We return to the Summer Festival in the Australian capital, Canberra. Before the National Open Teams begins later in the week, it is the final of the playoffs to see who will be representing the Wallabies in the Women’s Teams at the 2024 South Pacific Championships and in the World Teams Championships at the World Bridge Games (formerly known as the World Team Olympiad), which will be held in October 2024 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The two finalists are JACOB (Ella Jacob, Jenny Thompson, Renee Cooper and Jane Reynolds) and LUSK (Sue Lusk, Viv Wood, Paula McLeish, Pele Rankin, Jessica Brake and Susan Humphries). The final will be played over 96 boards divided into six 16-board stanzas. When we left at the end of our first visit, LUSK had edged into a 6-IMP lead (80-74) after two of the six segments.

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

What do you open?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are sitting in the East seat with:

What action do you take?

Finally, with only your opponents vulnerable, you hold in the South seat:

What, if anything, do you open?

While you consider those, we start midway through the third stanza with a difficult slam bidding test for the E/W pairs. The West players had to decide what to open on the first of the problems above.

Jane Reynolds (right) chose to open the West hand 1♦ and she never really caught up. It would seem that Reynolds did not have a second-round jump to 3NT to show a one-suited hand too strong a non-forcing 3♦ rebid, so she settled instead for a quiet 2♣. When Renee Cooper raised to 3♣, Reynolds again had a problem, and her 3NT really did not convey just how strong her hand really was.

Susan Humphries found the excellent opening of the ♥J, but declarer simply had too much stuff for game to be in danger. Humphries took the ♥A right away, cashed her clubs, and then played on diamonds. Winning with the ♦K, Humphries continued hearts and the defenders took three tricks in the suit, but that was their lot. E/W +600.

Paula McLeish (left) began her international career as a member of the New Zealand Women’s team at the 1988 World Team Olympiad in Venice. She made her debut for Australia in the 2011 Venice Cup and she was also a member of the team that reached the Last 16 of the 2016 World Championships in Wroclaw.

Pele Rankin chose to start with 2♣ on the West hand. McLeish began with a waiting 2♦ and then introduced her hearts after Rankin’s 3♦ rebid. When Rankin settled for 3NT, McLeish continued with 4♣ and Rankin raised to slam. Played from the West seat, with the spade tenace protected, 6♣ was an excellent spot. Well bid!

Rankin won the opening trump lead, drew the remaining trumps, and played on diamonds. E/W +1370 and 13 IMPs to LUSK, building on their small advantage.

As the stanza drew to a close, the JACOB team received a late Christmas present. Both East players had to answer the second of this week’s problems on this deal.

It is perhaps a matter of style whether you think it best to start with a take out double or a 1♠ overcall on this East hand. For my money, the approach taken by Renee Cooper (right) is clearly best. If you start with a 1♠ overcall and the auction continues something like 3♣-Pass-Pass or Pass-1NT-3♣ back to you, you can comfortably make a takeout double to get your other two suits into the auction.

If you start with a double and it goes 3♣-Pass-Pass, are you really going to bid 3♠ now? Yes, you could double again but, if you belong in a 5-3 spade fit, how do you rate your chances?

After Cooper’s 1♠ overcall, Jane Reynolds did not mess around and simply raised to game. With the heart finesse working, declarer had to lose just a spade and a diamond. E/W +650 and what looks like it should be a routine flat board, but there was a complete aberration in the replay.

Paula McLeish started with a takeout double on the East hand, and Pele Rankin showed her good hand with a 2♣ cue-bid. It was at this point that McLeish suffered a major brain freeze and passed, leaving her partner to play 2♣ in the 4-0 fit.

The number of tricks made in this ridiculous contract were almost irrelevant. Declarer managed to scramble seven: E/W -100 and a gift 13 IMPs to LUSK.

The stanza finished in a 30-30 tie, so LUSK retained their 6-IMP advantage (110-104) at the midway point of the match.

Early in the fourth set, both South players had to decide what to open on the last of this week’s problems on a deal that presented the E/W pairs with another difficult slam-bidding test.

