Days 5 and 6 in Beijing

Today is Day 6 and we have returned to our apartment, I have cooked a wonderful dinner, smoothed down with a couple of glasses of wine, and we are feeling rather good! We spent the day touring and, as all of you are aware, China is a small country with a small population, so it is no surprise that on top of the Great Wall of China we should bump into friends! Douglas and I had joined the Lebis and Jacobs from the Open team for a day's outing, and on top of the Wall we bumped into the Beagles, Stephen, Jurek, Kamel, Nick, Vince, Marc-Andre, John Rayner, and three members of our Women's Team! It was there that Jurek explained that Ed Zaluski had bribed the Vugraph operator with 100 yuan to switch his position with Doug! So while Douglas was not responsible for the errors that occured in their match against Indonesia, neither was he the architect of some of the nice declarer plays. We won't discuss the losses, but Hand 32 was a very nice hand for Ed:

.................-
.................Q 9 7 6 5 3
.................A 5 4
.................K Q 10 3
10 7 4 .............................K 8 6 2
K ..................................A J 10 8 4 2
J 9 7 3 2 ..........................K 10 8
9 6 4 2 ............................-
.................A Q J 9 5 3
.................-
.................Q 6
.................A J 8 7 5


Douglas and Ed reached 6C, on the following auction:

P 1H P(!) 1NT*
P 2C P 2D**
P 2H P 3C
P 3D P 3S
P 3NT P 6C

*shows spades
**fourth suit forcing to game

The opening lead was the 6S, Ed played the J and rho played the 10. Most experts Doug talked to would have pitched a diamond, and then a second diamond on the Ace, but Ed pitched hearts on the jack, then the Spade Ace. Note that there is no rush to pitch diamonds. If spades do not break, you can always pitch one of the QS, losing to the king, and one on the nine after. After ruffing the third round of spades, he cashed the KC and when lho showed out it was time for Plan B. He led a small diamond to the Q. Lho won the King and returned a heart, ruffed in dummy and Ed ruffed a spade, cashed the KC and led a diamond to the queen, drew trump and claimed. A very nice 14 imp pick-up, to lose the match 18-12 - the same result as the first match of the day. We are still in good shape and with two matches left to play tomorrow, expect to qualify for the Round of 16.