Australia: 2014 National Open Teams 4th Final Set

January Sunday 26th: The  South-West Pacific Teams Championship (NOT 2014): [ilink url=”http://www.bridgeaustralia.org/teammemberlist.asp?id=603″] All the Teams and players[/ilink]

The Lorentz and Milne teams played the 2014 Australian NOT Final.

Finally the Milne team is the 2014 Champion. 

LORENTZ (1) GABI LORENTZ – STEPHEN BURGESS – PAUL MARSTON – ASHLEY BACH – MATTHEW THOMSON – PABLO LAMBARDI

MILNE (3)LIAM MILNE – NYE GRIFFITHS – ANDY HUNG – ADAM EDGTTON – ISHMAEL DEL’MONTE – PETER HOLLANDS

Final Results:

The Lorentz team began the 4th set 46 IMPs behind the champion. In the first board Milne added another 6 imps, but in the next 5 boards Lorentz won 38 IMPs. Now the match was 135-121.

With only 3 boards to finish the championship, the difference was of 14 IMPs. In Board 30, Milne team played a non vul game where Lorentz team only played a partscore and as the last two boards were a push, Milne stayed with the title. 

 But no doubt, the most dramatic board of the set was Board 28:

Dealer West;  N/S Vulnerable

Bach opened 1NT and Griffiths interfere with 2. Marston without anesthesia declared the 6 slam, West sacrificed in 6 and Bach doubled. Declarer was 3 down = -500.

 The other table was in a different universe:

Hollands opened 1 and Lambardi chose to mention his diamonds to indicate a posible lead.

Ishmael Del’Monte showed his heart suit and Thomson quickly occupied the 5th level with a 5 bid. After two pass Ishmael closed the club slam. North tanked, he wanted to change to a heart contract but finally decided to pass.

When the bidding was dying Lambardi sacrificed in 6 and now South climbed to 7.

Again Lambardi compited with 7, Ishmael now passed waiting for his partner decision. Hollands chose to play the heart grand slam and Lambardi doubled (Lightner) showing a void… the double ended the bidding…

For all the kibitzers Lambardi’s double obviously showed a club void …But we had the advantage of watching the 4 hands … 🙄

Lead: Q

The Q lead gave declarer the opportunity to make his contract and to define the match. Ishmael won the lead in his hand with the A, Lambardi played the 5.

Watching the dummy, the declarer surely knew Lambardi’s void. So he continued with the 2 to dummy’s A, watching West play the 10 and East the 3. He played the K trying to find some piece of information, Lambardi played the 3 and Thomson the 2.

Ishmael had to guess, now he had to play a heart, any other suit he touched he was immediatly down…finally he decided to play for Q10 in West and went one down…