Match 11 - USA1

Our opps for this match is the defending champions, USA1. Their main 2 pairs, Grue/Kranyak and Lall/Greenberg were in the winning team last year where they fended off Poland in a nail-biting finish. Well, for this year's WYC, the hot favourites were still the Polish and Americans. In fact, before the tournament, I had stated that from a training and learning point of view, the best we could possibly hope for is to complete the RR and face Poland and USA1 in the knockouts. Of course, at that point of time, it seemed wishful thinking...

It seems time to talk about our Non-playing Captain (NPC): Chua Gang. CG is NPC of the youth team for PABF and WYC this year. Lesser-known is that he was also the NPC of the youth team for our youth team in PABF 2003, Manila. The youth team acheived second place then, a record placing at that time.

For USA1's Venice Cup win in 1993, their NPC, Jo Morse was 'chosen not only for her unflappable temperament and angelic disposition, but for her legendary luck'. In Singapore's context, CG must be the NPC with the Midas' Touch. He has perhaps acheived greater accolades as a NPC than as a player :)

While being only reasonably acceptable in terms of adminstrative handling (all that Captains' meetings, information dissemination, etc), he is qt adept in keeping the team harmony and spirit at a healthy level. He usually lets the players decide how things should go, only putting a strong foot in when he feels there is a real need to. Many have been bemused how he keeps churning out successful youth teams and I do not profess to know his secrets, just that he has his ways.

When we talk about CG, you cannot possibly leave out his wife, Seet Choon Cheng, commonly known as Seet to us. This husband-wife pair is especially devoted into the development of bridge in Singapore. I'm always impressed with the amount of time and effort they give back to the game, it is no mean feat to maintain playing at least one session of bridge a week for the past 15-20 years. I am perhaps being a bit more subjective here as they are very good friends and are especially supportive of my pair. Indeed, I will go as far as saying that it is unthinkable I will acheive what I had without the continous support and opportunities both of them have provided. Thanks!

Well, after a mildly depressing lunch, we entered the vugraph room trying to forget the fact that we had lost to their 'second' team in the morning. We were slated to play in the Open Room again, back to under the spotlight.

After that familiar 15 minutes wait, we started playing. It didnt take long before we lost our first swing:

♠ Q 8 6 4
♥ K Q T 9 8 7
♦ Q
♣ A 4


♠ A 9
♥ 6
♦ K 8 6 4 3
♣ K 9 8 5 3

We stopped in 3C and partner managed to scramble 9 tricks. It didn't look like a bad score since both rounded suits were not lying well. However, at the actual play, our teammates lost their way in defence and allowed 3NT to make... 7 imps away.

Then came a wild board that created a swing in almost all the matches:

♠ 5 4 3
♥ K 5 4
♦ A Q 8 6 5
♣ Q 5


♠ 9
♥ 7
♦ K J 9 7
♣ A K T 8 7 6 3

East (Grue) opens the bidding with 4S, I (South) chose the obvious 5C overcall. When West tried 5S, my partner raised me to slam, dbled by West (Kranyak). Kranyak led the K of S and I wasn't too pleased with the dummy. Oh well it looked like a phantom sacrifice against their 5S. Joe Grue, the most featured player in the bulletins has been known to be extremely imaginative and thus unpredictable. Well, he overtook the ace of S and promptly returned the T of S! Hmm, I blinked but was soon wrapping up 12 tricks and +1540.

The Americans at the other table lost their way when they allowed our teammates to bid and make 4H , so we were heading for a positive score anyway but maybe nowhere near the actual +18 imps.

That proved to be our only imps in for a long time when the American stamped their class with some good decisions coupled with a couple of accidents and poor judgment on our part. They rattled off 54 imps without reply over the next 11 boards! One can only imagine our supporters' anguish and the criticism from the commentators in the vugraph room.

One of the most widely-discussed mistake I made:

All Vul, you hold:

♠ 8 5 4
♥ Q T 7 3
♦ Q J T 9 6 3
♣ -

RHO opened 1D (Precision). You pass , LHO responded 1H and partner is there with 4S.

Passed to LHO who reopens with a DBL (explained as penalty showing a good hand). RHO gave it some thought before emerging with 4NT (minors). Your bid?

If you passed, LHO removed to 5C, passed to you, any action?

I shall not defend my action here, I believe there has been qt a bit of discussion on it and I have developed a different view since then. It suffices to say I passed on both rounds, not a success when opps only went one off when we are cold for 12 tricks. The Americans at the other table managed to bag 5Sx+1 for a 14 imp swing.

We were spared more blushes when our opps miscomed on a slam hand and misplayed on another one. Well, in summary, it was a scrappy set where both sides made several mistakes and poor decisions and we lost as we had more blunders. In essence, that is what bridge is all about, the winning team is the one with less mistakes. Officially, the score is a 44-75 imps (9-21 VPs) loss.

At the end of the 2 USA matahes, we have lost all of our overnight lead but the good thing is that all the other results were qt favourable to us and everyone was very close. The leaderboard read:

1 USA 1 208
2 POLAND 206
3 ISRAEL 195
4 FRANCE 189
5 EGYPT 187
SINGAPORE 187
7 NORWAY 185
8 ITALY 180