Dealer: W Vul: Nil
NORTH
♠ A952
♥ J106543
♦ K76
♣ —
WEST EAST
♠ 73 ♠ KQ106
♥ AQ ♥ 8
♦ QJ9532 ♦ A1084
♣ Q86 ♣ AK103
SOUTH
♠ J84
♥ K972
♦ —
♣ J97542
The annual Draw Pairs event, which gave lower ranked players the opportunity to play with a higher ranked partner, saw some erratic bidding and some unusual results. At one table the declarer in a spade contract failed by four tricks and still scored well. In today’s featured hand North/South won the auction despite having very few honour cards. They did have complementary voids – in clubs and diamonds respectively.
West opened the bidding with 1D, followed by 2H (weak) by North and 3D by East. South supported partner’s hearts, after which bids were exchanged in diamonds and hearts until East/West reached 5D. Ian House (South) then made what could be the bid of the day – 5H, which became the contract. East led the Ace of clubs which, to East’s surprise, was trumped by declarer (North), who continued with the Jack of hearts.. West won with the Queen and led a spade. North played low and East won with the Queen. Facing a club void in North’s hand and a diamond void in dummy, East was compelled to lead a spade, which North won. The stage was now set for declarer to trump diamonds in dummy (South) and clubs in hand. 5H failed by one trick, conceding only 50 points. East/West would have scored 400 points if they had been allowed to play in 5D. The par contract for East/West was 6NT, which would have been worth 990 points. No one found this bid, but East/West winners, Hilary Price and Dave Hambly did achieve a top score with 490 from twelve tricks in 3NT.
Results, Monday, 25/08/25 (6-table Mitchell, Australia-Wide Pairs): N/S N. Collins M. Simpson (55.3) 1; J. Smith N. McGinness (55.0) 2; T. Hinde N. Bonnell (54.7) 3. E/W D. Reeves M. Glynn (57.3) 1; P. Kelly J. Nankervis (54.7) 2; J. Rose D. Dawes (52.7) 3. Friday, 29/08/25 (5-table Draw Pairs); N/S N. Bonnell I. House (52.9) 1; N. Collins A. Macdonald (52.5) 2. E.W H. Price D. Hambly (67.5) 1; S. Head M. Simpson (58.7) 2.
