Welcome to Adelaide, South Australia, and the 2023 Autumn Nationals. This city the size of San Diego, California was established in 1836 and is known as Tarndanya in the language of the local Kaurna people. We are here for the final of the 2023 Australian National Open Teams. The two teams who have reached the final include a number of Australia’s top players as well as a couple of overseas stars; they are HANS (Sartaj Hans, Hugh McGann, Michael Ware and Matthew McManus) and NEILL (Bruce Neill, Julian Foster, David Weston and Kim Morrison).

The format is a 56-board match divided into four 14-board segments.

As usual, we begin with some problems. Firstly, with only your opponents vulnerable, you are in the East seat with:

What do you bid?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are East holding:

What do you bid?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, a lead problem. With both sides vulnerable, you are sitting South and hear:

What do you lead?

While you contemplate those, we start with this hand from early in the opening stanza, on which one East player had to answer the first of the problems above.

David Weston passed the East hand in second seat, and then had to decide how to advance after his partner’s 2♦ overcall of South's 1♠ opening. I don’t know how many times we have talked about the importance of agreeing a trump suit early in order to facilitate reaching the correct level, but this hand is a case in point. Rather than immediately agreeing diamonds with, let’s say, a 3♠ splinter or perhaps a fit-jump to 3♥, Weston introduced his moderate heart suit without telling his partner about the diamond fit.

Julian Foster was understandably not enthralled by his partner’s heart bid and thus, after Hugh McGann’s jump to 3♠, he had nothing to contribute. When Weston belatedly supported diamonds, could Foster really do any more than simply raise to game, facing a passed hand with heart values?

There was nothing to the play. E/W +420.

A native Kiwi, Michael Ware (left) made his first international appearance in the New Zealand Junior team at the 1993 World Youth Championships. He made his debut in his country’s Open team in 2009 and was a member of the most successful Kiwi team ever, just missing out on a medal, finishing fourth, at the 2017 Bermuda Bowl.

Matthew McManus did open the East hand, with 1♣ showing 10-20 HCP and at least four hearts. Ware made a negative double of South’s 1♠ overcall and McManus rebid 1NT to show a minimum. A series of relays then told Ware that his partner held a 1-5-4-3 shape, and Ware then advanced with 4♣, ostensibly natural, setting the suit. McManus’s hand was so minimum that he simply raised to game. Ware now knew both that he was not facing massive wastage in hearts (no heart cue-bid) and also that a top trump must be missing (no diamond cue-bid), thus ruling out 7♦.

Again, the play was the easy part: E/W +920 and 11 IMPs to HANS, who finished the first stanza with a 20-IMP advantage, 29-9.

Midway through the second stanza, came a very difficult deal for the E/W pairs.

Matthew McManus opened 1♦ (showing 4+♠) and Michael Ware responder with a 4♦ splinter bid, agreeing spades. Kim Morrison’s 4♥ intervention then left McManus with the second of this week’s problems.

Ware’s jump to 6♠ was surely going to end the auction if Bruce Neill had not joined in at the seven-level. Ware’s double simply denied first-round heart control, so McManus was never likely to be tempted to do anything except pass. Theoretically, E/W can take 1100 out of 7♥-X, but would you have found the diamond lead from that East hand? Nor did McManus: he opened a top club and continued with a second club at trick two. The defenders thus came to the ♥K and the ♠A for three down: E/W +500.

The key here is finding out that West’s diamond shortage is a void rather than a singleton, and many expert partnerships employ a 3NT response to show an unspecified void, so that 4♣/4♦/4♥ are always specifically a singleton rather than just any shortage. (You can also play it the other way around, 3NT showing any singleton and the immediate jump promising a void.) That would have been a useful weapon to have had on this deal.

Julian Foster (right) made his international debut as a member of Australia’s Mixed Team at the 2022 World Championships in Salsomaggiore.

On this deal, he also started with a 4♦ splinter in response to his partner’s natural 1♠ opening. Here, too, North also overcalled 4♥, but David Weston advanced with Blackwood. Foster’s double of South’s 5♦ showed one key card and he then showed the ♥K and the ♠Q in response to Weston’s 5♥ queen-ask. When North then backed in with 7♦, what did Weston’s pass show. The conventional meaning would first-round diamond control, but did Weston intend it here to show heart control? That certainly seems to have been Foster’s interpretation, so he jumped to the excellent grand slam. Well judged on both sides of the table! E/W +2210 and 17 IMPs to NEILL, tying the match at 42-42.

