20 English Bridge February 2016 www.ebu.co.uk

THE LAST two rounds of the 2015 Gold Cup didn't

include quite so many of the usual suspects. Many

strong teams had fallen before or at the quarterfinal

stage - most notably, the Allfrey team that

contained most of the current England side were

soundly defeated by their captain Simon Cope and

their sometime coach Ben Green in a team

completed by Nicola Smith, Peter Crouch and John

Holland.

That quintet outperformed Peter Lee's team

(Mike Scoltock, David Burn, Ingar Hansen) in one

semi-final; in the other Sally Brock (Barry Myers,

Chris Dixon, Taf Anthias) were up against Simon

Gillis, Zia Mahmood, Tom Hanlon, Boye Brogeland

and Espen Lindqvist. The galaxy of international

superstars didn't contain enough dark matter to

prevent it from falling apart, so the final would see

the partnership of Sally Brock and Nicola Smith on

opposite sides.

It was close. That is, it was close for three of eight

sets at the end of which Brock led by a single IMP.

The fourth set began thus:

West North East South

Smith Dixon Crouch Anthias

1´ 2t 2´

Pass 4´ All Pass

Crouch led tA, ruffed by Dixon who cashed ™A

and crossed to ™K to make the slightly inaccurate

play of a low spade to the nine (it is fractionally

better to run the eight, but that wouldn't have

helped). This lost to Crouch's ´10, and he led his

remaining heart over to his partner's ™Q. Smith

played ´7 and Dixon made the perfectly accurate

but wretchedly unfortunate decision to finesse the

queen. Crouch had a club with which to exit, and

when that suit proved to have a loser the nonvulnerable

game was one down.

West North East South

Brock Green Myers Holland

1´ 3t Pass

Pass Double Pass 4´

Pass Pass Pass

The intermediate jump overcall by Myers silenced

Holland temporarily, but he regarded his side kings

as working hard enough to jump to 4´ at his second

turn. Myers led tK and Green ruffed. He ducked a

heart next, and Brock overtook Myers' ™8 with the

nine in order to shift to ®6. There isn't much to say

about this other than that she would not do it again

E/W Game. Dealer North.

´ A Q 9 4 3

™ A 7 6 5

t Void

® A J 7 5

´ J 7 2 ´ K 10

™ Q 9 4 ™ J 10 8

t J 5 2 t A K 10 9 8 4 3

® Q 10 9 6 ® 4

´ 8 6 5

™ K 3 2

t Q 7 6

® K 8 3 2

N

W E

S

Gold Cup 2015 by David Burn

Match Report

Match Report

click

link

Gold Cup Winners

From left: Simon Cope, Nicola Smith, John

Holland, Peter Crouch and Ben Green