Bulletin

Wild start for Cayne (in English) author kaapo, 12.11.2009 at 21.48.
Summary: Some wild boards brought victory for team Cayne in their first NFL match against Jyväskylä, Finland.

Jimmy Cayne's team's first match in the Nordic Friendship League was played on November 6 at 20:00 CET. It was against the Finnish team Jyväskylä. For Cayne were playing the captain JEC with the Italian grand old man, Dano de Falco, smispi, as a partner and Colby Vernay (ckv) - a senior player from USA - and Sapan Desai (toral5) - a junior player from India - as team mates.

Jyväskylä is a city in Middle Finland, that counts as medium to large city on the Finnish scale with roughly 130,000 inhabitants. Its bridge club is one of the greatest in Finland at least in terms of success. For the NFL team Jyväskylä, a collection of top Finnish players are playing. Some of them are from Jyväskylä with many outsiders as reinforcments. In their first match, the team consisted of Jouni Juuri-Oja (jjfin) - Johan Blomqvist (jovibl) and Lasse Utter (lasu) - Ari Pöppönen (artsi). Jouni and Lasse are members of Jyväskylä bridge club, Johan is from Vaasa and Ari from Kajaani. Johan and JJ played for Finland in Pau Europeans 2008 where Finland was tied with England for the last qualification place - England was better in the heads on match so they qualified. Also Lasse has played for Finland internationally for numerous times over the years. Ari has less international experience but playing with Lasse he won the Finnish IMP pairs Spring 2009.

The match was filled with bad splits. Jyväskylä started with two 6 IMP swings when artsi got doubled in 4♠ on board 1 making an overtrick and jjfin luckily made 1NT on board 2 while at the other table 2♠ failed.

Bad news for Jyväskylä came on board 3, -5 IMPs, and worse news on the following board where JEC - smispi managed to double jovibl in 3♣ and got it 2 down. Other table played a peaceful 2♠ contract just making.

On board 5, both teams ended up at 4♠ in a Moysian fit:

5      ♠K9742           Table 1               
North  ♥T               smispi jovibl JEC    jjfin
NS     ♦873             North  East   South  West  
       ♣T952            pass   1♦     1♥     2♥*
♠QJ3         ♠AT65      pass   2♠     pass   3♥
♥A732        ♥95        pass   4♦     pass   4♠
♦JT4         ♦AK962
♣AJ8         ♣74        Table 2
       ♠8               lasu  ckv   artsi  toral5
       ♥KQJ864          North East  South  West  
       ♦Q5              pass  1♦    1♥     dbl
       ♣KQ63            pass  1♠    2♣     dbl
                        pass  2♦    pass   2♥
                        pass  2♠    pass   4♠.

3NT would make by taking the ♠ finesse and by taking the right view in diamonds. That might well happen: With declarer needing ♠K at North, he might play ♦Q to be at South, and even if North has the queen, it may be safe to surrender a diamond trick to North.

However in 4♠ the 5-1 split marks doom for the game. The Finnish declarer succeeded rather better, down one, and won a few IMPs back as in the other room the contract went three down.

On board 13, the contracts were different but with only a minor swing for Cayne:

13     ♠Q9875
North  ♥     
Both   ♦AK8654
       ♣63    
♠AK          ♠J3
♥AT54        ♥J8763
♦3           ♦Q2    
♣KQT872      ♣AJ54 
       ♠T642        
       ♥KQ92        
       ♦JT97        
       ♣9.

Toral5 - ckv for team Cayne bid all the way up to 6♣. With sure losers in ♦ and ♥, it went one down. The Finns played in 5♥. With hearts bad as they were, 4-0, and after declarer played a heart to the ace, this contract had 4 losers: ♥KQ, ♦A and a ♣ ruff, and Cayne +3 IMPs.

Cayne picked lots of small swings as the match proceded. On board 21 we sew some fine declarer play by Jimmy Cayne, with a little help from the defence.

21     ♠
North  ♥QT9
Both   ♦K7543
       ♣A8742 
♠A8432       ♠QJT5
♥J8          ♥K65432
♦AJ9         ♦2    
♣KJT         ♣65   
       ♠K976        
       ♥A7          
       ♦QT86        
       ♣Q93.

JEC played 4♦ after West had overcalled spades and East supported. Jjfin led the ace of spades, which is not horrible after parter has supported and in lack of appetizing alternatives. This time it was very unlucky, however, with declarer ruffing in dummy and holding ♠K himself.

JEC played a diamond to Q and A. Jjfin continued a spade that was ruffed. Next came ♥Q from the dummy! Jovibl failed to cover it, JEC run it, and now he had the chance. He took ♥A, ♠K and ruffed a spade. Then he cashed ♦K - West was left with the high ♦J - ruffed the heart and these cards remained:

21     ♠
North  ♥
Both   ♦
       ♣A874 
♠8           ♠
♥            ♥64
♦J           ♦    
♣KT          ♣65   
       ♠
       ♥            
       ♦T          
       ♣Q93.

Now all he had to do was play the last trump. West was thrown in and could enjoy his last spade - but was then forced to play a club into the combined tenace.

At the other table NS were in 5♦ doubled that went two down. Cayne +12 IMPs.

Jyväskylä had a chance to recover some on board 24:

24     ♠K7
North  ♥
Both   ♦AJ943
       ♣QJT975 
♠T984        ♠QJ532
♥AT8         ♥K7642 
♦87          ♦K    
♣A864        ♣K3   
       ♠A6          
       ♥QJ953      
       ♦QT652       
       ♣2.

Cayne - de Falco were in 6♦ doubled. It is possible to make the contract by dropping East's singleton ♦K, but East had shown the majors via Michaels cue and West had doubled, so it was quite normal to take the finesse.

At the other table the Finns were in 5♦ which, too, was doubled. Declarer won the spade lead with dummy's ace and took the diamond finesse. East returned a spade, won by dummy's king. Now the Finnish declarer erred by drawing the last trump by playing a tump to the ten. No communications remained for making the clubs good and enjoying them, and this became a push board.

The match ended with a convincing victory for team Cayne: 56 - 23 IMPs, or 21 - 9 in victory points.