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