The
first World Junior Teams Championship,
played in Amsterdam, attracted a field of
only five teams. The event, staged every two
years, has grown significantly since then,
with the high water mark for participation
(18 teams) coming in 1997, when Hamilton,
Ontario was the gracious host.
There are 17 entries (more than 100 players, no older than 26) for the
1999 WJC, slated for Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, August 9-18. Both Canada and the
USA have been allotted two teams, with Italy,
Israel, Norway, Denmark, Argentina, Brazil,
Egypt, Pakistan, China, Hong Kong, Chinese
Taipei, Australia and Central America (pairs
from Colombia, Venezuela and Martinique)
completing the field
Canada's teams have usually been serious contenders for the Ortiz-Patino
trophy, with our best performance a silver
medal in Ann Arbor in 1991.
Canada 1 (David Halasi-Mike Nadler, Ben Zeidenberg-Darren Wolpert, David
Grainger- David Brower, with co-captains
Jonathan Steinberg and Les Amoiles) has
acquitted itself particularly well in recent
outings in North America and Europe, and has
the experience and confidence to reach the
knockout stage. Canada 2 (Ian Boyd-Erin
Anderson, Craig Barkhouse-Colin Lee, Josh
Heller-Gavin Wolpert, with Eric Sutherland
as non-playing captain) is a younger, less
experienced team that has been forced to
shuffle its partnerships. Despite some
notable achievents, Canada 2 will start as
an underdog to survive the round robin.
USAII has some very good players and all the European teams are strong.
Australia usually sends a capable team. The
Far East teams might surprise, as might
Brazil, a team with a couple of very sound
players.
Neither side vulnerable; West deals
West |
North |
East |
South |
|
Wooldridge |
|
Heller |
1 |
1 |
1NT |
2 |
3 |
3 |
Pass |
Pass |
Pass |
|
|
|
Today's deal features Josh Heller (Canada 2) and Joel Wooldridge (USAII),
who joined forces to compete in the 1999
World Junior Pairs in Prague, Czech Republic
in July. They topped the under-20 category
and were seventh in the overall rankings
(176 pairs). Josh was also one of four
players presented with a World Bridge
Federation Youth Award for all-around
excellence at this year's World Junior
Bridge Camp.
West cashed two clubs against Heller's 3
contract and, despite East's high-low,
switched to the
K
when a third club would have been more
effective. Declarer won the
A,
crossed to the
A,
and called for the
3,
planning to play the ten if East followed
low. East played the jack, however, so
declarer took his ace, noting the fall of
the nine. He went to the
K,
ruffed a spade, and exited with a diamond,
won by West, who belatedly played a third
club. Declarer ruffed with dummy's queen and
East erred by overruffing. Now declarer
could ruff the spade return, draw trumps
with the eight and ten, and cash a club for
plus 140 and a near top.
If East withholds the K,
maintaining the same trump length as
declarer, he will be able to force the
closed hand later or come to a second
natural trump trick on power, defeating the
contract in either case.