Hand from Knockout Final

After last night's November Knockout Final I asked seychelles, captain of the victorious No Strumpets to write up a hand from the final. Modestly she chose a hand that her team was a little lucky on. This was the first board of the extra 4 boards required after Antihomers were behind by one imp at the end of the first 12.

Seychelles explains:


"1C = strong NT hand or distributional with C or D
2H = we must have H our way
4H = intrepid bid by my partner!!! (she is sitting over the C & has S shortage)

We got lucky – with the lead of AS followed by QS.

When East wins the 1st trump, he leads a C which I take with the A on table. After east wins the 2nd trump, he continues C , KC is trumped and I can cross to dummy to discard a losing diamond on JC (I had decided that east had already shown all his points – he would have x with the strong NT type - therefore I decided that the ruffing finesse in C was necessary)

At the other table east opened a precision style 2c and there it played. This made an overtrick and we collected 11 imps."

- Well played seychelles and congratulations again to No Strumpets on their win. I do feel a bit for dolbeldjd however. With no attractive lead he chose to risk that the KS was either with partner or dummy. Partner in fact turned out to have 2 of the 3 outstanding kings, but not the king of the suit that he had bid! Looking at all four hands it is clear an early diamond switch will defeat the contract but looking only at the east hand when a diamond risks either blowing a trick or saving declarer from a guess.

NO STRUMPETS take Knockout

No Strumpets came from behind to win the close and exciting finale to the November Knockout tonight. Runners up Antihomers were leading 21-14 with three boards to play but then the No Strumpets got a total of 4 vulnerable undertricks when Antihomers were in partscores at both tables. That was worth 9 imps and Antihomers could only get 1 imp on the last two boards so it was 23-22 after 12 boards.

Under the rules of the event Antihomers had an ace up their sleeve. Because they had won all their games in qualifying for the final they were able to call on an extra 4 boards. This they duly did but when No Strumpets claimed 20 imps off the first two of these boards it was all but over.

There was still interest down to the last board as a bidding accident saw No Strumpets playing in partscore when a vulnerable slam is makeable. However, the lead was 17 imps and the reward for bidding and making the slam would only have been 16 imps! As it happens the slam which needs a bit of good guessing was neither bid nor made at the other table but the vulnerable game pulled back 11 imps to leave the final score 43-37.

Congratulations to No Strumpets who are:
seychelles aka Gillian Gonthier
egmont aka Trish Anagnostou (an ex pat Kiwi currently in Malaysia)
mairi62 aka Mairi Bristow
kermit aka Pam Livingston
(mwb aka Matthew Bristow filled in for the Final because kermit was tied up playing the Fall Nationals in San Diego!)

In the Plate Final the Central Gnats prevailed over Homers Heros by 39-10. Congratulations to noelwz/ljs/mastersg/toddnz. Although it has to be said that in the last two weeks Central Gnats had help from no less that 5 subs! These were kiwi_joker/ceejae, jenstar/nable and buch99.

Thats it for kiwi teams for 2009. We start again on 1st March 2010. I hope all participants enjoyed kiwi teams this year and will be back for more next year!

Results of All Matches Played 30th November

8pm:
Nov Knockout:
Cup Final:
Match 1: Antihomers: abeljan/andrewnz & hda/dolbeldjd lost to NO STRUMPETS: seychelles/egmont & mairi62/mwb 37-43 (16 Boards)
Plate Final:
Match 2: Homer's Heros: patricck/qwikjanz & barry/jenm lost to Central Gnats: buch99/noelwz & jenstar/nable 10-39
Casuals:
Match 3: Beauty & the Beast: trudy nz/gogga & nztipg8/halfbach beat Blinking Hamsters: blinkers/sandrac & hamster_nz/glennis 39-26
Match 4: Browns: hamish32/jo99nz & bob32/sue52 beat Steve’s Crew: alp_45/blithe & best_minor/tkkiwi 70-22
Match 5: Bright Gals: gypsy1308/bassy1 & homelea/robealley lost to Endangered Species: jaymac/kotuku & tehenga/rhonddaswe 20-30
Match 6: Tara’s Tribe: tarakiwi/diatribe & bruzo/mgmq beat Why’s Jokers: kiwi_joker/ceejae & janwhy/daisymb 43-8
9.30 pm Casuals:
Match 7: Stroppy Homers: patrick/barry & gambler3/stroppy lost to Half Bananas: steffbanan/diatribe & nztipg8/halfbach 1-44
Match 8: NZ NZ: hamish32/jo99nz & nz 7227/ hamster_nz lost to Best Gypsy: best_minor/tkkiwi & gypsy1308/ngaamotek 18-29
Match 9: Kiwis: hayden1/hermman & kotuku/woefuljoke lost to Kiwis + World: nzgirl/lfeather & ronbek/bcmandal 34-57

November Knockout - Full Draw for Finals

Cup Final:
Match 1: Antihomers: abeljan/andrewnz & hda/dolbeldjd v NO STRUMPETS: seychelles/egmont & mairi62/mwb

Plate Final:
Match 2: Homer's Heros: patricck/qwikjanz & barry/jenm v Central Gnats: ljs/noelwz & jenstar/nable