NEILL gained on the remaining boards of the stanza and led by 6 IMPs (50-44) at the midway point of the final. I rarely set two problems from the same deal, but both the third and fourth problem this week come from this deal midway through the third stanza.

A rapid auction left David Weston with the third of this week’s bidding problems after his partner had doubled South’s 5♦ bid. The winning bid would appear to be 5♥, as the defenders can get no more than two aces and a ruff against that contract. West’s double is quite understandable, but defending 5♦-X is certainly not the winning option. The defence could never get more than a spade and a trump: N/S +750.

Not that it was a nailed-on certainty that this was a winning result…

Hugh McGann (left) made his first international appearance in the Irish Junior team at the 1988 European Youth Championships. He made his debut in his country’s Open team in 1994 and, playing with Tom Hanlon, has now been a fixture in that team for the best part of three decades. They reached the quarter-finals at the 2004 World Team Olympiad, collected silver medals at the 2006 European Team Championships, and again just missed out at the 2012 World Team Olympiad, finishing fourth. Hugh also narrowly missed a medal, again finishing fourth, playing with England’s Fiona Brown in the 2006 World Mixed Pairs.

After the same start to the auction, Bruce Neill did not bid 5♦ on the South hand having pre-empted at his first turn. When Kim Morrison then rebid his eight-card suit independently, McGann bid five-over-five in his long suit. That left Neill with the lead problem posed earlier.

Leading the singleton heart (or cashing the ♣A and switching to the heart) would have enabled the defenders to take the first five tricks via two aces, two heart ruffs and a club ruff. Doubling and finding the winning defence would have meant N/S +800 and a 2-IMP gain for NEILL. When Neill instead led his partner’s suit against the undoubled contract, declarer was able to ruff away North’s ♦A, draw trumps, and concede just the two aces. N/S -650 and a spectacular 17 IMPs to HANS.

HANS won the third stanza 47-6 to take a commanding lead of 34 IMPs (91-57) into the final set. After a quiet start to the final stanza, the leaders padded their lead to 46 IMPs when they bid a slam on a finesse that was not bid at the other table. The chasing team picked up a couple of small gains but then came something more substantial.

David Weston’s vulnerable 4♣ overcall made it past Sartaj Hans and Hugh McGann had no reason to back in at that level on his very minimum opening bid. Hans led his singleton diamond to the ace, but declarer correctly played low on the diamond return. Hans scored his ruff but declarer’s only other loser was the ♣K. N/S +130.

The auction was much more exciting in the replay.

There are no alerts or explanations in the VuGraph records, but the subsequent auction strongly suggests that Michael Ware’s 3♣ overcall showed both minors (in which case, perhaps either 2♣ or 4♣ are better options with 5-7 shape).

Not only did South’s overcall fail to shut out West’s spade support, but Kim Morrison actually jumped to game on his shapely 6-count. Matthew McManus doubled on the North cards and, although declarer’s only obvious losers are two hearts and one spade, perhaps the 4-0 trump break would mean that there is just too much work for declarer to be able to make ten tricks. Ware was not prepared to take the chance on his extreme shape and came again with 5♣.

As we have already seen, the defenders can get only three tricks against a club contract. When McManus gave preference to diamonds, though, the defence seemed to be in better shape. Ware led the ♣Q to dummy’s ace and declarer immediately played a second round of the suit. Morrison won with the ♣K and played a third club. Declarer can still get out for one down if he ruffs with the ♦J but, when McManus ruffed with the eight, Ware overruffed with the ♦9 and now the defenders had four tricks. N/S -500 and 13 IMPs to NEILL.

NEILL outscored their opponents 27-1 over the second half of the set, but it was not quite enough. NEILL won the set 29-14, but HANS had hung on to win the match by 22 IMPs, 108-86.

Congratulations to the 2023 ANOT champions, pictured left-to-right: Michael Ware, Sartaj Hans, Hugh McGann and Matthew McManus.

We have another lengthy flight now as we are headed for Asia and, specifically, Lahore in Pakistan. That is the venue for the 22^nd BFAME Championships, and we are hoping to make it in time to bring you the best of the action from the Open and Women’s teams.