BBO Vugraph Deals #162

Marc Smith visits the final of the Spring Foursomes 

Whilst the Gold Cup has historically been considered the most prestigious English event, it has been overtaken by the Spring Foursomes as the strongest tournament on the calendar. The primary reason for this is the large number of top overseas players who are attracted to the West Midlands over the long May bank holiday weekend. The relocation from the picturesque town of Stratford-upon-Avon to nearby Warwick did not detract from the quality of this year’s field.  

The format is a double-elimination knockout. This year, it was the HINDEN team (Francis Hinden, Chris Jagger, Jeffrey Allerton, Tony Forrester and Graham Osborne) who survived as the only undefeated team, beating ORCA 65-55 in Round 5 to earn a bye through the quarter-final stage.  

For ORCA (Alexander Allfrey, Andrew Robson, Zia Mahmood, Peter Crouch, Espen Erichsen and Richard Plackett), that defeat meant their road to the final was much tougher. In the quarter-final, they just squeaked past DE BOTTON 77-74. In the semi-finals, HINDEN took advantage of their choice of opponents and forced a concession out of CASTNER with a set to play. For ORCA, it was another tough match, and they won through 69-55 against BLACK to set up a re-match with HINDEN. 

As usual, we start with a couple of bidding problems. Firstly, with only the opponents vulnerable, you are West holding: 

What action, if any, do you take?  

Next, with just your side vulnerable, you hold as East: 

What action, if any, do you take? 

We start in the first of the eight 8-board stanzas, with both West players facing some variation on the first of those bidding problems. 

Jeffrey Allerton did not open the North hand, so the auction began with Richard Plackett’s second seat heart pre-empt. Chris Jagger risked a vulnerable three-level overcall in an exposed position, Espen Erichsen raised to game in hearts and, although perhaps concerned that his side might be missing something higher, Allerton had the world’s most obvious 4♠ bid. No one had any reason to bid a fifth heart, so Jagger was allowed to play peacefully in game. 

The defence began with the ♥A and a trump switch. Jagger had four potential losers, so he overtook the ♠10 with the jack and immediately set about establishing dummy’s diamonds for a discard, running the ♦10 to East’s jack. He then won the club switch and played a second diamond to the king. East won with the ♦A and played a second club, but declarer was home now. Diamonds could now divide no worse that 4-2 and, with three trump entries to dummy, Jagger had was certain to be able to establish the long card in that suit for a club discard. N/S +620. 

Andrew Robson opened the North hand with 1♦. Graham Osborne overcalled 3♥ and Alexander Allfrey introduced his spades. Although sacrifices on balanced hands can often prove unexpectedly costly, Tony Forrester decided that he was not prepared to defend a spade game, so he took the advanced save with a jump to the five-level. This left Robson with only losing options: with the minor-suits laying remarkably well for E/W, the best he could do was to double and take three tricks for a paltry +100 and an 11-IMP loss. Not unreasonably, Robson chose to bid a fifth spade, but getting that decision wrong cost almost nothing.  

The defence began with two rounds of hearts, forcing dummy. Allfrey crossed to hand in trumps and had no choice but to play West for the ♦A. When the ♦K lost, he then had to fall back on the club finesse for his tenth trick, so that was two down. N/S -200 and 13 IMPs to HINDEN, who led by 3 IMPs, 20-17, after the first set. 

A light opening from Jeffrey Allerton made life difficult for E/W on the opening deal of the second set: 

What do you think of Jeffrey Allerton’s 1♣ opening? For me, it qualifies on the basis that you have an easy rebid whatever partner responds (1♥ over 1♦ and raise either major to the two-level). On this deal, even 1♣ was sufficiently pre-emptive to make life difficult for E/W. There are nine top tricks in 3NT, as long as the defenders cannot take five clubs first, and East’s ♣Q prevents that as long as the declaration is from that side. Bidding it is not so easy, though; is Robson really supposed to bid 3NT over 3♦? When he passed, Jagger competed to the three-level in hearts and Allfrey bid a fourth diamond. Should Robson then reassess and raise to the minor-suit game? 

