We return this week to the Australian capital of Canberra for the two-week long Summer Festival of Bridge. The highlight of the first week of the festival is the Women’s and Seniors’ Teams. Last week, we saw the first day’s play in each of the finals. Now we check out the best of the action from the second half of each match.

In the Women’s event, THOMPSON (Jenny Thompson, Judith Tobin, Dagmar Neumann, Karen Creet, Jodi Tutty and Ruth Tobin) leads DAWSON (Helena Dawson, Wei Zhang, Nazife Bashar, Kinga Moses, Catherine Zhang and Avril Zets) by 5 IMPs, 92-87 at the midway point. The Seniors final is almost as close, with LORENTZ (Gabi Lorentz, Stephen Burgess, Paul Lavings, Avinash Kanetkar, David Beauchamp and Robert Krochmalik) holding a 10-IMP, 87-77, lead over BUCHEN (Peter Buchen, Michael Courtney, George Smolanko, Andrew Braithwaite, Terry Brown and Arjuna de Livera).

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 West holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting in the South seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with only your side vulnerable, you hold as South:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we begin this week’s coverage in the Women’s final, with a major misunderstanding at one table and a nomination for the least-scientific auction of the year at the other.

Helena Dawson (left) was a member of the Australian Women’s team at the 2019 World Championships in Wuhan. On this deal, I agree with her decision to open 1♥ rather than starting with 2♣. With such extreme shape, are you really worried that 1♥ will end the auction? If you start with 2♣, think about what you will do if the auction goes something like 2♣-(3♣)-Pass-(5♣) back to you. You would be left with the nasty decision of which suit to bid. As for the rest of the auction…

There are two objectives to bidding – to decide on a strain to play in and to ascertain the right level at which to stop bidding. The faster you can achieve the first of those aims, the more space you have left to determine the second. Quite why, therefore, when you know you have at least a nine-card heart fit, would you bother to bid spades on this West hand? Whether you should agree hearts via a Jacoby 2NT or with a 4♦ splinter is open to debate, but that you should agree hearts immediately is absolutely clear.

Dawson’s jump to 6♦ at her second turn is spectacular and, on this occasion, may have everyone applauding her excellent judgement. However, the resultant contract could equally have been ridiculous. When the West hand’s hearts are instead a low heart and three small diamonds, you perhaps want to stop in game and, when the ♠K is the ♠A, you have 13 top tricks. Failure to even attempt to bid the hand properly to the right contract with a game-forcing 3♦ does not show much faith in the partnership’s slam-bidding ability.

South’s club lead established a discard for declarer’s spade loser: E/W +1010.

We now go from the sublime to the truly ridiculous. Who would have thought that a simple 1♣ opening bid could cause so much chaos? Dagmar Neumann started with an Unusual 2NT overcall showing, she presumed the two lowest unbid suits, hearts and diamonds. Jodi Tutty might perhaps have jumped to 4♥ but she settled for a minimum 3♥ response. When Neumann then continued, quite sensibly, with a 4♣ cue-bid, Tutty clearly thought that she had misunderstood her partner’s initial 2NT bid, and that it in fact showed both minors, so she passed. If there is some doubt about which suits partner holds, at least raise to 5♣! The 3-0 fit did not play well for declarer: E/W -250 and 15 IMPs to DAWSON.

The kindest adjective that I can find to describe the auction at his table is ‘unforgivable’. There really is no excuse for players at this level to not know very basic parts of their system. Certainly, you can play a 2NT overcall of a 1♣ opening as showing both minors but, to be in a position of having to guess which two suits partner holds is patently absurd. This is a fairly basic thing not to know.

Let this also serve as a general warning to aspiring players out there – do not add as many conventions as you can to your system card. Add a few and make sure that you thoroughly know and understand those that you add. Playing a convention that only one of you understands or that you both know half of, is way, way worse than not playing any convention at all.

THOMPSON won the stanza 27-17, extending their advantage to 15 IMPs, 119-104. In the Seniors, LORENTZ added another 19 IMPs to their advantage to lead 128-99 with 32 boards remaining.

BBO coverage stayed with the Women for Set 5. Both West players had to deal with the first of this week’s bidding problems midway through the stanza.

Faced with the problem posed earlier, Karen Creet chose to pass. That was not the winning decision on this layout: slam is at worst on the club finesse, and is much better than that if the opponents do not lead a diamond. E/W +480.

Avril Zets (right) was another member of the Australian team for the 2019 Venice Cup in Wuhan. On this deal, she raised to 5♥ and Helena Dawson awarded herself a sixth. With those minor suits, quite how 5♥ is better than a 5♣ cue-bid is unclear to me, but I cannot argue with success.

