Lederer Cup 2008 Corrected
The Young Chelsea Bridge Club in London England calls itself one of the world’s great bridge clubs.
Each year they host the Richard Lederer Memorial Cup, an invitational event for eight teams (started in 1945) featuring stars of the English and Irish team, star international players. as well as winners of the Y.C. knockout. It sounds like fun to watch and to play in.
According to the Bridge Encyclopedia, Richard Lederer was a bridge club owner, writer and expert and was one of the first great figures in British bridge. His club was the premier club in Londonand home to many of the great British players of the 1930’s and 1940’s.
There also was a Tony Lederer who was a bridge writer, broadcaster, international player teacher and the proprietor of Lederer’s Club and the Regency Bridge Club. Originally I mistakenly thought he was the one being remembered. Tony was Richard’s son and instituted the competition in memory of his father, Richard.
I decided to take a look at the final match of the Lederer Cup which was on BBO this afternoon. Going into this match after 6 rounds Gold Cup was somewhat ahead of Ireland but they were not playing each other. Still Gold Cup had to do fairly well in their match to assure victory.
Playing North-South in the Open Room for Gold Cup was Tony Forester and David Bakhsi with Alexander Allfrey and Tony Robson East-West in the Closed Room.
Playing East-West for Holders in the Open Room was Gunnar Hallberg and Andrew McIntosh with David Price and Colin Simpson playing North-South in the Closed Room.
The board that clinched the victory was a grand slam hand. Slam hands are always fun. Forrester and Bakhsi reached 7♠ on Board 34 to win 13 imps. Let’s look at their auction.
| Forrester | ||
| ♠ AJ83 | ||
| ♥ 964 | ||
| ◊ QJ4 | ||
| McIntosh | ♣ J92 | Hallberg |
| ♠ — | ♠ 1076 | |
| ♥ Q105 | ♥ J732 | |
| ◊ 8653 | ◊ 107 | |
| ♣ AQ10643 | ♣ K875 | |
| Bakhshi | ||
| ♠ KQ9542 | ||
| ♥ AK9 | ||
| ◊ AK92 | ||
| ♣ — |
North-South Vulnerable; Dealer East
| McIntosh | Forrester | Hallberg | Bakhshi |
| pass | 1♠ | ||
| 2♣ | 2♠ | 3♣ | 3◊ |
| pass | 4♣ | dbl | rdbl |
| 5♣ | pass | pass | 6♣ |
| pass | 6♥ | pass | 6♠ |
| pass | 7♠ | all pass |
I suppose there is an argument for opening the South a forcing bid since if partner has a few spades you might make game opposite a yarborough but I prefer Bakhshi’s 1♠. The next few bids make Bakhsi’s hand better and better. 3◊ seems to be a game try (initially in diamonds) with some length in that suit. 4♣ showed a great hand for the auction since Tony has great spades and diamond cards. Hallberg’s double of the club bid was no doubt lead directing but helped North-South out. Tony’s pass of 5♣ was forcing and encouraging (an “undouble”) and when Bakhshi made a grand slam try with 6♣ Tony had enough for seven.
Perhaps it was harder to get to the grand in the closed room. The auction started pass-1♠-3♣-3♠-4♣. See if you can think of a way to get there after that start. Maybe something like
4◊-4♠
5♣-5♠
6♣-6◊
6♥-7♠
It is certainly not clear at either table. Getting to a grand with a void and the opponents using up the space is very hard. Well done to Forester-Bakhshi.
For fun you might want to watch the prizegiving form the 2007 cup
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