On Sunday afternoon, only one more round had to be played. The organisers were extremely lucky: the leaders had to meet in the last round. In fact, two teams, Poland 2 and Sweden, were joint runners-up, so the third team among the leaders were sure to be in with a good chance of winning the event after all. On Vugraph, the big clash between Poland 2 and The Netherlands was in progress, but the proceedings in the Poland 1 - Sweden match might well have an impact on the outcome of the tournament.

Well, this scenario did not materialise. All three matches turned out to be very close. England registered their first win, beating Austria 52-50 to earn 15-15 V.P. Poland 1 did one full imp better: they beat Sweden 51-48 to record a 16-14 win. These two results meant that the winner of the Vugraph match would mathematically sure also be the overall winner of the tournament.

In this report, we will therefore focus the Vugraph match only.

As usual, play on Rama started with the boards 19 and 20. The first of these two boards was flat, but on board 20 The Netherlands missed a game which would probably be bid by the Poles. So we came to board 1 with Poland 2 virtually 10 imps ahead.

Both teams had the same chance to do well here:

Board 1 - Dealer North, None vul.
	ª K 10 8 7 5 © Q 4 2 ¨ K 4 2 § 8 3
ª 3 © 10 9 ¨ A J 10 9 3 § A K 5 4 2		ª 4 2 © K J 8 7 6 ¨ 8 6 § Q 10 7 6
	ª A Q J 9 6 © A 5 3 ¨ Q 7 5 § J 9

It was difficult here for EW to diagnose what was really going on. With the clubs and diamonds divided evenly, and all the heart intermediates missing, there are only seven tricks for the taking with spades as trumps. So when the Poles went only two down undoubled it looked a good result for them. The Netherlands +100..

Here, EW were in a much better position to possibly smell that something fishy might be going on. With one probable good board already in the bag, the Polish EW might well have ventured a double here which wuld have yielded rich rewards. As they too dropped a trick in defence, the board was a wash after all, but a missed chance it was for sure!

On the next board, the defence did not pass the test:

Board 2 - Dealer East, NS vul.
	ª A Q 7 2 © K J 7 ¨ 9 6 § K Q 10 3
ª J 5 © A 10 6 4 ¨ A K 8 4 3 2 § 5		ª 10 9 8 6 © 9 8 2 ¨ Q § A J 8 6 2
	ª K 4 3 © Q 5 3 ¨ J 10 7 6 § 9 7 4

When east made some noise after the double, the troubles for NS were over before they could start. With east bidding, south could keep quiet. The contract was just made, a normal enough result. The Netherlands +90.

Here, when east passed, south had to make a response. Then, suddenly, a wheel came off in the Dutch auction when north expected a stronger hand from the 1 NT bid. He doubled again, maybe a little too aggressive, and thus gave south not quite the right picture of his hand. South then tried to escape into 2©, but when north now made another move, suggesting about 18-19 hcp., Jean-Paul Vis had every reason to even go to game with his slow stopper in diamonds. To the surprise of the Vugraph audience, east refrained from doubling, so west was left very much on his own.

NS were very definitely overboard, but the right defence had to be found yet. We were all thinking about at least down two in the Vugraph theatre when west led the ¨A, felling partner's queen. One undertrick lost. West then exited with the ¨K and another, east discarding a club and a heart (!), setting up two tricks for south. Declarer now went after the hearts, west winning the second round. Had east kept a third heart west could have ducked twice, after which the contract is beaten easily. But now, all was set for the squeeze. It would not have helped west to duck the second heart, as declarer can turn his attention to the endplay on east in the black suits, losing no heart trick any more. West exited witrh his club and east ducked the king, but it did not help any more. Declarer simply cashed his two remaining red suit winners and east had to surrender. He blanked the §A and was given a trick with it, so the §9 in declarer's hand got established as the game-going trick. A spectacular 12 imps to The Netherlands.

Board 4 - Dealer West, All vul.
	ª J 9 © K 9 5 4 ¨ A K J § A 10 8 3
ª A 10 8 7 4 © J 7 ¨ 10 8 § J 6 5 4		ª 3 © A 8 ¨ Q 9 7 6 5 4 2 § K 9 2
	ª K Q 6 5 2 © Q 10 6 3 2 ¨ 3 § Q 7

We will never know what went wrong here. 2¨ showed either diamonds or the majors, but south's bidding seems natural enough. When north gave false preference for the badly distributed suit, NS could not avoid down three any more. Netherlands +300.

What's the problem? Netherlands +620 and 14 imps.

