After 9 matches, we (BB Nijmegen 3) had dropped a few places in the eastern group of the second division. Rankings on the left. Last weekend, those final matches were played. Things looked quite simple for us: we had to score well (85 to 90 VP’s) and the needed a bit of luck with the results from the other teams. All the teams in the top 4 had already played each other, so that didn’t give a clear advantage to anybody.
On Saturday, we started well by beating B.C. Klaver vier (That stands for “4 leaved clover”, but the name didn’t bring them much luck) and Lindeboom by 24 and 22 respectively for a total of 46 over the day. Star 7 scored only 26, ‘t Onstein 4 34, which meant that we now were tied with them. ‘t Onstein 3 did better (44) and we only gained 2 VP on them. They were still 9 ahead.
On Sunday, we played Oldenzaal in the morning session. This one
was a rather lucky pick up for us. 1NT was 11-13, 2♦ a transfer, 4♣ totally undiscussed. We do play leaping Michaels in lots of these situations, with 4♣ showing ♣ and ♠, and I wasn’t sure if this applied here too. Well, it didn’t but fortunately my LHO saved me by bidding a few more hearts before his partner had a chance to double. Down 1, that is one too few, but still 11 imp’s when the other table bid and made 4♥. Again 22 VP and we gained a few more VP’s on ‘t Onstein 3, they won their match 18-12.
That made things for the last match clear: win and score 6 VP more than ‘t Onstein or 5 VP more to tie them and play an extra match against them. I didn’t play the last match, as planned, we have a 6 person team and obviously wasn’t allowed to kibitz my own team. I was allowed to kibitz Onstein and saw them bid this one to only 4♠:
2NT-3♥, 3♠-4♦ (natural), 4♠-Pass, making 6. Both players are worth an extra move, but it is hard to judge. Frustrating, if we had been playing, the hand would fit very nicely into our methods and we’d quickly reach 6♠ with the auction on the left. 1♣ is artificial (12-14 balanced, 15+ with clubs, 18+ any distribution), 2♦ shows 18+ with a spade fit, 3♥ 7-10 with shortness somewhere, 3♠ asks, 4♣ shows short clubs, 4♦ a cuebid, 4♥ last train and 6♠ can’t be missed and I’m pretty sure that would have been a 13 imp pick-up. Enough, I went for coffee and a walk.
When I returned, time for the final comparison. ‘t Onstein had played a bit faster and their result was already known: 16-14. That meant that we had to score +30 imp’s to tie them. We picked up a few imp’s here, then 14 away, then 11 to us, another 6, another 5, a few more and the counter stopped in our favor at... 29 imp’s.
Right, we missed first spot by 1 imp. Final standings on the right.
Frustrating. Before the event started, our goal was to end up in the top 3 and have a serious shot at winning the event. That goal has been met but we were very close to winning the whole event. Of course, ‘t Onstein 3 were the pre-tournament favorites, with 4 players who have all played in the top division of the national teams before.
I’m not going to show a list of hands where I could have won that 1 imp. Yes, there are a lot of those hands, but then again, if I’m allowed to redo my plays, so are my opponents. And we did have our share of luck too.
So, congratulations to my opponents ‘t Onstein 3 (picture on the left, left to right Jaap, Geon, Peter and Jean)
, good luck in the 1st division next year.
Thanks to my teammates for a well-played season. For the rest: note the good performance by Nijmegen 4, climbing from a potential demotion spot to decent 5th place.
Schuttersveld, Nijmegen 5, Klaver vier and Zevenaar will have to try their luck in the local leagues next year.