Penticton BC the Wine Country

I just returned from Penticton British Columbia, the playing site of this year’s Canadian National Team Championship www.cbf.ca from June 6th to June 13th. I was there for the championship and stayed over for the Regional June 15th to 21st that followed.

For those who have never been to Penticton, I highly recommend you give this area a visit. There is much to do besides golf, sun and sand. All over this area there are countless exceptional wineries and excellent restaurants.

The deserving winners are Nicolas L’Ecuyer, Kamel Fergani, Darren Wolpert, Jurek Czyzowicz, David Grainger, Daniel Korbel. The defeated John Carruthers, Joseph Silver, David Turner, Roy Hughes, Nader Hanna, Jim Green in the 128 board final.

 Photo courtesy of Ross Taylor.

I was playing in the event on the Bart team with Maurice De La Salle, Brad Bart, Laurence Betts, Ben and Mike Takemori. We played well and, in luck, were either leading or in the top four position for most of the round robin.

This very first hand in the first round set the tone.

Dealer north. Neither side vulnerable. As East I held ♠ K9 ♥ K107 ♦ AQ95 ♣ KQ98

With other partners I would have opened the bidding with a 15 to 17 strong no trump. However after the Victoria Regional, Maurice and I changed our no trump range to 14 to 16. So I opened the bidding with one diamond. LHO over called one spade, Maurice passed and RHO bid two spades. Nobody steals from me, as I had extras, I bid two no trump. After LHO passed, Maurice raised to three no trump. LHO led the queen of heart. As you can see with the king of diamond onside there was nothing to the play.

Dealer: North Vul: All NV		North
		♠	1084
		♥	AJ853
		♦	K74
		♣	75
Maurice				Michael
♠	J32			♠	K9
♥	962			♥	K107
♦	J103			♦	AQ95
♣	AJ106			♣	KQ98
		South
		♠	AQ765
		♥	Q4
		♦	862
		♣	432

Bidding and making three no trumps won our side 6 imps. At the other table our opponents stopped in one no trump as the auction went pass, one no trump, all passed. We were off to a flying start.

We made the quarter finals but after a valiant effort we lost to Zygmunt Marcinski, Bryan Maksymetz, Dan Jacob, Larry Hicks, Waldemar Frukacz, David Willis.

It was a lot of fun and I like to thank my team mates for the wonderful week – Maurice for being such a good and understanding partner, Brad being the great captain who left no details to chance, Laurence for being the rock and the mellow man, and brothers, Ben and Mike, for keeping it all so light and being so supportive.