Day 3 from the World Youth Teams Championships in Veldhoven, the Netherlands. Under 26 Coach Michael Byrne has written the below update following the team's progress:
"Day 3 was always going to be tough, as we faced Netherlands, Poland and Greece all of whom are high up in the table, but sadly the 4th match got away from us as well.
The first match against the Netherlands was a close encounter, but a vital swing board went against us in the end. What do you lead from this hand?
A104
QJ754
K1032
6
The auction is quite strange:
W N E S
1C 1H P P
2C P 3S* P
4S P 5C P
6C P P P
3S was intended as a splinter but the opener raised to 4S thinking it might be a spade suit with a penalty pass of hearts. Responder then went back to 5C and opener (now finally cottoning on) raised themself to 6. What now?
It seems that dummy signed off because he didn't have a diamond control, but opener is fairly unlimited, presumably he has a void heart and long club suit, which is why he didn't reopen with a double.
Our player thought a trump might be effective, perhaps thinking that partner was marked with very little.
Sadly that was far from being the case. Partner had the AQ diamonds, and this contract was off 3 top tricks. On a trump lead declarer threw his diamonds on the top hearts and made 12 tricks, just losing the AS.
With the other table making 5C this was a big swing board and we lost by 22 imps.
Match 2 we faced Poland, who are not as strong as they used to be, but the match was high scoring and generally very tired, with lots of errors creeping in for both sides.
How would you play 6H on the hand below?
You get a passive diamond lead, the 8 to the Jack and Ace, on an auction where you have cue bid every suit - what now?
You may think I am about to tell you that trumps come in for no losers, as if they did then you could play KC and a club to the 9, hoping to endplay East with Hx of clubs. (If clubs are 3-3 the spade goes on the 13th club).
Actually when you cash the top trumps they are 3-1 with the opening leader having Q10x, how can you make it from here?
Again you need an endplay, the game will be to finesse in spades, cash the diamonds and spades then both top clubs. Eventually you give up the trump queen and West must give a ruff and discard. (West presumably won't have more than 2 clubs given that they have 3 hearts to their partners 1).
This line would have worked, but only if you guess the QS was in the hand on lead. Was there a way of telling this? It's never certain but the fact that the opening leader chose a passive lead suggests they might have the QS, as sometimes they would have led a spade.
In any event we guessed wrong and lost 11 imps, instead of gaining the same amount, once more we lost by 19 imps.
In Match 3 we faced Canada, who are well down the table, but the majority of their mistakes didn't seem to cost, and on this hand they actually gained:
The bidding goes 1C P 2H to you, what is your call?
1C can be 2 cards and 2H is a weak jump shift, showing 6 hearts and 5-8 points.
A954
43
AK863
QJ
It seems clear to double and show both of the other suits and an opening hand.
The Canadian player chose to bid 3D (which makes my blood run cold) and played there in a 5-1 fit.
The English player on a different auction (P P 2D multi) chose to show 13-15 balanced by doubling, and reached game in the 4-4 spade fit.
I would like to report that justice was done and we gained 12 imps, but sadly the reverse was true. The spades broke 4-1 so 4S had 4 top losers, whilst 3D handled very well as dummy had a trick source in clubs so limped home for +110.
5 imps to Canada was one of the biggest swings of the match.
When we led the wrong suit against 3NT on the penultimate board we dropped another game swing and lost by 19 imps again.
The final match of the day we took on Greece and had a choice of trump suit for slam.
Would you rather play in 6S with the trump suit
KQx AJxxxx
or 6C with this trump suit?
K9863 QJ1072
(You have both a 6-3 fit and a 5-5 fit available on the same deal)
This might seem a random question, but the answer is quite subtle.
If you play in 6C the opponents might lead their singleton spade, win the AC and give their partner a spade ruff.
If you play in 6S then the opponents might lead their singleton club to the ace and get a ruff.
I haven't done the calculations but my gut tells me that 6C is better.
I suppose in a way we were deserving of the slam swing we lost, as we played in 6S and they played in 6C, but 16 imps away on the first hand was a bitter pill to swallow.
The rest of the match was fairly loose, with points flying in both directions, but another heavy loss resulted.
Tomorrow we face both American teams before facing bottom placed Barbados in the evening, so we shall see what that day brings.