Source: ACBL
Thursday July 24
China Red’ wins Wagar title
Ran Jingrong, Wu Shao Hong,
Wang Wenfei,
Zhang Yu y Wang Hongli.
China Red, the Chinese women’s squad captained by Wenfei Wang, won the Wagar Women’s Knockout Teams by a narrow margin – less than 2 IMPs – when a late-night appeals decision swung a handful of critical IMPs their direction.
Wang, playing with Ran Jingrong, Hongli Wang, Lu Yan, Yu Zhang and Shao Hong Wu, trailed Lynn Baker’s squad by 4 IMPs at the end of play at the fourth quarter, but the result was not official because an appeal was pending from a disputed result in the third quarter. The Chinese squad maintained that a pair on the Baker team – Karen McCallum, Kerri Sanborn, Irina Levitina and JoAnne Stansby — had provided them with misinformation resulting in a China Red declarer to fail in a contract they might otherwise have made. The appeals committee ruled that the Chinese declarer had embarked on an inferior line of play and, so, had to keep the result, but that the Baker team had indeed provided misinformation, and the committee, therefore altered their result – a split scoring decision that shaved 5 to 6 IMPs from the Baker lead.
The appeals decision aside, the final quarter was an exciting affair in which China kept the score close by bidding and making a grand slam that required declarer to find a doubleton queen-jack of trumps, along with a favorable position in a side suit. Everything was perfect for declarer, and the grand slam made, giving China 17 badly needed IMPs.
Hamman defeats Nickell in Spingold
In the round of 16, Bob Hamman’s team, originally the No. 18 seed, staged a late rally to narrowly beat the No. 2 Nick Nickell squad 118-115. Halfway through the match, Hamman was down 42 IMPs.
Team Grue, captained by Brad Moss, prevailed against Pan Red China, led by Ze Jun Zhuang 144-101. Down 85 IMPs at halftime, the Chinese squad won the third quarter of the match 59-1 to close the gap. Pan Red China had knocked off the defending champions in the previous round.
The only original top 10 seeds remaining in the Spingold are No.4 Monaco, No. 8 Team Lavazza and No. 10 Team Assael. Rose Meltzer’s squad is the lowest original seed (No. 22).
These are Friday 25th Spingold Matchs:
| 1 | Grue NPC [16] | ||||
| 8 | Lavazza | ||||
| 2 | Hamman [18] | ||||
| 7 | Team Assael [10] | ||||
| 3 | Schwartz [19] | ||||
| 6 | Meltzer [22] | ||||
| 4 | Monaco |
| 5 | Silverstein (12) |
NABC Fast Pairs
Vincent Demuy of Palm Beach Gardens FL and John Kranyak of Las Vegas posted the best score in Thursday’s opening round of the NABC Fast Pairs. The leaders scored 64.5% in the first qualifying session and 58% in the second. Their carryover for today’s two-session final is 308.
In second with a carryover of 303.55 are Emory Whitaker of Macon GA and Olin Hubert of Atlanta.
Freeman Mixed Board-a-Match Teams
The squad captained by Debbie Rosenberg scored 37.5 wins in the opening round of the Freeman Mixed Board-a-Match Teams to lead today’s field of 66 qualifiers. Rosenberg scored 18 in the afternoon session, then tacked on 19.5 in the evening. Their carryover for today’s two-session final is 5.
In second place is David Berkowitz’s team with 35 wins in qualifying round. Their carryover is 3.86.