With nothing to tell her which minor-suit king to lead away from, Ruth Tobin guessed to start with a club. Dawson won with the ♣A and subsequently pitched a diamond and a club on dummy’s top spades. The defenders made the ♣K, but that was their only trick. E/W +980 and 11 IMPs to DAWSON.

DAWSON won the stanza 50-20 to take the lead by 15 IMPs (154-139) going into the final 16 boards. In the Seniors, BUCHEN won the fifth set 45-28 to trail by only 12 IMPs (144-156) with a set to play. Both matches were coming down to the wire, and BBO coverage switched back to the Seniors for the final set.

Paul Lavings’ 1♦ response was a transfer, showing at least four hearts. South showed a minimum opening bid with a heart fit and the partnership wended their way to 4♥. Michael Courtney led the ♣J and, with both rounded suits breaking 3-2, declarer was thus able to avoid the spade finesse. N/S +620.

Avi Kanetkar (left) first represented his country at the 2008 World Bridge Games in Beijing. On three occasions, he has been a member of an Australian team that reached the quarter-finals of the World Seniors Teams, in 2008, 2015 and 2017. He has also played in the Australian Open team, at the 2012 Olympiad and the 2013 Bermuda Bowl.

If I had been forced to guess which West player would find an imaginative bid to win IMPs, my money would have been on Michael Courtney, but it was actually Kanetkar who waded in with a 1♠ overcall on his chunky four-card suit. Peter Buchen doubled to show four hearts and David Beauchamp upped the ante to the four-level on his passed hand. When Buchen then doubled again to show extra values, George Smolanko was left with the second of this week’s bidding problems.

With honours in both major suits lying well for N/S, Smolanko could have settled for a 3-IMP loss by defending and collecting +500 from 4♠-X. Perhaps expecting his partner to hold more high cards outside the spade suit (and perhaps a singleton spade), Smolanko pressed on with 4NT, offering his partner a choice of games.

The spade finesse won at trick one, but the lack of intermediates in the trump suit meant that declarer needed to find a doubleton king onside to avoid a trump loser in 5♥. It was not to be and, with two unavoidable diamond losers, that meant one down: N/S -100 and 12 IMPs to LORENTZ, doubling their advantage early in the set. A couple of deals later, both South players had to deal with the last of this week’s problem hands:

David Beauchamp opened a natural weak 2♥ in second seat and found South with this monster. George Smolanko opted for a pass, presumably hoping for a re-opening double from his partner. Of course, Peter Buchen passed with little thought of doing anything else. Not that it mattered greatly, as declarer was only one down in 2♥: N/S +50.

After the same start, Robert Krochmalik (right) adopted the pragmatic approach and jumped to 3NT. At the table, Michael Courtney could find no reason to lead anything other than a low spade. Declarer thus had time to take the losing diamond finesse to establish his ninth trick: N/S +600 and 11 IMPs to LORENTZ.

Did Courtney miss a difficult chance for a brilliancy? At first glance, it looks as if an opening lead of the ♠A would defeat the contract, but take another look. It might work in practise, if declarer ducks the second round of spades and wins the third. However, notice what happens if declarer takes the ♠K at trick two. Does East unblock the ♠J or not? If he does not do so, then declarer can simply take a diamond finesse. West wins with the ♦K but the defenders can cash only one spade before having to relinquish the lead.

So, let’s say that East unblocks the ♠J. Now, declarer cashes the ♥A and five rounds of clubs. West can afford to discard two diamonds but, when the last club is cashed, he must release a spade in order to retain his diamond guard. Declarer then exits with a third round of spades. West can score three winners in the suit, but he must then lead away from the ♦K at trick 12. Now, that would have been worthwhile writing up!

By midway through the final stanza, LORENTZ had built a substantial lead. They eventually won the set 49-23 and the match by 38 IMPs, 205-167. Congratulations to the LORENTZ team: Gabi Lorentz, Stephen Burgess, Paul Lavings, Avinash Kanetkar, David Beauchamp and Robert Krochmalik.

The team with the lead also strode away in the last set of the Women’s final. DAWSON won the stanza 42-10 and the match by 47 IMPs, 196-149. Congratulations to the DAWSON team: Helena Dawson, Wei Zhang, Nazife Bashar, Kinga Moses, Catherine Zhang and Avril Zets.

We will be remaining in Canberra for the next week in order to bring you the highlights from the latter stages of the main event at this festival, the National Open Teams.