Jenny Thompson (left) chose to start with a 1♦ opening on the South hand, and Pele Rankin came in with a 1♠ overcall. Paula McLeish’s raise to 4♠ on this excellent hand, with four-card support, a source of tricks, and controls in all of the side suits, seems somewhat unambitious to me. If you have it available, a fit-jump to 3♥ might be the best way to involve partner in the investigation. Whether West has a good enough hand to show enthusiasm is another matter, particularly if South ups the ante quickly.

Thompson wasn’t done yet, and she came again with 5♣ over East’s raise to game. Rankin had nothing to say on the West hand and it was too late now to start investigating slam chances at the five-level, so McLeish simply doubled. Declarer had to lose two diamonds and a trick in each of the other suits: E/W +500 was cheap even against the vulnerable game, let alone slam.

After South’s opening bid, slam seems to be an excellent proposition, with at least one (and probably both) spade honours likely to be onside for declarer. Could E/W get there in the replay?

Sue Lusk (right) is Australia’s most experienced female player. She made her international debut in the Women’s Teams at the 1984 World Team Olympiad in Seattle. She was a member of the Australian team that reached the quarter-final stage of the Venice Cup in both 1987 in Jamaica, and again on home soil in Perth two years later.  Lusk was a member of the Australian team at almost every major championship over a period of more than three decades, although she last represented her country at the 2017 Venice Cup in Lyon.

On this deal, Lusk made things much more difficult for her opponents by opening 3♣ on the South hand. Viv Wood then joined in the fun with a raise to game. Renee Cooper got in with a takeout double at the five-level, but reaching slam with any degree of conviction was a tough ask from here. Allowing her partner some leeway, Jane Reynolds settled for a minimum 5♠ response despite holding reasonable values.

When South’s ♠K appeared on the first round of trumps, it became apparent that this was not the right time to have guessed conservatively. E/W +680 still meant a moderate 5-IMP gain for JACOB thanks to the good result at the other table. The fourth stanza was quiet, and those watching live on BBO VuGraph had to wait until the final deal of the set for the only double-digit swing in the segment.

East/West found their spade fit at the two-level after North’s takeout double of the 1♦ opening. McLeish advanced with a 3♣ game try and Rankin, with a singleton facing her partner’s help-wanted suit, accepted the invitation.

Ella Jacob (left) kicked off with the ♦6 which, on the surface, seems to be good news for declarer. Dummy’s ♦J was allowed to win at trick one, and declarer played a spade to the king and ace. Jacob won with the ♠A and switched to a heart, which Rankin had to win.

The threat of the impending diamond ruff meant that declarer had to draw three rounds of trumps, which she could ill-afford to do. Having drawn trumps, Rankin unblocked the ♦K and exited with a heart, but Thompson was alive to the situation by now. She cashed her ♣K and continued with a second club. Declarer did not have enough trumps left to take care of all of her losers, so she simply discarded on this trick, allowing North to score the fourth defensive trick with the ♣A. E/W -100.

Viv Wood did not double the 1♦ opening, and Renee Cooper responded with a natural 1♠. Reynolds’s jump to 3♣ had numerous meanings, one of which was a four-card spade raise.

Sue Lusk opened her singleton trump, and Wood allowed declarer to win with dummy’s ♠K. With the diamond position unknown at this table, Cooper seems to be in an even more difficult position than her counterpart at the other table. However, having the West hand on display in dummy was to prove critical. When Cooper led dummy’s singleton club at trick two, Wood made what would prove to be the fatal error by rising with the ace. She then continued with the ♠A and a third round of trumps.

Lusk could afford to pitch her low heart on the second round of trumps, but what could she release when the third round was played? She was legitimately squeezed in three suits. She let go of the ♣10, baring her king. Cooper now started diamonds, cashing the king and successfully running the jack. Then came a heart to the ace and the ♦A, declarer pitching the heart loser from her hand. Cooper ruffed a heart back to her hand and ruffed a club, bringing down South’s king. She had to lose a club at the end, but that was only the third defensive trick. A magnificent E/W +620 and 12 IMPs to JACOB.

JACOB won the fourth stanza 30-10, so they would take a 14-IMP lead (134-120) into the fifth stanza. With 32 deals remaining, it is still anybody’s game.

We will be back soon to bring you the best of the action from the closing two sets of this playoff final and to discover who will be representing Australia at the major championships later in the year.