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Blood and Sand
Women Series
South Africa v Egypt

You will realise that we have stolen our title from the famous silent movie that starred Rudolph Valentino. He was the darling of the women of America so it could be considered appropriate to dedicate our first report on the Women's Championship to the famous Latin lover.

Apart from that, the Imps poured all over the table and there is certainly a lot of sand in Egypt!

Board 2
N/S Vul
Dealer East

			-
			K 10 7 5
			K 7 3
			K 9 8 7 5 3
	K J 6 5	N W E S			10 9 7 4 2
	A Q 8 6 2				J
	9 4				A Q J 10 5 2
	A J				10
			A Q 8 3
			9 4 3
			8 6
			Q 6 4 2

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Adrain	Nada	Hulett	Falak
		Pass	Pass
1	Pass	1	Pass
3	Pass	4	All Pass

Polish players have been using a system of responses called 'Mafia' - a mnemonic for 'Majors always first in answering' - and that policy worked well on this occasion.

South led the eight of diamonds which collected the nine, king and ace. Declarer now played the nine of spades and when South followed with the three, put up dummy's king.
That meant that twelve tricks were no longer possible, but the contract was not in danger.

Declarer cashed the ace of clubs and ruffed a club.he then played a spade, taken by South with the queen. The heart switch was taken by dummy's ace. At this point the play record stops, stating the contract was one down. Presumably East made the mistake of playing a trump which allows South to win and force declarer by playing a heart.

That was careless as with careful play you can arrive at twelve tricks in a spade contract. It was clearly an opportunity for Egypt.

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Lily	Modlin	Maud	Mansell
		Pass	Pass
1	2	2	2
2NT	3	3	Dbl
All Pass

Doubling Three Spades with four card support for partner was dangerous in the extreme.

Declarer won the club lead with dummy's ace and took a diamond finesse. She played the ten of spades and South took the ace to switch to a heart. Declarer put up dummy's ace, ruffed a club and played a spade for the eight and jack.

Now she repeated the diamond finesse and could simply play diamonds. There was nothing South could do to prevent twelve tricks. That was +830 and 13 IMPs.

Board 5
N/S Vul
Dealer North

			Q J 6
			9 4
			A J 10 4
			A Q 3 2
	K 10 8 5 4 3 2	N W E S			9
	A K 5 2				J 10 7 6
	8				9 7 6 5 3
	8				K 10 6
			A 7
			Q 8 3
			K Q 2
			J 9 7 5 4

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Adrain	Nada	Hulett	Falak
	1	Pass	2
2	2NT	Pass	3NT
All Pass

When East led the nine of spades declarer put up dummy's ace and played a club to the queen and king. East was not hard pressed to switch to the jack of hearts, giving the defenders six tricks, two down and +100.

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Lily	Modlin	Maud	Mansell
	1NT	2!	Dbl
2	3	Pass	3NT
4	Dbl	5	Dbl
5	Dbl	All Pass

Two Diamonds was part of the DONT convention championed by Mike Lawrence. It is certainly designed to be a disruptive method, but even so we are not 100% sure he would endorse its use on this particular East hand!

East was promising a major so when south doubled West bid Two Hearts expecting that to be her partner's suit. That was slightly conservative - the defence has to be careful to defeat Four Hearts, forcing the West hand by leading diamonds - and an invitational Three Spades might be considered.

The problems started when South bid 3NT. Imagining that East's suit was now spades, West bid a game that would almost certainly be cold if East did have four spades.
The guns opened fire and doubt set in - the only possible explanation for the final resting place chosen by East/West. The defence gave nothing away and defeated the contract by the maximum of six tricks, collecting a penalty of +1400.

Mike's advice is 'DONT is a great defence as long as you DONT use it on the wrong hand!'

Board 8
None Vul
Dealer West

			K 5 2
			K Q 5 3
			10 4 2
			10 4 2
	J 7 6 4	N W E S			8 3
	J 7 4				10 9 8 2
	J 7 3				K 9 8 6
	Q J 6				9 8 7
			A Q 10 9
			A 6
			A Q 5
			A K 5 3

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Lily	Modlin	Maud	Mansell
Pass	Pass	Pass	2
Pass	2	Pass	2NT
Pass	3	Pass	3
Pass	3	Pass	3NT
All Pass

A well controlled Puppet Stayman auction saw North/South stop safely.

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Adrain	Nada	Hulett	Falak
Pass	Pass	Pass	2
Pass	2NT	Pass	3
Pass	4	Pass	6NT
All Pass

The modern style with the North hand is to respond Two Diamonds. That way you avoid wrong siding the contract if no-trumps is where you want to play, life always being harder for the defenders when the strong hand is concealed.

However there is nothing wrong with 2NT but one cannot say the same for Three Clubs. When North raised South bid what she hoped her partner could make.

East led the nine of hearts and declarer went up with the ace. Her next move was to cash the ace of spades and then play the nine of spades to the king.

As you will need three club tricks in any event, it must be right to postpone the decision in spades. Doubtless it would not have helped this time unless declarer was inspired but as it was the contract had to go one down, -50 and 11 Imps to South Africa.

			A 10 8
			Q 8 6 5 4
			9 3
			K Q 8
	Q 6 4	N W E S			K 9
	K				A 9 2
	8 5 4 2				A K Q J 7 6
	J 10 9 7 3				6 2
			J 7 5 3 2
			J 10 7 3
			10
			A 5 4

Closed Room
West	North	East	South
Adrain	Nada	Hulett	Falak
	1	2	3
			All Pass

East cashed a top diamond and switched to a club. The king of spades would have set up a defensive ruff but it is not an easy play to find.

Declarer won in hand and ruffed a diamond. It looks plain sailing from here but declarer lost her way and finished one down, -50.

Open Room
West	North	East	South
Lily	Modlin	Maud	Mansell
	Pass	1	Pass
1NT	Pass	3NT	All Pass

When North passed - by no means unreasonable - it gave East/West a chance that they took with both hands.

Declarer won the opening heart lead in hand and played a small spade. North went up with the ace and switched to the king of clubs but the defenders could only cash three tricks in the suit and declarer claimed the rest and 11 badly needed Imps.

South Africa went on to have the better of some heavy exchanges and Egypt's cause was not helped when one of their players fell foul of the mobile telephone regulations.