This is our last visit to the Australian Summer Festival in Canberra, as we have reached the final of the National Open Teams. The teams that have survived two knockout matches have clearly run into form at the pointy end of the competition, when it really matters, as they only qualified in sixth and eighth place respectively from the 77-team Swiss earlier in the week. They are ASHTON (Sophie Ashton, David Beauchamp, Andrew Spooner, Maurits van der Vlugt and Matt Mullamphy) and THOMPSON (Ben Thompson, Renee Cooper, Peter Newman and Matthew Thomson).

The final is played over 64 boards divided into four 16-board segments. As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are West 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 late in the first set, with the E/W pairs dealt a combined 31-count.

With 3-2-5-3 shape, responder would not normally bother to show his minor, and might instead use Puppet (if available) to check for five spades in opener’s hand. The exception is when you have close to slam values, as West does here, so David Beauchamp (left) started with a 2NT transfer. However, when Sophie Ashton showed no diamond fit, Beauchamp gave up and settled for game.

Ashton won the opening spade lead in dummy and called for a low diamond from dummy. The defenders made just the ♦Q and the ♠A. E/W +660.

No matter how long I watch bridge, even with top-level players at the tables, it never ceases to amaze me how often I see something that is, to me, just inexplicable. After the same start to the auction, Matthew Thomson, a regular member of Australia’s Open team since making his debut at the 1995 Bermuda Bowl, bid 3♣, alerted and added the explanation ‘likes diamonds’. Really? Diamonds! Those are the red pointed ones, yes? You have J-x!!!

Having already shown a diamond fit that he didn’t have, Thomson then had a second chance to slow down the auction, by bidding 3NT over Peter Newman’s value-showing 3♠. No, he encouraged his partner by going beyond 3NT with 4♦. I am sorry, dear reader, but I can offer no explanation.

With a 15-count opposite his partner’s strong no-trump and an apparent fit for his long suit, one can hardly blame Newman for rolling out Blackwood now. Two aces without the ♦Q was a disappointing response, so Newman signed off in game, but the damage was potentially already done.

Could Matt Mullamphy (right) find the winning opening lead? Yes, he tabled the ♠A and continued with a second round for his partner to ruff. With the ♦Q still to lose, that was one down in game, despite the combined 31-count. E/W -100 and 1 IMPs to ASHTON. Sure, it was unlucky that the spades broke 6-0, but there could easily have been two natural trump losers anyway. For my money, this was a what tennis commentators call an ‘unforced error’.

Despite this result, THOMPSON bossed the opening set 47-17. This was the first board of the second stanza.

Sophie Ashton came in with a jump to 2♠, which turned out to be exactly the right level to present her opponents with a dilemma. After forcing to game with a natural 3♣, Peter Newman was then charged with solving the first of this week’s problems after his partner’s 3NT rebid. Newman chose to pass: E/W +430 but 6♣ needed nothing more than a 2-1 trump break.

Ben Thompson’s more aggressive 3♠ overcall probably made things easier for E/W.  Andrew Spooner (left) was forced to introduce his long suit at the four-level, and he caught a voluntary 5♣ bid from his partner after North’s spade raise. The raise to slam is surely with the odds now.

The play was quickly over: E/W +920 and 10 IMPs to ASHTON to open the stanza.

ASHTON won an exciting second set 43-31, so they went into the halftime break trailing by 18 IMPs, (60-78). Midway through the next set, both South players had to answer the second of this week’s problems. As on the previous hand, it was again the pair who bid more aggressively who finished with IMPs in the minus column of the scorecard.

Do you double East’s 1♣ opening on that South hand? It looks fairly close to me, and perhaps the answer depends on which day of the week it is. Certainly, put the ♣A in one of the other suits and it would be clear to double. On the actual hand, I have no strong feelings either way, but the decision made quite a difference at the tables here.

Sophie Ashton (right) passed as South and heard her opponents stop in 2♠. David Beauchamp led the ♣K and was greeted with both good and bad news. The good news was that his king won. The bad was that, after winning with the ♣A at trick two, his partner switched to a heart. Declarer had a trump to lose, but that was it. E/W +170. Although repeated heart will hold declarer to nine tricks in spades, which side was happier with this result?

Whilst Ashton had passed the South hand, Ben Thompson (left) doubled in the replay, which significantly changed the nature of the auction. Renee Cooper’s jump to 3♥ had the opposite of the desired effect. Rather than making life difficult for her opponents, it seemed to galvanize them into action.

Spooner re-opened with a double, and now Mullamphy jumped to 4NT, offering a choice of minor-suit games having opened 1♣. Whilst accurate defence would hold a spade contract to nine tricks, there was no winning defence against the minor-suit game. The defenders could get their two top trumps, but that was it. E/W +600 and 10 IMPs to ASHTON.

ASHTON won the third stanza 37-12, thus getting their noses ahead for the first time in the match, and they carried a 7-IMP advantage (97-90) into the final 16-board segment. The fourth set was nip-and-tuck throughout, with neither side opening much of a gap. With just four deals remaining, THOMPSON was clinging to a slender, 7-IMP advantage. This critical deal was a matter of hand evaluation…

Matthew Thomson (right) heard his partner rebid a 22-23 2NT. He advanced with Puppet Stayman just in case his side had a nine-card spade fit. With a combined 30-31 HCP and a distinctly quacky hand, Thomson was not interested in playing game in the eight-card heart fit, so he settled for a simple 3NT.

East led a club, dummy’s queen winning the trick. After a diamond to the ace, declarer played a spade to dummy’s queen. When that lost to the ♠K and a club came back, declarer quickly folded his tent and claimed his ten tricks. N/S +630.

After the same start, Sophie Ashton made the ambitious decision that the South hand was worth a quantitative raise to 4NT. David Beauchamp liked his hand enough to accept the invitation, offering a choice of slams with 5NT. Ashton suggested clubs, but that was not on Beauchamp’s radar and his 6NT ended the auction.

The hands did not fit particularly well and, whilst 6NT was not bereft of play, it needed the defensive cards to lie favourably.

Ben Thompson’s ♦10 opening gave declarer his third trick in that suit although, of course, the finesse was working if he had needed to take it. That got him up to ten tricks. Beauchamp now ‘only’ needed to find East with ♠K, then either spades 3-3 or the club finesse working. When Renee Cooper (left) captured dummy’s ♠Q with her king at trick two, declarer was out of chances. N/S -100 and 12 IMPs to THOMPSON.

THOMPSON won the final stanza 46-19 and thus the match and the title by a 20-IMP margin, 136-116, although perhaps that winning margin slightly flattered the victors in what was a hard-fought from start to finish.

Congratulations to the 2024 Australian National Open Teams champions, THOMPSON: Ben Thompson, Renee Cooper, Matthew Thomson and Peter Newman.

We are heading back to Europe now, but the long way around, across the Pacific. We take that route in order to make a stopover in South America so that we can bring you the best of the action from the final stage of the Brazilian Open trials.