Canada Yumps Over Sweden

Watching the world championships always seems like a bridge feast.  It is true that there is a wide range in the quality of the teams at the World Team Championships.  This may not always have been the case but as more teams have been added some of them just don’t measure up to what you might hope for in a world class field.  Still there is lots to watch and enjoy even in the round robin.  With Round 9 out of 21 finished the field is starting to spread out mostly as one would expect.

Let’s start with the Bermuda Bowl.  My picks for the top 8 were:

Italy, Poland, Israel, Netherlands, USA 1, USA 2, China, Icleand

After 9 rounds I have seven of eight right.  China is currently in 10th place with Brazil (which I considered as possible) in eighth.  I also liked ninth place Bulgaria.  The trailing teams Singapore, Chile, Guadeloupe, Pakistan and South Africa would be expected to be near the bottom as they are.  Perhaps the most surprising team is Japan in eleventh.

In the Venice Cup it seems even harder to find 22 teams that can compete.    Are there any surprises at the top?  Yes, there are.  New Zealand is doing surprisingly well and is in sixth place.  But China is in 13th and this is after China had a near blitz against Canada in the last round.  China started badly with  a loss to Japan and in fact didn’t do better than a tie until the eight round when they finally won a match blitzing Australia.  I wonder if the travel and time difference is a problem for them.  There are a lot of teams bunched for 6th through 12th so although France and the Netherlands are not in a qualifying spot they are very close and I would still expect them to move up.  Sweden is leading the pack and has been in first place for a while now.

I was not sure what to expect in the seniors although I did expect both USA teams to make the final eight and so far they are both placed to qualify.  I am not surprised to see France and Poland up there as well.

I think that all Canadian watcher would have hoped that the three Canadian teams would do better than they have so far but it was great to watch the Canadian Bermuda Bowl team have a big match against Sweden in the ninth round winning 66-40 and taking 21 VP.  So let’s have a look at the highlights.  With the score 66 to 45 there were only four pushes and significant swings on the rest of the board, many in double digits.  Things started quietly with three of those four pushes.  On board 5 Canada lost a game and then came Board 6.    After 1♥ -2♥ -4♥  what do you lead from

 

East ♠  K1072 ♥  2 ♦  A9653 ♣  543

If you picked a trump or a club you are a winner.  Upmark led a club and defeated the Canadian game.  At the other table the Swedes were in partscore and got a more favorable lead to make 4.  19 imps for Sweden. 

 

On Board 6 Canada failed to get to a decent heart slam in the  Open Room and made 12 tricks, as did most of the field.  They must have expected this result to be a big loss.  But, Sweden erred and went down in the slam and Canada had started on the comeback trail.  

Do you want to be in 6♣  missing four clubs to the AQ?

Dealer: North Vul: N-S	North ♠ A85  ♥ AQ1094  ♦ J84  ♣ AQ
West ♠ Q64 ♥ J7  ♦ K107  ♣ K10972		East ♠ K1072 ♥  2 ♦  A9653 ♣  543
	South ♠ J93  ♥ K8653  ♦ Q2  ♣  J86

 

There are really no other problems on the hand but missing the trump ace there is always some risk of a ruff.  These days players who use Keycard Blackwood tend to avoid these slams although you can have trouble with clubs.  Here the Swedes did use 4♣ as a form of Blackwood although it isn’t clear to me if they had discerned they were off the trump queen.  Unlucky for Sweden the trump AQ were over the king and there was no chance.  Coming into Board 10 things were more or less tied.  Canada got to a decent slam that Sweden missed. 

 

Dealer: Vul:	Hargreaves♠  K2 ♥ AJ10985 ♦ K65  ♣ A5
West ♠ 9854  ♥ K4  ♦ J932  ♣ 842		East ♠ J7  ♥ Q32  ♦ 10874  ♣ KJ73
	McAvoy♠  AQ1063 ♥  76 ♦ AQ  ♣  Q1097

 Would you rather be in hearts or notrump?  Which side should you play from if you have a choice?  If hearts work than either contract seems fine as long as the opponents can’t set up a quick club trick.  You have slightly more chance in hearts because you might be able to shake a club from the north hand after an opening club lead gone wrong.  On some lie of the cards (hard to think of many) notrump might have a play when hearts don’t work.  Playing from South you would need some kind of club/heart squeeze on West along with a spade break.  Anyway you can figure it out. 

A diamond was led (luckily) and 6NT came home from the South side on a diamond lead after this auction:

Cullin	Hargreaves	Upmark	McAvoy
		Pass	1♠
Pass	2♥	Pass	3♣
Pass	3♥	Pass	3NT
Pass	4NT	Pass	5♥
Pass	6NT	All Pass

Suffice it to say that things continued in this vein and Sweden would like to forget this match!  Was this great bridge?  No.  Was there some luck involved?  Yes.  But Canada had something to cheer about and there is still time for the Canadians to make it up the ranks and into the playoffs.