A more serious case of a missed chance was the board below:

Board 8 - Dealer West, None vul.
	ª K © J 6 2 ¨ A K 10 8 2 § Q 8 6 5
ª A 6 © A K 5 4 ¨ 9 7 § J 10 9 7 2		ª J 5 4 2 © 10 7 3 ¨ Q 6 5 4 3 § A
	ª Q 10 9 8 7 3 © Q 9 8 ¨ J § K 4 3

In the Closed Room, the Dutch EW pair had gone down two in 1 NT, Poland +100.
In the Open Room, Vis was in 2ª which should always go down on a club ruff. West was given §J10972 to lead from, but he never did. He played ©AK and another instead. Then, declarer led a low club to the queen and ace himself and east returned a trump to west's ace, but to no avail. It did niot occur to west to return a club now to defeat the contract, but he led the 13th heart instead, after which the contract finally got out of danger. No swing, but 4 imps missed by Poland.

The most serious missed chance for Poland was this one:

Board 11 - Dealer South, None vul.
	ª A Q 9 4 © K Q J 8 ¨ J 8 § 10 8 3
ª 7 5 © 6 ¨ A 9 7 6 5 3 2 § K 10 7		ª 2 © A 9 7 5 4 ¨ K 10 4 § J 8 6 5
	ª K J 10 8 6 3 © 10 3 2 ¨ Q § 9 4 2

Their device had enabled the Poles to reach 4ª played from the right side of the table. Of course, the deadly defence is still possible, but very difficult to find now. East should lead a heart, give his partner a ruff, get the lead again with the ¨K and give another ruff. When east led a club, declarer's problems were over and he managed an overtrick. Poland +450.

On the most ominous of all board numbers, the Poles were too optimistic.

Board 13 - Dealer North, None vul.
	ª Q 7 © J 9 7 5 3 ¨ A K 10 § Q 10 9
ª 10 9 8 6 © K ¨ J 9 8 4 3 2 § A 3		ª J 5 4 © 6 ¨ 7 6 5 § K 8 7 6 5 2
	ª A K 3 2 © A Q 10 8 4 2 ¨ Q § J 4

As you can see, north made minimum bids all the time, but he could not stop his partner before the five-level had been reached. Without a club lead, eleven tricks might well have been made, but the actual club lead to the ace and the 7-2 split meant that the ©K was to be promoted anyway. One down. Poland -100.

As we expected in the Vugraph theatre, the Dutch would have nothing of this. No nonsense, and twelve tricks when west led a diamond. Poland lost another 13 imps here and the match looked out of reach for them at 39-8 down. But:

Board 16 - Dealer West, EW vul.
	ª K Q 5 © 9 8 6 2 ¨ A J 9 7 5 § 5
ª 10 3 © A Q 3 ¨ K Q 3 § A 10 8 4 3		ª A J 9 6 2 © 10 4 ¨ 10 6 2 § K 7 6
	ª 8 7 4 © K J 7 6 ¨ 8 4 § Q J 9 2

Eight easy tricks, 120 to The Netherlands.

In the Open Room, the Poles showed more aggression, and they were right as 3 NT is a pretty good contract. North led a normal, but already unlucky low diamond, so dummy's ¨10 made the first trick. Next, declarer went after the clubs, leading the six from dummy. When south played low, so did declarer. North could only contribute the five. One hurdle surmounted.

Then, Olanski turned his attention to the spades, leading low from dummy to his ten. This time, Van Prooijen did not bother to win the trick. With three surprise tricks in the bag, declarer could clear clubs and easily ome to the required number of nine tricks. Poland +600 and 10 imps back. The score stood at 39-18 now.

Board 17 was very quickly passed out on Vugraph,. In fact, the audience did not even see it. It brought the Poles 3 more imps. Board 18 was a normal slam, duly bid by both sides, so now the time had finally come to see the comparison of board 20, which earlier in the day looked like another swing to Poland.

Board 20 - Dealer West, All vul.
	ª A 10 2 © K 9 8 ¨ A 9 § A K 9 8 2
ª J 8 6 © A Q 7 6 2 ¨ K J 5 § Q 3		ª K 7 © J 10 5 4 3 ¨ 6 3 2 § J 10 4
	ª Q 9 5 4 3 © - ¨ Q 10 8 7 4 § 7 6 5

Yes, Poland appeared to have reached the spade game easily. On the ©A lead, there were eleven tricks easily. Please note the aggressive, be it normal in modern bridge, action by south over 3©.

Though NS play the 1 NT overcall as 16-19 they ran into trouble when east only raised to 2©. Now, south had no aggressive bid available so he had to be content with 2ª only. Though 3ª must be very, very invitational, south could not be sure of what was going on exactly, so he decided to pass, at this for him early stage of the match. Wrong he was. On the same lead of the ©A the same 11 tricks were there, but the first blood had been drawn by the Poles: 10 imps on the board.

The final score thus became 39-31 or 16-14 V.P. to The Netherlands. This turned out t be more than enough to win the CA-IB trophy.