 14-6.
A subsequent question elicited the fact that South might have drawn the inference from Senior’s delayed 3NT bid with both black-suits well-stopped that he did indeed have a hand with a diamond fit and thus some playing strength.