We have travelled halfway around the world, to the Australian capital of Canberra, for the first major tournament of 2023, the Australian Summer Festival of Bridge. The highlight of the first week of the festival is the Women’s and Seniors’ Teams. This week and next, we will take a look at the best of the action from the finals of those two events.

In the Women’s event, DAWSON defeated PACKER 219-182 in one semi-final, whilst the other saw THOMPSON triumph 211-175 over TRAVIS. The final would be DAWSON (Helena Dawson, Wei Zhang, Nazife Bashar, Kinga Moses, Catherine Zhang and Avril Zets) against THOMPSON (Jenny Thompson, Judith Tobin, Dagmar Neumann, Karen Creet, Jodi Tutty and Ruth Tobin). The DAWSON team includes two members of Australia’s Women’s team from the 2019 World Championship in Wuhan, whilst THOMPSON has two members who represented Australia in 2016 and 2017, so the teams appear evenly matched.

In the semi-finals of the Seniors Teams, BUCHEN beat HUTTON 190-131 whilst LORENTZ defeated GUE 206-167. The final would be BUCHEN (Peter Buchen, Michael Courtney, George Smolanko, Andrew Braithwaite, Terry Brown and Arjuna de Livera) against LORENTZ (Gabi Lorentz, Stephen Burgess, Paul Lavings, Avinash Kanetkar, David Beauchamp and Robert Krochmalik). Both teams contain a wealth of experience in both the Australian Open and Seniors teams.

The final of both events would be played over 96 boards, divided into six 16-board stanzas. As only one of the finals was broadcast live on BBO VuGraph during each of the six sessions, we will switch back and forth between the two.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are East holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the North seat with:

What do you bid?

If you cue-bid with 4♣, partner advances with 4♦. Now what?

While you consider those, we begin in the opening set of the Seniors final.

Gabi Lorentz raised his partner’s 1♠ overcall to game, leaving Peter Buchen with the first of this week’s bidding problems. Do you back in and, if so, do you double, offer partner a choice of suits with 4NT, or simply support partner’s clubs?

Buchen opted for the first of those options. With a balanced hand and primarily defensive-looking values, it is hard to criticize George Smolanko’s pass, but the cards did not lie well for E/W. The defence scored two diamonds and a trump, but Stephen Burgess happily crossruffed his way to ten tricks: N/S +590.

In the replay, East knew about the 4-4 heart fit when he had to make the same decision.

Robert Krochmalik (left) made his first foray into international bridge at the World Championship in Albuquerque NM in 1994. He was a member of the Australian teams that reached the quarter-finals of the World Seniors Teams in both 2008 and 2016. In between, he played in Australia’s  Open team at the 2012 Olympiad and the 2013 Bermuda Bowl.

Andrew Braithwaite did not overcall on the North hand, so Krochmalik responded with a 1♦ transfer, showing hearts. Now South came in with a spade bid and Paul Lavings showed a minimum opening with four-card heart support. Does this information change East’s thinking? Krochmalik decided that the double fit merited a five-level bid, so he showed his club fit.

It seems likely that North is still wondering why he did not double, but his oversight meant that declarer got to play for 50s, which was good news for Lavings with the cards lying so poorly for him. The defenders scored two heart and a heart ruff to go with their two natural trump tricks, but that was only N/S +150 and 10 IMPs to LORENTZ.

LORENTZ won a low-scoring first set 27-25. Meanwhile, in the Women’s event it was even closer, THOMPSON leading 37-36 after 16 boards. BBO coverage stayed with the Seniors for the second stanza, and it was another tight one. The second of this week’s bidding problems arose on the only deal that produced a double-figure swing.

Paul Lavings (right) first represented his country at the 1980 Olympiad. Along with his regular partner, Robert Krochmalik, he was also a member of the Australian Seniors teams that reached the quarter-finals at the 2008 and 2016 World Championships.

Hearts were agreed at the three-level on this deal, and it then became a question of how best to investigate slam. If you advanced with a 4♣ cue-bid in the problem position, even though you then sign off in 4♥ over partner’s 4♦ cue-bid, South surely has enough to make another move.

Lavings 3NT bid was a waiting bid designed to discover whether partner could show a club control. When Krochmalik bypassed clubs to show his diamond control, Lavings knew that the ♣K was missing, so he was never going to advance beyond game. Having not heard a club cue-bid from partner, Krochmalik was not prepared to risk the five-level opposite something like Q/QJxxx/AQx/J10xx. I’ll leave you to judge whether that is too pessimistic a view on this South hand. Declarer managed to take all 13 tricks: N/S +510.

East/West found their 12-card fit at the other table, and their barrage meant that there was little room for delicacy.

