We have crossed the Indian Ocean and arrived in sunny Perth in Western Australia, the venue for the 2023 Australian National Championships. The National Interstate Teams Championships is contested in four categories, Open, Women, Seniors and Youth. This week, we will take a look at the best of the action from the finals of the Senior and Youth events. We will do the same for the Open and Women’s finals next week.

The final of the Senior event was contested by teams representing New South Wales (Paul Lavings, Nigel Rosendorff, Avril Zets, Peter Buchen, Nazife Bashar, Kinga Moses and Matthew Thomson npc) and South Australia (Lori Smith, David Cherry, Andrew Eddie, Kevin Lange, Russel Harms, Zoltan Nagy). NSW started with a 10-IMP carry-forward advantage from the previous rounds.

In the Youth section, it was Victoria (Damon Flicker, Seb Wright, Alex Goss, Simon Pui, Taydon Gold, Matthew Sieredzinski, Leigh Gold npc) and South Australia (Ann Davey, Bertie Morgan, Lincoln Davey, Jamie Simpson, George Bartley, Anton Foster-Rohal, Felicity Smyth npc) in the final. Here, Victoria started with a 20-IMP carryforward advantage.

The format of all finals is a 60-board match divided into five 12-board stanzas.

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 East seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you hold as North:

What action, if any, do you take?

If you pass or double 3NT, what do you lead?

While you mull those over, we begin our coverage in the Youth final, where the action began on the very first deal of the match.

I am guessing that not everyone would have chosen the 4♠ opening made by George Bartley (left) on that North hand. Remember, though, that the rules in Youth bridge are different – you always bid (at least) one more than normal, and most auctions continue until someone doubles. Seb Wright doubled on the East hand, leaving Damon Flicker with the first of this week’s problems.

Looking at all four hands, you can see that E/W can make 11 tricks in hearts, but getting there from here is not that easy. Not unreasonably, Flicker chose to defend and was surely disappointed when South put down a dummy containing three key cards and a singleton. As a result, 4♠-X went only two down, so that was E/W +300 and Bartley’s aggressive opening bid had gained a potential 4-IMP swing for SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

For VICTORIA, Alex Goss (right) settled for a more normal-looking weak 2♠ opening on the North hand. Bertie Morgan doubled and Simon Pui raised the ante to the four-level. Anton Foster-Rohal competed with a responsive double on the West cards and, when Morgan bid his five-card heart suit, the Adelaide pair had reached the optimum spot. Having described his hand fairly accurately on the previous round, Foster-Rohal then undid his previous good work by raising to slam.

When the trumps followed the statistical expectation by failing to split evenly, that was one down. E/W -50 and an exciting 8 IMPs to VICTORIA to open the match. The opening set was almost all one-way traffic, SA finally managing to get onto the scoreboard with a game swing on the final deal. VICTORIA won the stanza 50-13 and, with their carry-forward, led 70-13 after the first set.

In the Senior final, NSW added to their 10-IMP carry-forward by winning the first set 37-10. Of course, one would not expect the action to be as exciting here as in the Youth final, but sometimes the cards insist.

One of the most experienced players in the Southern Hemisphere, Paul Lavings (left) first represented Australia at the 1980 World Team Olympiad. He has been a regular member of his country’s Senior team since 2008.

On this deal, he forced to game with 2♣ response and then heard his partner jump to game in a forcing auction, showing a minimum opening bid. Despite the vulnerable opponents bidding to game in spades, Lavings soldiered on with RKCB and bid the slam when Nigel Rosendorff admitted to holding two key cards. A controlled auction to the top spot: N/S +980.

In the replay, Andrew Eddie got the South Australian auction started with a 3♥ opening on the South cards, Kevin Lange’s raise to 4♥ would surely have ended the auction, but Kinga Moses had to answer the second of this week’s problems. We all know that 4♥ is so often a transfer to the opponents bidding 4♠ and, despite the adverse vulnerability, Moses did just that. When Lange competed to the five level in his long suit, it is hard to blame Nazife Bashar for joining in on that West hand. Thus it was that the South Australians were dragged, kicking and screaming, to the six-level.

With an ace and a side-suit queen facing a partner who has come in at the four-level at red, Bashar’s  double of North’s slam looks more than reasonable. Of course, there was no defence: N/S +1090 and an exciting 3 IMPs to SOUTH AUSTRALIA, when they could so easily have lost a double-digit swing on the deal without a little help from their friends. Who says bridge is not a social game?

