We are in Australia once again, at Canberra Bridge Club for the final of the national Mixed Teams Playoffs. The winner will represent Australia in the Mixed Teams events at the Pacific Championships and the World Team Olympiad in 2024. The match is being played over 120 boards divided into eight 15-board stanzas over two days.

The two teams contesting the final are HARRISON (Shane Harrison, Jessica Brake, Bruce Neill and Sue Lusk) and THOMSON (David Beauchamp, Jodi Tutty, Maurits van der Vlugt, Dagmar Neumann, Warren Lazer and Pauline Gumby). When we left things with three of the eight stanzas remaining, HARRISON held an 18-IMP (147-129) advantage.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are South holding:

What action do you take?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with only your opponents vulnerable, you hold in the West chair:

What do you bid?

With only a couple of deals remaining in a low-scoring sixth stanza, the margin had been reduced by only 2 IMPs, leaving the match score at 159-143. Both South players had to decide how to enter the auction on the first of the problems above.

On a deal where neither side could make much, Warren Lazer entered with a 1♥ overcall. With West showing a heart stopper and some values, he quite sensibly decided that he did not have enough for further action when Shane Harrison rebid his clubs.

Lazer began with the ♥A, and a second heart for his partner to ruff away declarer’s ♥K. North returned a diamond, declarer overtaking his king and cashing the ♦Q for a spade discard. North rose with the ace when a trump was led from dummy, but Harrison ruffed high on the diamond continuation, and he thus scored six trumps and two diamond tricks. E/W +90. With N/S able to make eight or nine tricks in hearts, that looked like a small advantage to HARRISON.

It is sometimes surprising what chaos can be caused by even a low-level pre-empt. At this table, Sue Lusk (left) came in with what looks like a textbook example of a vulnerable ‘weak’ jump overcall. Should David Beauchamp just give up when 2♥ is passed back to him? I think this is about a 50-50 decision. The problem with bidding is that, if you are not playing 2NT as some variation of Good/Bad, then 3♣ has quite a wide range. For example, add the ♠A to the East hand, and would that not also be a 3♣ bid?

What should Jodi Tutti do on this West hand when her partner reopens with 3♣? With only a singleton club and not much of a heart stop, it is probably right to pass. Add the ♠A to the East hand, though, and 3NT would have been an easy make, so is bidding not an unreasonable view to take?

There was little chance in 3NT on these cards and declarer managed to make only five tricks. E/W -400 and 10 IMPs to HARRISON.

HARRISON won the sixth stanza 23-14 and thus took a 27-IMP lead (170-143) into the penultimate segment of this playoff final. Midway through the seventh segment, the score had advanced to 181-146 (the largest margin in the match so far) when both East players had to answer the second of this week’s problems.

When Shane Harrison chose to pass after North’s 2♦ opening, he left himself with a problem on the second round. Should he back in with a double after South’s jump to 4♥. Earlier in the event, a player with a similar hand had backed in after South had jumped to 3♠ in this situation, and the result was -1100. Whether Harrison was mindful of that result I cannot tell you, but he elected to take his chances on defence.

Jessica Brake led a trump, Warren Lazer (right) winning in hand and leading the ♠10. With this spade layout, the best that Brake can do is to rise with the ace to give declarer a guess on the third round. Brake instead followed with her low spade and declarer ran the ten to East’s king. The defence played two rounds of diamond, declarer ruffing, and Lazer led his club. East won and continued clubs, declarer ruffing in dummy. A spade ruff followed, a second club ruff, and then another spade ruff, which brought down West’s ♠A. With two spade winners now sitting in dummy, a trump to dummy gave declarer ten tricks. N/S +420.

Maurits van der Vlugt doubled North’s 2♦ opening, although whether that was showing just diamonds or a takeout for both minors is unknown. Here, too, South jumped to 4♥, but now Dagmar Neumann (left) came in with 4NT (showing both minors) on the West hand.

Van der Vlugt obviously chose diamonds and there was little to the play. The defenders made their heart trick but somehow lost their spade winner later the play, but the overtrick was of no consequence. N/S -620 and 14 IMPs to THOMSON.

The lead was now down to a more manageable 21 IMPs again. A couple of boards later, it was reduced to single figures…

Bruce Neill was able to show a weak club raise after West’s 1♠ overcall, but Maurits van der Vlugt’s pre-emptive spade raise then bought the contract.

Neill led the ♥10, which was ducked all the way around. The defenders appear to have five tricks via two clubs and a trick in each of the other suits, but can they get to them all? Neumann won the heart continuation, crossed to the ♠A and now made the key play of ruffing dummy’s third heart. She then cashed the ♦A before playing a spade to the king, revealing that South had a trump winner. When Neumann now exited with a club, what could the defence do?

Lusk won with the ♣K and cashes the ♠Q, What now? Whichever defender won the second round of clubs would be endplayed. South cashed her club winner but then had to conceded a ruff-and-sluff, so away went declarer’s diamond loser. N/S -140.

Pauline Gumby (right) did not raise clubs immediately, but she reevaluated her hand when her partner doubled East’s jump cue-bid. Gumby’s jump to game was greeted by a red card from Jessica Brake, so which of the two women at the table had judged accurately?

Brake led the ♦A, and Warren Lazer’s immediate reaction on seeing dummy was probably that he had an awful lot of losers to deal with. Brake solved one of his potential problems when she cashed the ♥A at trick two. Although declarer could always have held his losers in that suit to one by taking a finesse against East’s jack, it certainly simplified the task.

Lazer won the heart continuation, ruffed a spade in dummy, crossed to the ♣A, and took a second spade ruff. He then ruffed a diamond and ruffed his last spade with the ♣Q. A second diamond ruffed returned the lead to declarer’s hand, and he only now needed the ♣J to come down. When it did, Lazer claimed eleven tricks: N/S +550 and 12 IMPs to THOMSON. They now trailed by just 9 IMPs, but there was plenty more action in the final deals of this penultimate stanza.

Usually, you have a choice between stopping safely in a partscore or taking the risk of bidding game. This next deal is something of a curiosity in that it was game which turned out to be the safe contract…

With little by way of stoppers in the majors, Dagmar Neumann chose to rebid clubs at her second turn. Bruce Neill bid his five-card major and Maurits van der Vlugt competed to the three-level in his long suit.

The defence began with a heart to the ace and the ♥Q to declarer’s king. With four losers now exposed in the majors, declarer needs to bring in the trumps for no loser. In isolation, the lay of the diamond suit allows that to be done. The fly in declarer’s ointment is that he has only one entry to dummy. Van der Vlugt crossed to the ♣A and led the ♦J, covered by queen and king. However, when he then attempted to get back to dummy with a second round of clubs, North ruffed and cashed his winners in the majors. E/W -50.

Jessica Brake (left) ignored the paucity of her major-suit stoppers and rebid 1NT based on her shape. Pauline Gumby showed her extra strength with a second double, but Shane Harrison brushed that aside with an adventurous raise to 3NT.

Brake covered the opening lead of the ♥Q with dummy’s king. She then played a club to the ace and tabled the ♦J, covered by queen and king. A club to the jack won, and Brake cashed the ♣K before taking a finesse against North’s ♦10. A thrilling ten tricks: E/W +400 and 10 IMPs back for HARRISON.

HARRISON picked up one more game swing in the final boards of the stanza, and thus emerged with a 33-31 win on the stanza. That all meant that HARRISON went into the final 15-board set with a 29-IMP (203-174) lead. Did the THOMSON team have another comeback in them? We will be back soon to find out.