Author: lederertrophy

Well done to the pairs in 3NT on Board 44 from match 5 yesterday:

Erik Saelensminde – Simon Gillis
Gyn Liggins – Andrew Dyson
Thor-Erik Hoftaniska – Nicolai Heiberg-Evenstad

Here are the auctions from the 3 pairs. In all cases they identified the spade fit but when given a choice opted to play in NT. 9 tricks is the limit in spades.

Also well done to pairs who made 3NT on board 43. There are several possible lines to try and make the contract after south pre-empts with 3C.

Antonio Palma tried one reasonable solution by cashing the A and K of diamonds in case he finds Qx. He then cashed the A spades and ran the J hoping to pin south’s 10. Sadly for him he lost to the Q and was now 2 off.

Tom Townsend at the other table was one of the successful declarers. He also cashed the top diamonds but then headed to dummy with the A hearts and took a spade finesse. When that worked he played south for Qx of spades and cashed the K spades. Tom then cashes K hearts (just in case there’s a doubleton queen as well!) and then finessed back to dummy’s K9 spades to make the contract.

I’m reliably informed that playing on spades is better than hearts because after the pre-empt having the longer holding over north is likely to be more useful – gives you more chance of picking up the suit for enough tricks. (Thanks Claire Robinson and Paul Barden.)

And well defended Ben Green and Sebastian Atisen on Board 46. Seb opened 1H as East. Ben bid 3C as a 4 card limit raise and after Seb bid 3H Thor Erik Hoftaniska protected as North with 3S. Ben now doubled this in the passout seat which may be essential to win the board if they make 3H (which they did at the other table).

The defense led the ace of diamonds and switched to a trump. Declarer played low so Ben won and played ace and another club to get his ruff and then could give Seb a diamond ruff for +300. In theory they can get 500 if Seb switches to a club at trick two as then he can get two diamond ruffs but that is not at all obvious. In any case a very good double to win some IMPs and the Point-A-Board VPs. (Thanks to Ryan Stephenson for this hand.)

Harris have closed the gap a little after match 6 but Ireland still has an 8-VP lead. Gillis are third by another 5 VPs.

Match 6 scores in detail

This year’s Lederer is the first since Colin Freeman’s death last year. He did invaluable work helping to get the competition established at the RAC and smoothing things for us here. One of the highlights of the event each year for many of us was meeting him again. Colin we miss your warmth, kindness and unfailing courtesy, things aren’t the same without you.

Ireland still ahead by 10 VPs over Harris still second after match 5. Gillis back to third.

Match 5 scores in detail

Good defence from Sabine Auken on Board 25 in Match 3. She and Roy Welland did well initially to push the opps up to 3 spades on the auction below.

Welland leads to AH then small to Auken’s KH. She switches to a small diamond to Welland’s king which Palma wins. He now plays trumps. Auken ducks the first spade, takes the second, cashes the QD and gives Welland a ruff to defeat the contract. Thanks to BBO operator Ryan Stephenson for pointing this one out.

Ireland have a 14 VP lead over Harris who are now in second. Black Adders in third.

Match 4 scores in detail

Ireland lead by just 3 VPs over Periculo. Gillis now in third.

Match 3 scores in detail

Very interesting hand in the first match. Half the field were in slam but 4 of the 5 pairs were either in a hopeless 6H or were playing the contract with south as declarer getting the obvious lead of singleton JH.

Well done to Nicolai Heiberg-Evenstad and Thor Erik Hoftaniska from the de Botton team who right-sided 6S so it was played by North. Auction below. It’s still a bit tricky to make if East leads a heart but underleading Kxxx is pretty unappealing so not a great surprise Ben Norton chose a different lead!

Defending champions Ireland are now leading with Periculo in second and Harris third.

Match 2 scores in detail