August 2008 - 36

Battlefield
Earth
Players from across the globe
battled for tricks in the Worldwide
Bridge Contest.

Ron and Joan Harmon had the best score among ACBL
players in the Worldwide Bridge Contest on June 6.

Each year in June, thousands of
players from countries around the
globe participate in the biggest bridge
game on Earth - the Worldwide
Bridge Contest, a simultaneous pairs
game sponsored by the World Bridge
Federation. Because local clubs are
required to quickly report their results
online to the wonderful ECatsBridge
web site (www.ecatsbridge.com),
winners at the local, national and
world level are known within a few
days of the contest.
In 2008, the 22nd annual Worldwide Bridge Contest consisted of
two separate matchpoint games on
Friday, June 6, and Saturday, June 7,
and the winners of each game were
announced online.

Friday, June 6
The Friday game attracted 5662
pairs who played at 313 clubs in 38
countries. The top pair worldwide
was a German couple, Mr. H. Bohnsack and Mrs. S. Bohnsack, who
played at the BV Fair Play 90 Club
in South Cologne. The Bohnsacks
posted a 73.74% game.
In second with 73.46% was the
U.S. couple of Joan and Ron Harmon
of Winchester VA. The Harmons, the
top-scoring ACBL pair, played at the
Dick Bowers Duplicate Bridge Club
in Winchester.
Duplicate bridge is an egalitarian
sport, giving everyone a chance
to shine. The Harmons, neither of
whom are Life Masters, proved this
36

point with their huge score. The duo
learned the game more than 30 years
ago, but gave up playing actively
to pursue their careers. Joan was a
safety director for a trucking company; Ron was an air traffic controller.
When they retired three years ago,
the Harmons took up the game again.
The Harmons, who are native
Virginians, play exclusively together.
They have been married for 45 years.
To finish among the top scorers in
the world in this type of contest, you
need a few huge scores. The Harmons
got exactly that on this deal (rotated)
where Ron got the opportunity to
redouble a doubled game contract:
Dlr: West  -
Vul: Both  9 8 6
9
 A K Q J 10 8 6 4 3
 Q 10 9 7 3
AJ8652
N
A532
W E  Q 10
 10 7 2
AKQ
S
9
75
K4
KJ74
J86543
2

West
Pass
Pass
Pass

North
Ron
4NT
Pass
Redbl (!)

East
Pass
Dbl
All Pass

South
Joan
5
Pass

4NT was Blackwood and 5
showed no aces. Ron passed (making Joan declarer, oddly enough),
but when East doubled, Ron "bent it
back."
On the opening lead of a low spade,
Joan discarded dummy's singleton diamond as East won the ace. The Q
shift made things easy (although Joan
could have gotten this right without
help from the defense). The K was
covered by the ace, and the heart
return went to Joan's jack. Dummy's
last heart was good, but it was pitched
on the K. After drawing trumps,
she claimed. 5 redoubled vulnerable was plus 1000 for North-South,
good for 99.54% of the matchpoints
worldwide. (4978.8 matchpoints on a
top of 5002!)

The top ACBL pair for the
June 7 Worldwide Bridge
Contest was Roger Lee and
Chien‑Yao Tseng.
Bridge Bulletin
http://www.ecatsbridge.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2008