George Smolanko (left) was a member of the Open team that Australia sent to the 1992 Olympiad. He has since represented his country in the Seniors Teams at World Championships in 2005 and 2022.

On this deal, Smolanko opened 1♠ and found that the bidding was already at the five-level when it came back to him. There was no room to sensibly investigate a grand slam but, with those red-suit holdings, he was never going to bid less than 6♥.

With both major suits behaving, the contract was never in doubt, and East conceded the overtrick with an imaginative club lead away from the king. N/S +1010 and 11 IMPs to BUCHEN.

BUCHEN won the second stanza 25-17 to lead by 6 IMPs, 50-44, after 32 boards. In the Women’s event, THOMPSON won the set 33-23, so they led by 11 IMPs, 70-59. For the final set on the first day of play, we get our first look at some action from the Women’s match.

Facing South’s 15-17 1NT, North’s raise to game seems particular feeble. The hand is surely worth at least a quantitative 4NT and, with 16 HCP and a good five-card suit, it is perhaps even too good for that. Not that 6NT is such a great spot, and it should probably fail as the cards lie. With eleven top tricks on the neutral ♠J opening lead, it looks as if declarer has a choice of two plays for a twelfth trick – a club to the queen (a 50% shot) or ducking a heart and playing for that suit to split 3-3 (36%). One small argument in favour of ducking a heart is that you will also make twelve tricks on a simple squeeze if East began with both four hearts and the ♣K.

Playing in game, the play is academic. Kinga Moses won the spade lead, checked that diamonds were coming in for five tricks, and then ducked a heart. With that suit breaking, she then had 12 tricks: N/S +690.

Jodi Tutty (right) was a member of the Australian Women’s team for the 2017 Venice Cup. She also represented her country in the Mixed Teams at the World Championships in 2019 and 2022.

Tutty’s evaluation of the North hand seems much nearer the mark. She started with Puppet Stayman, checking for a possible 5-3 major-suit fit, and then showed slam interest with diamonds. Dagmar Neumann co-operated with a heart cue-bid, so Tutty asked for key cards and bid the slam once she found three opposite.

The diamond slam is better played from the short side, with no chance of a lead through the ♣Q. Catherine Zhang led the ♠J, so diamonds is essentially the same as no-trumps, but with the stakes higher than at the other table. Here, too, declarer opted to duck a heart rather than lead towards the ♣Q, and was rewarded when that suit split 3-3. N/S +1370 and 12 IMPs to THOMPSON.

Fortune favours the brave, or so they say. On our final deal from the first day’s play in these finals, the points were split 21-19, but that didn’t stop someone bidding and making game.

At both tables, the auction began with 1♣ from West and a takeout double by North. Here, Jenny Thompson advanced with 1♦ on the East cards. Despite the singleton in her partner’s suit and sub-normal values, Karen Creet’s jump to 3♣ was a valiant effort to shut N/S out, but Nazife Bashar was not willing to go quietly. She doubled again, and Kinga Moses was thus forced to choose a suit on her unappealing hand.

Creet led the ♦2. Moses won in hand with the ♦K, successfully played a spade to the king, and continued with a second round of spades to confirm the 3-2 trump break. Things were looking rosy for declarer now and, when East switched to the ♥Q, Moses was able to claim 10 tricks, conceding just the ♥K and the ♠A. N/S +170.

Perhaps you are thinking that N/S might bid their game in the replay…

Game was, indeed, reached here, but it was by East/West. Wie Zhang preferred a 1NT bid on the East hand. Encouraged by her potential source of tricks, Catherine Zhang made an invitational raise, duly accepted.

Dagmar Neumann led the ♠7 and, when declarer played low from dummy, the spotlight fell on Tutty in the North seat. The winning defence is to rise with the ♠K and switch to diamonds. When Tutty instead put in the ♠10 at trick one, she was effectively signing the warrant for her own execution. Declarer quickly picked up South’s ♣J and started cashing her winners. When the sixth club was played, Tutty was faced with the impossible problem of finding a discard from her remaining ♠K-x/♥A/♦A-Q-J-x.

Clearly, she could not throw the ♥A. Releasing a diamond would allow declarer to play a heart to set up her ninth trick in that suit, and the defenders would now have only three diamond winners to cash. Throwing a spade enabled declarer to drop the ♠K and score her ninth trick with the ♠J. 3NT bid and made for a spectacular E/W +400 and 11 IMPs to DAWSON.

DAWSON won the third stanza 28-22. At the end of the first day of play, with 48 boards remaining in the final, THOMPSON led by 5 IMPs, 92-87. In the Seniors event, LORENTZ won the third set 43-27, giving them the overnight advantage by 10 IMPs, 87-77.

All still to play for in both finals, and we will be back soon with the best of the action from the second day.