Allerton led the ♥Q and declarer ducked to maintain control, which was fine in a four-level contact. He then won the heart continuation, ruffed a heart, drew trumps and claimed ten tricks, conceding two clubs at the end: E/W +130. 

With North passing as Dealer, E/W had the auction to themselves in the replay: 

Forrester’s 2♦ established a game-force, so it was just a question of which game would be reached. Getting to the unbeatable 3NT proved too difficult, but they avoided 4♠, which has no chance, and ended in diamonds. Could Peter Crouch find the winning club lead, which would enable the defenders to force dummy, thereby cutting declarer off from the long spades? 

No. Crouch also opened the ♥Q. Forrester won with the ♥A, played the ♠A-K pitching a heart, and ruffed a spade with the ♦A. When spades broke 3-3, he could claim twelve tricks: E/W +620 and 10 IMPs to HINDEN. 

The set finished with one East player facing the second of this week’s problems: 

Forrester opened his shorter suit, as many would. Zia overcalled 2♣ and now Forrester introduced his diamonds. Osborne doubled Crouch’s raise to 3♣ and, when Forrester then jumped to 4♦, he was faced with a three-way choice: Pass, 4♥ or 5♦. Having doubled on the previous round, and not knowing that his partner held a sixth diamond, Osborne decided that he had already shown his moderate values, particularly with the ♣K badly placed. In fact, game in either red suit was makeable. 

South won the ♣Q at trick one and switched to a spade. Forrester won, cashed his top hearts, and ruffed a heart with the ♦8, South overruffing with the ♦10. Forrester ruffed the spade return, crossed to the ♦A, ruffed back to hand, and took a second heart ruff with dummy’s last trump. When South could not overruff, it was a simple matter to return to hand with another ruff, draw the outstanding trump with the ♦K, and claim the rest. E/W +150. 

Allfrey chose to open his six-card minor and reverse into hearts at his second turn. When Allfrey then pulled Robson’s jump to 3NT to 4♥, it was clear that he was at least 5-6 in the red suits. Offered the choice, Robson elected to play game in the nine-card fit (although 4♥ would also have made with careful play).  

Here, too, the defence began with a club to the queen and a spade switch. Allfrey started by cashing the two high trumps. When that suit divided 2-2, he continued with a low heart towards dummy’s jack. Allerton rose with the ♥Q, but that was the last trick for the defence: E/W +600 and 10 IMPs to ORCA, restricting the loss on the set to 12. HINDEN led by 15 IMPs, 43-28, after 16 of the scheduled 64 boards, but ORCA fought back, winning a low-scoring third segment 12-4 to reduce the margin to just 7 IMPs.  

If the third stanza was quiet, the fourth was anything but, and we close the first half of our report on this final with the first board of the fourth set. 

Graham Osborne bid his spades three times and Tony Forrester eventually agreed the suit with a 4♣ cue-bid. Red-suit control-bids were followed by RKCB. Forrester found out that his partner held ♠A-K and ♦A-K, but he had no way to discover whether Osborne also held a random queen in any of the side suits. With no guarantees, Forrester took the low road and stopped in the relative safety of the small slam, which would have some chances even if trumps misbehaved.  

There were no gremlins in the layout, so Osborne made his twelve tricks: N/S +980. 

Spades were agreed earlier here, Allfrey raising to 3♠ at his second turn. Here, too, Allfrey used Blackwood to find a pair of A-Ks opposite, but he then decided that was enough to jump to the grand slam. Of course, Robson might have held a stray queen, which would have given declarer a thirteenth trick. Might Allfrey not have made one more try, with 6♥ over 6♦, though? Robson would have known that whatever extra value his partner wanted, he did not have.  

Declarer had plenty of chances for a thirteenth trick, the most obvious of which is between the straight heart finesse or trying ruff down the ♥Q in three rounds. There were also various squeeze chances. With West holding the length over dummy in both hearts and clubs, though, it was destined that no line of play would work. N/S -50 and 14 IMPs to HINDEN to open the fourth stanza. 

We will return next week with the best of the action from the latter stages of this final. 

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