Last week, we left the first heat of the monthly Alt ‘NewCo’ (or New Competition) with two matches to play.

To remind you, in this first heat, the field is divided into three divisions. Group 1A and Group 1B, each consisting of six selected teams, are playing a complete double round robin of ten 16-board matches. The remaining 22 teams, Group C, are playing a 10-round Swiss of 16-board matches. At the end of this first heat, teams will be put into one of four divisions. In future months the leading six teams will play in Group A, the next six in Group B and the third six in Group C, each playing a double round robin. Group D will contain the remaining teams playing a Swiss. At the end of each heat, there will be promotion and relegation between the groups. Teams gain points both for participation and for their finishing place in each heat, with a place in the Grand Final the prize for the teams that accrue the most points throughout the year.

We left things last week after eight rounds. These were the standings:

As usual, we start with some problems for you to consider. We will find out later how your choices would have worked out. First, with both sides vulnerable, you hold this hand in the North seat:

What action do you take?

Secondly, again with both sides vulnerable, you hold as North:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, a lead problem.

What do you lead?

While you consider those problems, we begin with action from Round 9, in which the key matches were BLACK vs DONNER, third against fourth in Group 1A, and LEBOWITZ vs ORCA, first against fourth in Group 1B. Board 6 produced a swing in both matches:

EW Vul: Dealer East

The auction started in identical fashion at all four tables in the key matches. Simon Cope, holding the East cards for ORCA, bid 3♣  and played there.

Agustin Madala led the ♦ K, taken in dummy with the ace, and declarer immediately set about trumps. Madala won with the ♣ A and played a spade. With trumps splitting 3-3, declarer can win with the ♠ A, draw trumps, cash the ♦ J, and play on spades to come to nine tricks, losing just two spades, one heart and one club. Instead, Cope played low on the first round of spades. Dennis Bilde won with the ♠ Q and returned a diamond for his partner to ruff. When Madala then played a second spade, it was too late. Declarer finessed again, and so the defenders took the ♠ K and a spade ruff to beat the contract by a trick. E/W -100.

At the other three tables, East bid 2NT in response to their partners’ second double, and all three West players raised to 3NT. Gunnar Hallberg, sitting North for the BLACK team, was the only one to wield the axe.

All three Souths led a heart around to declarer’s ten, and all three declarers play a club to the king and the ♣ J. Frederic Wrang, declarer for LEBOWITZ, overtook with the ♣ Q. When that won, he played a spade to dummy’s ten and North’s queen. Andrew Robson returned the ♦9, but declarer played low from hand and South’s ♦ K was taken by the ace. Ace and another spade now gave declarer nine tricks. If North had played a spade, declarer would make three diamonds and two tricks in each of the other suits. If he played a club, a heart switch would knock out the ace whilst the diamonds were blocked, but declarer would have an extra club winner in hand to compensate. E/W +600 and 12 IMPs to LEBOWITZ.

At both tables in the match between DONNER and BLACK, declarer did not overtake the ♣ J, so remained in dummy when South again withheld ace. Andrew McIntosh, declarer for BLACK, took that ‘opportunity’ to play a diamond to his jack with disastrous consequences. South won with his singleton ♦ K and knocked out the ♥ A. Declarer could cash his top diamonds and the ♠ A, but that was all before South got in with the ♣ A to run an avalanche of heart winners. E/W -200.

At the other table in this match, Joe Grue continued with a third round of clubs. Simon Hult won with the ♣ A and switched to a spade, ducked to the queen. When Gunnar Hallberg returned the ♦ 9, though, declarer followed low from hand and found himself with an unexpected diamond entry to his hand. Ace and another spade ensure a second trick in that suit for declarer, to go with two hearts and three tricks in each minor: E/W +950 and 15 IMPs to DONNER.

The very next deal saw all four North players confronted with the first of this week’s bidding problems. After a 1♣  opening from partner and a 1♦ overcall by West, the North players had to decide whether to play for penalties at the one-level or to show a good hand with a fit for a suit in which partner had not guaranteed length. Of course, with South very likely to be short in diamonds, South was virtually guaranteed to hold at least three and very likely more clubs. This was the full deal:

At three of the four tables in our key matches, North chose to play for penalties. Only Gunnar Hallberg chose a positive move:

There was little in the play. With trumps 2-2, declarer had no problem ruffing two hearts in dummy and taking the spade finesse successfully for the overtrick: N/S +1390.

