Day 3: Coutts into the semi-finals

NZ National Congress – New Zealand Open Teams, quarter-final

Team Coutts beat Pelkman (Rachelle Pelkman, Marcus Dudley, Gary Foidl and Brett Glass) by 128.9 IMPs to 80 over 48 boards, and are through to the semi-finals.

The quarter-final, set by set

As top qualifiers we started with a carry-over of 6.9 IMPs.

Set	Coutts	Pelkman
Carry-over	6.9	0
Set 1	26	28
Set 2	41	20
Set 3	35	11
Set 4	20	21
Total	128.9	80

After a close first set, a strong second set put us 26 IMPs ahead at the halfway point. George and I sat out the third set, and our teammates extended the lead to almost 50. The last set was flat.

All six of us played their part: Samuel Coutts and Brad Johnston, Jessica Brake and Jack James, George and me.

The other quarter-finals

Match	Result
Joel v Carter P	118.1 – 95
Ware v Davies	162.2 – 67.67
Cormack v Fraser-Hoskin	86.7 – 102

Hand of the day: a slam for our teammates

Set 3, board 10. Dealer East, both sides vulnerable.

              ♠ A K Q 10 5 2
              ♥ 10 6
              ♦ K J
              ♣ A Q 9
♠ 8 7 6 4                 ♠ —
♥ 9 5                     ♥ A K Q J 8 7 4 3 2
♦ 10 9 4 2                 ♦ Q 6
♣ J 6 5                   ♣ 7 2
              ♠ J 9 3
              ♥ —
              ♦ A 8 7 5 3
              ♣ K 10 8 4 3

East has a nine-card heart suit, and North-South have a slam: 7♠ and 7♣ both make.

Jack James and Jessica Brake bid to 6♣ doubled and made all 13 tricks: +1740. At the other table North-South stopped in 5♠, also making 13 tricks, for +710. That was 14 IMPs to Coutts.

With a void in hearts opposite two small, North-South have no losers in the suit. Facing a long heart suit from East, it is easy to stop short; our teammates didn't, and the double made it even better.

Pam and Barbara in the Restricted Swiss Pairs

From team Edler, Pam Murphy and Barbara Giizel are playing the NZ Restricted Swiss Pairs. After 6 of 12 matches they have five wins and a loss, and are 23rd with 67.93 VPs. Keep it going!

Tomorrow

The semi-final: Coutts v Fraser-Hoskin, who beat Cormack in their quarter-final. We met them in the qualifying and won by 18 IMPs, but a knockout is a different game. Fraser Rew and Joe Haffer were our teammates in the Asia Cup in Goa and the Spring Nationals in Sydney. They are playing with Geo Tislevoll a Norwegian expat living in NZ and Jeremy Fraser-Hoskin a young Kiwi expert. A lot of talent in this team, this should be interesting!

In the other semi-final, Joel play Ware, seeds 2 v 3.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Hugh

South

North