Women's Teams, The Fall of Rome?

Day Eight World Bridge Games,  Sunday September 11

Our 96-board marathon - hopefully the first of many - was interrupted by a proper one, involving sweat, tears and far too much running, in the city of Wroclaw.  The playing venue became temporarily unavailable and for this reason, we have enjoyed some rest with play due to resume at 17:30.   When it does, England will be protecting a healthy lead of 130 IMPs to 68 IMPs over our Italian opponents.

Other scores in the event (all with 32 boards remaining):

China      142  Chinese Taipee    105   (we expect to play the winners in the next round)
Sweden      207  New Zealand    117
USA            182   Australia        119
Netherlands 135   Scotland          95
Germany     130    Norway         132
Turkey         111    Poland          138
France         158    Spain           108

One of the boards that helped us along our way was the following:

Picking up AQ98742, void, KJ53, Q10 at love all, Heather Dhondy heard her partner, Nevena Senior, begin proceedings with a bid of 1D, which was overcalled with 1H.   1S seemed appropriate at this juncture but further opposition bidding gave a diffcult rebid problem - whether to bid game in spades or diamonds.   Heather chose the ten trick game in spades and her LHO placed the red card on the table.  Upon enquiry as to the meaning of the double, the Italian West, by way of explanantion, very purposefully ran her fingernail under her chin. This did not bode well for the play in 4S and  Heather beat a hasty retreat to 5D.   Now it was down to Nevena to bring home the 11-trick game.

AQ98742         On a spade lead, she won the ace and ruffed another high (they were 4-1).
void                 She tried the ruffing heart finesse, pitching a club from dummy but it lost.
KJ53               The defence cashed their one remaining club trick but Nevena was able to
Q10                establish the spade suit with the aid of a 2-2 diamond break to land her
                      contract.

5                     Well bid and well played!
KQJ8
AQ986             There are thirty-two boards left and hopefully we will be putting the
986                  finishing touches to what has been an accomplished performance thus far.

Derek