The defence against 1♦ -X began with the ♣ K (South just giving count rather than playing the queen to show the jack) and a heart switch to the ace. Sandra Rimstedt returned her trump, Gary Donner taking the ♦ Q and then cashing the ♦ A to remove dummy’s pieces. South won the spade switch with the jack and continued with the ♠ A-K, declarer discarding a heart. If the defence just plays clubs now, declarer can make no more than his three trump tricks. However, Rimstedt played a heart. Tom Paske played low and North ruffed, but Gary Donner now needs to underlead his high club to put South in to deliver a second heart ruff. When he instead cashed the ♣ A, declarer had escaped with four tricks, three trumps and the ♥ K: N/S +800 and 11 IMPs to BLACK.

Andrew Robson also started with a high club, but then switched to the ♠ 10 at trick two. Alexander Allfrey won the second round of spades and played his diamond. Robson took the queen and cashed the ♦ A, then continued with his third spade, forcing declarer. There was little scope for a defensive accident from here and Antonio Palmer could never make any more than his three trump winners: N/S +1100.

At the other table in this match, North also tried to play for penalties at the one-level, but Simon Cope had other ideas. Unfortunately, the operation was such a resounding success that the patient was summarily executed…

When West escaped to hearts, defending suddenly looked like a much less-appealing prospect to Dennis Bilde. Clubs were soon set as trumps and South’s 4♠ bid was RKCB, the 5♣ response showing 0/3 key cards. I think Cope was unlucky here, having correctly judged that there may be a better spot than 1♦ -X, only to find that the opponents had an even higher-scoring option available to them. N/S +1390 and 7 IMPs to LEBOWITZ.

LEBOWITZ defeated ORCA 59-17 just about putting an end to competition in Group 1B. LEBOWITZ led with 137.18, with DE BOTTON second on 120.36, NICKELL third with 98.63 and ORCA still in fourth, but way behind on 70.45. In Group C, it was USA, Norway, Israel and Turkey in the top four places.

In Group 1A, DONNER beat BLACK 38-30 to move ahead of them into third place. With the top two teams both losing, the leading three teams were now separated by less than 1VP. As luck would have it, the top teams in Group 1A were all meeting each other in Round 10: it was RED DEVILS vs DONNER and MOSS vs BLACK.

The second of this week’s bidding problems occurred on Board 4, and the choice of action determined where the IMPs went in both matches:

At one table in each match, the auction was simple:

Brad Moss and Sjoert Brink both considered this North hand a second-seat vulnerable weak two opening, which seems a reasonable assessment to me. A red-suit lead would have defeated the contract by two tricks, but both Mike Vandervorst and David Gold kicked off with a top spade. At both tables, N/S -100.

Steve de Roos for RED DEVILS thought it was too good for a weak two, so started with a One Spade opening. Geert Arts responded 1NT and then had just enough to take another bid when de Roos rebid his suit. 2NT was not a happy spot for the Belgian: Kevin Dwyer opened a club, and the best declarer can do is to overtake, cash his club winners, and lead a heart to the king for two down. When Arts allowed the ♣ J to win, he was in trouble. He tried a low spade, taken by East with the ♠ 10, and Cecilia Rimstead played a diamond to Dwyer’s jack. Another spade or a low heart would have been best now, but the defence cashed their four diamond tricks and then switched to the ♠ K. Declarer could have saved a trick by ducking, but he won with the ♠ A and exited with a spade to East’s eight. Rimstedt cashed the ♠ Q and played a heart. Dwyer won with the ♥ A and exited with a heart. Declarer still had to lose to the ♥ Q: N/S -400 and 7 IMPs to DONNER.

Andrew McIntosh for BLACK adopted a third approach on the North hand. Considering it wrong for a weak two and not good enough for a one-level opening, he passed at his first turn. When Tom Paske entered with a club overcall, McIntosh introduced his six-card suit at the two-level. Paske advanced with 2NT and Tosh went on to game, with Michal Nowosadzki expressing his opinion of the contract’s viability with a red card.