There was not much action on the second set of boards. NEWS SOUTH WALES won the set 21-11 to extend their advantage to 47 IMPs (68-21) with two of the five sets played.

After three stanzas in the Youth final, VICTORIA led by a commanding 139-70. The fourth set produced plenty of swings, although the auction was relatively normal at this first table…

Damon Flicker (right) made his international debut representing Australia in the Under-26 Teams at the 2022 World Youth Championships. He was also a member of the Australian team that reached the quarter-finals of the World Mixed Teams in Wroclaw a couple of months later.

The only slightly unusual thing about this auction was that no one doubled to confirm that the bidding was over, but more of that later.

George Bartley opened 1NT in third seat and Seb Wright overcalled 2♥ (hearts and a minor). Jamie Simpson advanced with a Lebensohl 2NT and then passed his partner’s forced 3♣ response. Flicker correctly judged to back in with 3♦ on the South cards, and the auction might have ended there, with N/S recording +130. However, when the bidding came back to Simpson, he decided that his hand was worth one worth go, and competed to the four-level.

Notice how often the theory is right – everyone bids one more than normal so most auctions should end with a double. The defence was accurate, Wright led a diamond to the ace and Flicker switched to a heart. North took his two heart tricks, cashed the ♦K, then played a third round of hearts for his partner to score the ♣K via an overruff. N/S +200 was a decent score for the Victorians, but could perhaps have been more.

Having been out-pre-empted once already, Alex Goss was willing to ignore the vulnerability to get into the auction first on this East hand. All hell was duly unleashed, with Bertie Morgan joining in the madness to overcall vulnerable on a hand with which some people may not even bid 1♠ over a 1♣ opening. Simon Pui’s 3NT then left Anton Foster-Rohal with the last of this week’s problems.

This is not an easy problem at all. If you are going to bid, then the best approach is a 4♣ ‘pick-a-suit’ type cue-bid. That would perhaps get you to 4♦ and +130. Foster-Rohal’s decision to bid 4♥ was not successful, East doubling that contract for two down: N/S -500 and 12 IMPs to VICTORIA.

What about choosing to defend 3NT, or even 3NT-Doubled. On a diamond lead, the defenders can take the first seven tricks (five diamonds and two hearts) for a cool N/S +800. On any other lead, declarer will make at least ten tricks and you will wish you had taken the -500 save in 5♥-X. Not easy!

VICTORIA added another 19 IMPs to their lead in the fourth set and the final set was almost flat. Thus, VICTORIA won the Youth final by the impressive margin of 203-114.

In the Senior final, things were much closer, with NEW SOUTH WALES ahead by just 5 IMPs (110-105) going into the last 14 boards. Victory in this match was not achieved by doing anything spectacular, but by grinding out results. Our last board for this month provides an example of how this final was won…

For the South Australians, Kevin Lange’s first-seat 4♣ opening won the auction.

Kinga Moses led a diamond, West winning with the jack. Nazife Bashar returned a trump, Moses winning with the ♣A and cashing the ♠A. Either defender could have led a heart to any of the first four tricks to beat the contract by two, but this was the last chance for the Victorians. When Moses continued with a second spade, declarer was able to make nine tricks via a diamond finesse against East’s queen, with the ♥A as the entry to the winning ♦K. Away went declarer’s heart loser and Lange had nine tricks. E/W +50.

Zoltan Nagy (left) made his debut in the Australian Senior team at the 2003 World Team Championships. He has also represented his country in the Open team, at the 2012 Olympiad.

Paul Lavings also opened 4♣, but Russel Harms was not willing to sell out on this moderate West hand, so he doubled on the way out. Nagy had no shape, but enough high cards to pass with the expectation of defeating the contract. He then made sure that nothing could go wrong by opening the ♥2. Declarer played low from dummy and Harms won with the ♥10. Nagy won the trump switch at trick two and switched to a diamond. The defenders now had three aces plus a heart and a second diamond. Two down: E/W +300 and 6 IMPs to SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

The South Australians dominated the final stanza, outscoring their opponents 38-0 over the first eight boards of the set. NSW gained a couple of small swings at the end of the set, but it was SOUTH AUSTRALIA’s title by a margin of 144-120.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA teams had made it to all four finals at these championships, and they now had their first victory. We will be back in Perth soon to see what happened in the finals of the Open and the Women’s events.