Welcome back to picturesque Mount Maunganui, on the north coast of New Zealand’s North Island. We are here for the final of the National Open Teams at the 2023 National Congress. The format is a 60-board match divided into five 12-board segments. On our previous visit, we saw the highlights from the opening two stanzas. The Australian/America foursome, COUTTS, opened an overnight lead of 26 IMP (63-37) over CORNELL, the six-man team representing the home nation. Let’s see how things panned out on Day 2.

Just the one problem today. With only your side vulnerable, you are North holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

We start our coverage with an early deal on which everyone had distributional values. That inevitably led to plenty of bidding by both sides. Both East players got the ball rolling by opening their shapely 8-count. After a natural start, both North players had to answer the problem posed above.

After three natural bids, Michael Cornell (left) did not think the North hand merited positive action. James Coutts raised his partner’s clubs, Ashley Bach rebid his diamonds, and Justin Mill advanced with a spade cue-bid. Now Cornell doubled and Coutts retreated to 5♣. When that came back, it is hard to criticize Cornell’s double, with two aces plus a singleton in the suit partner has bid on his own to the four-level at unfavourable vulnerability.

Cornell led his diamond, and dummy was not a welcome sight for the defence. Bach won the first round of diamonds and continued the suit. Mill ruffed high, ruffed a spade in dummy, and advanced the ♥K. Cornell won and switched to a trump, but declarer was in control. He won in hand, took another spade ruff, and discarded a spade on the ♥Q. A heart ruff and a third spade ruff left declarer with only trumps. Eleven tricks: E/W +550.

Mike Doecke (right) made his international debut as a member of the Australian Junior team at the 2006 World Youth Championships. Two years later, he got a second chance when the 2008 World Bridge Games included an Under-28 Teams events.

After the same start to the auction, Doecke got his spades into the auction with a double. Peter Newell jumped to game in clubs on the East cards and, with his partner having shown signs of life, Adam Kaplan decided that his solid seven-bagger was worth mentioning for a second time. Martin Reid’s double closed the brisk auction and he led his singleton ♥10.

Kaplan won with the ♥A and promptly drew four rounds of trumps. Then came the ♠J, covered by queen and ace, East discarding. With the position now known, Kaplan ruffed a club back to hand and led the ♠8. Reid covered with the nine but, whatever he did, he was only going to score one spade trick. Declarer had to lose a heart at the end. Eleven trick here too: E/W -750 and a massive 16 IMPs to COUTTS to open the Day 2 scoring.

The action continued on the very next board.

Without this pair’s system card, I cannot tell you what the auction meant, although the most likely explanation is that 1♣ was some version of a Strong Club, and that North’s 1NT overcall was part of a conventional defence. Dangerous though it may be to interfere on such a balanced hand, N/S would probably have reached the relative safety (only -300) of 2♦ if the Kiwis began doubling in earnest.

The New Zealanders began bidding suits at the two-level, but it seems that they had already been robbed of enough space that they could not manage to reach either of the decent games available (in one of the black suits). 3NT certainly was not where you wanted to play this combination.

South solved one of declarer’s problems by leading a club. Newell won and took the spade finesse, but Doecke accurately switched to a diamond after winning with the ♠K. The defenders duly took their five tricks to put the contract one down: E/W -100.

The New Zealanders did not interfere in their opponents’ natural auction. The Australian pair could not identify spades as the best game, but they at least managed to reach one that has play, although declarer would need some good guesswork if the defenders started by cashing their diamond winners. When Ashley Bach opened a trump, declarer was in decent shape. Coutts captured North’s ♣Q with the king, cashed the ♥A and continued with the ♥J. South did not cover, so declarer pitched a diamond from dummy. With that hurdle overcome, declarer played a spade to the ace and then advanced the ♠Q. North did not cover, so declarer threw a diamond from his hand.

Having guessed both majors correctly, declarer had no problem making eleven tricks from this point. E/W +600 and another 12 IMPs to COUTTS. A few boards later, both E/W pairs bid to what was essentially slam on a finesse. However, they played from opposite sides of the table, and the opening lead was crucial.

I cannot begin to explain the auction. It looks as if East created a game-force and then just relayed to find out about his partner’s hand. The upshot was that the slam was played from the East side. Looking at a likely trump winner, if ever there was a time to lead an unsupported ace against a slam, this was it. Adam Kaplan (left) duly did exactly that. Once the ♦A lived, it was just a question of waiting to score the ♠K for one down. E/W -100.

Mill started with a natural 1♠ opening and Coutts began with Jacoby, agreeing spades and forcing to game. 3♣ showed any minimum, 3♦ asked, and 3NT showed short diamonds. With the ♦K now likely to be worthless, is your effective 16-count facing a minimum opening bid worth a slam try? Coutts decided that it was and continued with RKCB. He found his partner with no key cards, so he knew that slam was theoretically on a finesse at best (and could conceivably be no play), but he jumped to the slam anyway. When things are going well for you, it often seems that whatever you do (however questionable) works, and that was certainly the case on this deal.

The bad news for the Kiwis was that North was on lead at this table. Having discovered that declarer has at most a singleton diamond, opening that suit does not look particularly attractive, so Michael Cornell tabled the ♥J. That was all the help Justin Mill needed. He won and immediately cashed three rounds of clubs, pitching the diamond from his hand. Returning to hand with a diamond ruff, he had the luxury of taking the trump finesse for an overtrick. E/W +1430 and another 17 IMPs to COUTTS. Over the first seven boards of the day, they have outscored their opponents 45-0.

There was one more swing to come in this first stanza of the day, and at last there were smiles on the faces of hometown supporters. The Australian auction seemed very cautious at our first table…

Mill forced to game with 2♣, and Coutts described his hand first as a minimum (2♦) and then as a really poor minimum (with 2NT). All I can say is that if this hand, with a sixth spade and an outside ace, is a bad minimum, he must pass a lot of hands that I think would be opening bids. Surely you would open something like AQxxx/Qx/Qxxx/Jx – that would be a bad minimum. Compare that hand with the actual one East held.

Mill kept relaying on the West hand, although I cannot tell you what he found out. Whatever it was, it doesn’t seem to have been enough that he could count more than 12 tricks. This suggests that he never discovered his partner held a sixth spade, or he would have been able to count six spades, five clubs and two aces. A very modest E/W +1460.

Peter Newell (right) opened 1♥ on the East hand, which presumably showed spades. Martin Reid then established a game-forcing relay with 1NT. He needed to ask only a couple of questions before he was able to count 13 tricks. E/W +2220 and 13 IMPs to CORNELL.

COUTTS won the stanza 52-13 and thus led by 61 IMPs with two sets remaining.

We will be back soon for our third visit to Mount Maunganui in order to bring you the best of the action from the last two stanzas of this final.