Welcome back the national capital, Canberra, for the Australian Summer Festival, where we have reached the semi-final stage of the National Open Teams. In one match, it is the winners of the Swiss qualifier, LAZER (Warren Lazer, Pauline Gumby, Arjuna de Livera, Andrew Braithwaite, Neil Ewart and Ian Robinson) against ASHTON (Sophie Ashton, David Beauchamp, Andrew Spooner, Maurits van der Vlugt and Matt Mullamphy). In the other, it is TRAVIS (Lauren Travis, Joshua Tomlin, Joachim Haffer, Philip Markey, David Appleton and Brad Coles) against THOMPSON (Ben Thompson, Renee Cooper, Peter Newman and Matthew Thomson). The VuGraph coverage focused on the first of those two matches.

Matches are of 64 boards divided into four 16-board segments. As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are East holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start our coverage early in the first set.

Andrew Braithwaite opened 1♠ on the South hand and North responded with 1NT. I was going to set the East hand as a problem, but I suspect that most of you, like me, would think that overcalling 2♦ is blindingly obvious. Holding what is essentially a moderate one-suited hand, Sophie Ashton’s decision to double is a mystery to me. When her partner competed in clubs, she then decided to take another bid, advancing with a 3♠ cue-bid. South’s double forced her to retreat to 4♣, and thus David Beauchamp (left) found himself in a Moysian fit at the four-level.

North led a spade, Braithwaite winning and switching to a heart. Declarer can theoretically make ten tricks, but there is a lot of work to be done. Beauchamp won the heart switch in his hand and played a diamond, winning with the ♦A when North put in the queen. His chances of ten tricks came crashing down when he then tried to cash the ♦K and South ruffed. He now won the heart continuation and crossruffed his way to nine tricks. E/W -100 and, with N/S only able to make eight tricks in spades, this looked like a self-inflicted minus score for E/W. Teammates to the rescue…

Matt Mullamphy (right) chose to open the South hand with a 4♠ pre-empt, which set Neil Ewart a much sterner test on the East cards. With 18 IMPs on the line, did you Pass, Double or bid 5♦ on the first of the problems above?

Ewart’s decision to brave the five-level was greeted with a sharp double from Andrew Spooner. Declarer lost two trumps and a trick in each major: E/W -500 and 9 IMPs to ASHTON.

Passing 4♠ would get you +100 and 5 IMPs. Doubling, assuming that West passes, as seems fairly clear, would have collected +300 and gained 9 IMPs in the opposite direction.

The first set finished with ASHTON ahead by 4 IMPs, 36-32. Almost everyone has some conventions on their card that almost never come up. When the rare situation does arise, how sure are you that you will remember what you agreed five years before?

Ian Robinson (left) passed as dealer and then had to make a decision at the five-level on his second turn. With no certainty who could make what, 5♥ looks like a sensible two-way shot. In fact, both sides are cold for 11 tricks. Who is supposed to bid a five-over-five fifth spade on the E/W cards? Very difficult.

There were just two black-suit aces to lose: N/S +650 and advantage LAZER. Would anyone manage to bid on over 5♥ at the other table?

When Warren Lazer did not open the West hand, the chances of E/W outbidding their opponents at the five-level seemed to recede into the long grass. However, at his second turn, he showed both black suits with a 1NT intervention and Andrew Spooner jumped to Blackwood. I strongly suspect that Pauline Gumby (right) did not realize she was bidding 5♠ to make, but that matters little on the scorecard. It is a curious anomaly that it was the table at which West did not open where E/W got to 5♠

Do you remember whether you play DOPI, DEPO or DOPE with your various partners? When, if ever, did you last actually discuss it? It’s the sort of convention that tends to get added to convention cards with little thought. South alerted his pass of 5♠, presumably expecting it to show one key card (as in Double 0 Pass 1 or Double Even Pass Odd). I will leave you to decide whether Spooner knew his partner had only one ace and made the excellent decision that 5♠ was making and he needed to save, or whether he thought the pass showed two key cards (Double Odd Pass Even) and thus he was bidding 6♦ to make.

The defenders duly made their two tricks. N/S -100 and 13 IMPs to LAZER thanks to the excellent result at the first table.