Jacek Kalita kept open the defenders’ chances of +1100 when he opened the ♠ 9, ducked all around, and continued with a second spade. Tom Paske won with the ♠ A, overtook the ♣J, and cashed his four tricks in that suit. When declarer now led a heart, Kalita again found the winning play of rising with the ace. Playing a low diamond now would have enabled the defenders to collect the rest of the tricks, but Kalita first cashed his club winner. That would have been okay, except that East, who had already discarded two diamonds, threw a third in order to keep his ♥ Q guarded. Kalita could still have collected +800 by playing a heart now, but he exited with a diamond. Nowosadzki won with his now-bare ♦ A and could cash his spades, but he then had to surrender the last two tricks to dummy’s ♥ K-J. N/S ‘only’ -500, but the board had been won and lost in the auction and it was 9 IMPs to MOSS.

Towards the end of the match, came another deal that generated a swing in both of the key matches. Was this a bidding problem or a lead problem? It was presented as the latter at the top of the article, but let’s start in the match between DONNER and RED DEVILS.

Philippe Caputo’s 1NT response was non-forcing (5-11 HCP) and his 2♠  bid then showed a maximum with two or three spades and at least a four-card club fit. Vandervorst showed his good hearts and then advanced with Four Clubs. Facing a limited hand, though, I suspect he was really only looking to find the best game contract.

And quite right he was too, as Joe Grue led a spade to his partner’s ace and a spade was returned. Playing in game, Vandervorst correctly safety played the trumps by cashing the king and then leading low to the eight. South won with the ♣ 10, but that was the last trick for the defence. E/W +400.

The 1NT response here was described as semi-forcing (ie opener can pass with a weak notrump), but Cecilia Rimstedt’s 2♣ was Gazilli, either natural or any 16+. Now 2♦ was artificial and game-forcing opposite the strong hands, and East’s 2NT showed 16+ with exactly four clubs. Three Clubs showed the fit and Three Hearts was natural. Dwyer committed to slam with 4NT, RKC for clubs.

Geert Arts led a diamond, keeping declarer’s realistic chances alive. Rimstedt played low from dummy and ruffed in hand, but then played the ♣A and a trump to the jack. Steve de Roos won with the ♣Q and cashed the ♠ A for a quick one down. E/W -50 and 10 IMPs to RED DEVILS.

In the other match, both East/West pairs reached the club slam. At one table, Bas Drijver for MOSS dug out the ♠ 5. Sjoert Brink won with the ♠ A and returned the suit. Whilst declarer can pick up the clubs for no loser double dummy (via a backwards finesse), he is never going to take that line in practise. David Gold quite sensibly cashed the ♣ A and took the club finesse. When North showed up with the ♣ Q, that was one down: E/W -50.

At the other table, Tom Paske led a diamond and Michal Nowosadzki won in dummy with the ♦A, pitching a spade from his hand. He then played a club to the ace and a second round of trumps back to dummy’s king. Whilst the ♣ Q failed to drop, declarer now set about his second chance. He ran his hearts, pitching spades from the dummy. When that suit split 3-3, declarer was able to claim his slam, just conceding a trick to the master trump. E/W +920 and 14 IMPs to MOSS.

MOSS beat BLACK 57-27 but RED DEVILS defeated DONNER 41-12, which was just enough for them to retain their first place in Group 1A by a margin of about an overtrick over the course of 160 deals. The final standings were:

The upshot is that RED DEVILS, MOSS, LEBOWITZ and DE BOTTON automatically qualify for places in Group A in heat two. The Alt committee subsequently selected DONNER and GUPTA to join them.

EDMONDS, BLACK and ORCA qualified for Group B and will be joined by the top three teams from the Swiss, AMATEURS, SKEIDAR and CANTOR.

Group C will include GILLIS and FREDIN along with ALSHULER and SALVO from the Swiss this month and two other teams to be selected. The rest of the field will begin Heat 2 in Group D, although with twelve heats to be played throughout the year, there will be plenty of scope for promotion and relegation from one group to the other. We will be back next week with the highlights of the new Alt IMP TEAM-PAIRS. An unusual format, but no doubt some exciting deals for us to see. The following week, we will bring you all of the highlights from the early rounds of the NewCo-Heat 2.