Down to the wire in
Texas
The Grand National Teams started out in the 1960s as
a true "grassroots" event with five stages of open competition -- club, Unit,
District, zonal playoffs and finally an 8-team national finals. There were no
flight B or C events, so relatively inexperienced teams were often matched
against experts. Over the years, there were many upsets at the Unit and District
levels -- including a few where the 16-seed beat the 1-seed -- and the underdog
winners experienced the thrill of their bridge careers.
Those David-vs.-Goliath matchups are rare in today's
flighted events, but three former members of District 8 were in the expert-level
version in the finals of the District 24 Grand National Teams in Richardson TX.
Kimmel ("K.C.") Jones, originally from Champaign IL, and Steve and Nancy Kornegay,
formerly of St. Louis, teamed with Hugh Hillaker of Grand Prairie TX
in the GNT Superflight (5000+ masterpoints) and made it all the way to the
finals.
The GNT is always a tough event in
Texas. In the semifinals, the Jones squad faced a team of national champions
(winning by more than 50 IMPs), and their opponents in the championship match
were even more formidable: the star-studded team led by world champion Bob
Hamman.
The match got off to an exciting start with Board 1:
In the Open Room, South intended his 2C bid as a relay to 2D, but North didn't take it that way and North-South ended up
in 3NT. With spades divided 6-3 and both red aces in the hand with only three spades, 3NT could have been made. Chorush
ducked the 
K at
trick 1, then won the spade continuation with the Q. He led the
J, which
held, but then switched to
hearts, trying to guess which red ace to knock out first, and ended up with no
entry back to the diamonds.
All the excitement, however, was in the Closed Room where Hillaker, North,
opened a 14-16 1NT. Jones bid 2C Stayman and Hamman, West, tried a lead-directing
double. That decision backfired when Hillaker redoubled and Jones decided to
sit it out with his
76.
Hamman's
opening lead was the
5, won by declarer's
10. Jones
led a small club towards dummy and Hamman followed with the
4. That led Jones
to deduce that Hamman did not hold all four honors, so played dummy's
K, then led
dummy's remaining diamond.
In with the
A, Hamman made a crafty switch to the J. Jones,
not wanting to lose more than two tricks outside trumps, jumped on it
with the A
and led a heart to his
J, Hamman ducking. Now
Jones played his
K, pitching a heart from dummy,
and Bramley, East, ruffed
with the
9. Bramley,
who was also in the dark about Hamman's spade holding, exited with a heart. Hamman
won the
A and now
laid down the K.
The position at Trick 7 was:
| |
Q2
Q832 |
|
K8
3
AJ10 |
|
109754
10
|
|
K8
KQ7
7 |
|
Jones was now in control as he ruffed the K with
his last trump, then
began leading good diamonds. Hamman quickly conceded to the inevitable endplay,
so the defensive total was two aces and three trump tricks -- plus
560 for the Jones team and a gain of 12 IMPs.
The Jones team continued its strong start and led by 36 IMPs after the
first four boards. With just eight boards to go, Jones led by 20 IMPs,
but Hamman's team roared back, and the Jones team suffered a
heartbreaking loss by just 3 IMPs. A recap of
all 26 boards is here:
http://d16acbl.org/gnt2008/suprflgt/board1.htm
Congratulations on a match
well played to Kimmel, Hugh, Steve and Nancy ... and better luck in what
we hope will be a rematch next year!