ASHTON just edged this stanza too, winning it 46-41, so they led by 9 IMPs (92-83) halfway through this semi-final match. Midway through the third stanza, came another of those decisions that swung 18 IMPs.

Arjuna de Livera did not come in over South’s 1♠ opening, and N/S quickly reached their spade game. There were three top losers and, with the ♥K offside, declarer was always one down. E/W +100, a result that had potential for a swing in either direction.

Spooner decided that the West hand was worth a takeout double of the 1♠ opening, and Gumby made a pre-emptive raise to 3♠. When Mullamphy then jumped to 5♦, Warren Lazer (left) was left with the second of this week’s problems. Pass, Double and 5♠ are all possible options. Let’s think about the play/defend choice.

How likely is it that partner holds a singleton diamond? Your doubleton is the worst possible holding in a suit effectively bid and supported by the opponents, as partner will often also have a doubleton. If you have two diamond losers, your chances in 5♠ are clearly not good. Even if partner has the ♠A, and there is no guarantee that she will, then the heart finesse rates to be failing. Indeed, you could even have two heart losers. Are you yet convinced that bidding 5♠ is not the right choice?

Whilst it is true that East jumped to 5♦ when he didn’t have to, perhaps he is taking an advanced save on the assumption that you were going to bid 4♠ anyway. I think this tilts the odds in favour of Double rather than Pass.

Lazer chose to bid 5♠ and quickly lost the obvious four tricks. E/W +500 and 9 IMPs to ASHTON. How do you think 5♦-Doubled will fare on a trump lead? Suppose declarer wins in dummy and plays a club to the ten and your ace, and you continue with a second trump. Declarer does not have enough entries to dummy to set up the clubs. He can take one spade ruff, but you still have a spade and two hearts to make for a penalty of +500 and 9 IMPs in the other column.

ASHTON edged another close set, this time 42-37. They had built a 14-IMP lead (124-110) with 16 boards remaining. By the midway point of the set, the match score had advanced to 150-111. Then another of those conventions that most of us have on our cards but probably never discuss with partner put in an appearance. A misunderstanding kept the door slightly ajar for a late LAZER comeback…

Neil Ewart (right) started with a 1♦ overcall on the East hand (as I suspect most people would). N/S found their 4-3 spade fit but Ewart rebid his suit, ending the auction.

Maurits van der Vlugt kept defensive chances alive by leading a spade. Winning with the ♠K, how should North continue? David Beauchamp switched to a trump. Ewart won in hand and advanced the ♠10, giving Beauchamp a second chance, but the ten was allowed to win. Declarer crossed to the ♦J, cashed the ♥A to pitch a club, then continued with a club to the queen, king and ace. The favourable club position, with the remaining two high honours coming down, meant that declarer’s ♣9 became Ewart’s ninth trick. E/W +110.

To beat the contract, North has to cash his second high spade before playing a trump. Declarer can discard two clubs on the ♥A and a high spade before North ruffs in, but he will still have three club losers at the end.

I would guess that most pairs playing at your local club play the Unusual NT. In these days when a 1♣ opening is often made on three and sometime a doubleton, there is certainly a case for using a 2NT overcall to show both minors rather than the two lowest unbid suits. That was clearly what Matt Mullamphy intended when he essayed 2NT over North’s 1♣ opening. The problem was that Andrew Spooner expected his partner’s two long suits to both be red. He jumped to game in hearts, then signed off when his partner made what he assumed was a slam try with a club control.

Very wisely, Mullamphy guessed a wheel had come off and passed before it occurred to someone to start doubling. Declarer managed to score seven tricks: E/W +400 the hard way and 11 IMPs to LAZER.

This is the sort of misunderstanding that you might expect to see in a local club game. From a regular partnership playing in a National final? I suppose it just goes to show that experts are as capable of finishing face down in the deep stuff as the rest of us.

LAZER managed to narrow the gap over the remaining boards, but never really got within striking distance. ASHTON won the final stanza 41-25 and the match by 30 IMPs (165-135). In the other semi-final, a 46-1 second stanza gave THOMPSON a 55-IMP lead (74-19) at the halfway point. There was no second-half rally from TRAVIS, so THOMPSON eventually won by 178-123.

The final of the 2024 National Open Teams will be ASHTON v THOMPSON.

We will be back soon with the best of the action from that final.