Welcome back to Sydney, Australia and the New South Wales Bridge Association Spring Nationals. We have reached the final of the main event, the Open Teams. Of the 50 teams that set out four days ago, just two now survive. The final will be a battle between experienced campaigners, ASHTON (Sophie Ashton, David Wiltshire, Sartaj Hans, Andy Hung) and a team spearheaded by the young stars of the next generation, GUE (David Gue, Joshua Tomlin, Philip Markey, Joachim Haffer).

The format is a 56-board match divided into four 14-board stanzas, and there is no carry-forward from earlier in the competition.

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

What do you bid?

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

West’s 3NT bid shows a raise to 4♠ with a void in one of the side suits. What action, if any, do you now take?

Next, with only your opponents vulnerable, you are sitting in the West seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with only your side vulnerable, you are North holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you mull those over, we start on the opening board of the match, with both South players facing the first of the problems above.

Phil Markey (left) made his international debut as part of the Australian team at the 2005 Bermuda Bowl. Earlier this year in Marrakech, he was a member of his country’s Mixed Team.

Faced with what to do over his partner’s 2♦ rebid, a simple 3♣ looks like the obvious way forward playing 2/1. That neither of the South players in this match chose that option suggests that perhaps 3♣ in this auction would be non-forcing in Australian methods. However, would not a jump to 4♣ be forcing? Markey backed his judgement and jumped all the way to game in his eight-card suit.

David Wiltshire led a heart. Markey won, cashed the ♣A, and then played three top diamonds. He managed to dispose of one major-suit loser but, when East was able to ruff the third round of diamonds with a trump that was not the king, declarer had to lose two tricks. A well-judged N/S +400.

Sartaj Hans decided to created a forcing sequence with an ostensibly natural 2♥ at his second turn. Andy Hung raised hearts and the auction thereafter became rather confused. However, when Hans used RKCB (with hearts agreed) the 1-or-4 response happened to be 5♣. Hans obviously could have passed, but he decided that his hand was simply too good, and he raised himself to slam.

Joshua Tomlin led the ♠J, covered by queen, king and ace. Hans played three rounds of diamonds without first cashing the ♣A, but the outcome was the same. Eleven tricks: N/S -50 and 10 IMPs to GUE to open the scoring.

Some hands are like a merry-go-round. You just have to judge when the time has come to get off.

I have seen (and made) some fairly light overcalls in my time, but Phil Markey’s 2♦ bid on this South hand takes the biscuit. If someone had a gun to my head and I absolutely had to bid something on those cards, I suppose I would choose a weak 3♦. Quite how partner is ever supposed to bid sensibly if you might have this hand for a two-level overcall (which is a wide-ranging action even for normal bidders) is a mystery to me.

David Wiltshire raised to 4♠ showing a diamond shortage on the way and, understandably, Joachim Haffer thought he was worth a slam try on the way to game in diamonds. Sophie Ashton (right), another member of the Australian Mixed Team earlier this year in Morocco, judged her hand better than anyone else on this deal. She doubled 5♣ to tell her partner that she wanted to defend, and she doubled again when Haffer retreated to 5♦.

Wiltshire led the ♠A, Ashton following with the queen. Responding to his partner’s signal, Wiltshire switched to a heart and the defenders played three rounds of that suit. Declarer won with the ♥Q, ruffed his remaining spade in dummy, and led a trump. Ashton was not going wrong now. Recognizing the danger of being endplayed, she rose with the ♦A and exited safely with her second trump, leaving declarer to take the losing club finesse in the endgame. Three down: E/W +500.

Sartaj Hans passed on the South hand and Joshua Tomlin jumped to 3NT, showing a splinter-type raised to 4♠ with a void in an unknown suit. In an uncontested auction, David Gue could have asked where his partner’s shortage was if he was interested, but the opponents’ bidding here made it fairly clear.

After hearing partner come in at the four-level, I suppose everyone would compete with 5♦ on that South hand even though, as it turns out, the save is a phantom. As we have discussed frequently in these pages, sacrificing on balanced hands often proves more expensive that you expect, and this deal is no exception. Note that dummy contributes precisely no tricks to declarer’s cause in a diamond contract. However, the 5♦ bid did leave Gue with the second of this week’s problems. When the Australian junior international bid on to 5♠, the 5♦ sacrifice turned out to be very cheap indeed, although its true effect was only to gain an extra undertrick since no one could find a double of 5♠.

Hans led a club against 5♠, and Andy Hung played three rounds of the suit. Winning with the ♣Q, Gue ran the ♠Q to North’s king. Hung exited with a diamond and declarer had to lose a heart later for two down. E/W -200 and 12 IMPs to ASHTON. Purists might say that justice was served and the 2♦ overcall got what it deserved.

These youngsters certainly like to bid. Witness…

David Gue jumped pre-emptively to 3♠, leaving Joshua Tomlin with the third of this week’s problems. Tomlin passed and, although the East hand is weak in terms of high cards, it had the perfect shape. Declarer managed to score three club ruffs in dummy and he thus came to ten tricks. E/W +170.

The proclivity of this N/S pair to overcall when they really shouldn’t came back to bite them again in the replay.

I know this is a subject that divides the expert community, so not all would find Joachim Haffer’s 2♣ overcall, on a moderate hand and weak five-card suit, as disgusting as I do. The effect it had here was to encourage Sophie Ashton to jump all the way to 4♠ on the East hand. Holding two aces and the admittedly poorly-placed trump king, who can blame Phil Markey for doubling after his partner’s vulnerable intervention? David Wiltshire (left) applied the coup de grace with a purple card from his bidding box.

Haffer started with the ♥K, followed by the ♥Q and a club to his partner’s ace. Wiltshire ruffed high on Markey’s low heart return and ruffed a club in dummy. A diamond to the ace and a second club ruff followed. Then came a spade to the king and ace, and a third club ruff with dummy’s last trump. Left with all trumps now, declarer claimed the rest. An unusual score of E/W +880 meant another 12 IMPs to ASHTON.

An exciting first stanza finished with ASHTON ahead by 8 IMPs, (47-39).

Midway through the second stanza, both North players had to answer the last of this week’s problems…

With no shortages and only six spades, I am guessing that 3♠ on that East hand would not be the choice of everyone but, in first seat non-vulnerable, David Gue (right) chose to apply maximum pressure. With a balanced hand and just three aces, Sartaj Hans had no sensible way into the auction, which meant that it was up to Andy Hung on the North cards. When Hung decided that it was too rich for him, Gue had successfully stolen the pot. Declarer had five top losers and a club ruff put him two down. At only 50 a trick, that was an excellent result for the youngsters: N/S +100.

In the replay, Sophie Ashton was equally bold on the East hand, but she ran into an opponent prepared to rise to her challenge. Former German junior international Joachim Haffer (left) was not willing to go quietly on the North cards, and he backed in with a high risk, high reward 4♥ overcall when 3♠ was passed around to him. As the best partners tend to do, Phil Markey produced the ideal dummy to justify his partner’s bidding.

Declarer had to lose just one spade, one club and one trump in 4♥. N/S +620 and 11 IMPs to GUE.

GUE won the second stanza 40-23 to lead by 9 IMPs (79-70) at the midway point of the match.

We will be back soon with the second half of this final.