Blogs

Update at 10:30AM

Submitted by sitemaster on Sat, 02/11/2019 - 07:54

The X-Clubs results site is now working. We are posting just the Overall ladder for now - Overall and club sections containing full drill-down capability will follow. The ladder you see is sortable by clicking on any green column header. We have 55 of 57 clubs in totalling 982 pairs - just waiting for Marlborough and Golden Bay who had problems in getting a result out on the night.

Update at 2AM

Submitted by sitemaster on Fri, 01/11/2019 - 22:01

We had 50 of 56 club results - 870 pairs. We hadn't heard from Golden Bay, Marlborough, Marton, Oamaru, Queenstown or Wellington. The website server in Sydney is undergoing some attention to upload the XML. A temporary result is uploaded to the Cambridge website.

How to See Your BABICH Results

Submitted by sitemaster on Fri, 01/11/2019 - 11:24

Publishing soon after maybe 30 of the 57 results that we expect come in, the team at X-Clubs will be constantly updating the ladder as we work. As the evening goes on we would expect to have about 50 clubs ready to publish around midnight .. maybe ALL of them this year. Who knows? 2019 could be the first year when we don't have to chase a few people up on their Saturday.

To see your results click on the Wide View tab above and either go direct to your club or search for your name using CTRL-F (hold down CTRL and push the F key) in the Ladder or the Overall items. The Ladder is sortable by clicking on any green column header while you can drill down in the Overall and the club Section items. Take advantage of the Replay and Analyse feature powered by Bridge Solver On Line (BSOL)when you're looking at the display that lists what everyone did on any particular hand.

.. while you're waiting for the Babich results ...

Submitted by sitemaster on Wed, 16/10/2019 - 17:42

"Mr X-Clubs" aka Michael Neels of Cambridge gets interviewed by Barry and Mereana on The Bridge Zone Show - THREE times!!

  1. About X-Clubs from the 3-minute mark on 16th October
  2. About XG Ratings from the 24-minute mark on 23rd October
  3. About Bob Fearn and the Babich from the 20-minute mark on 30th October

Welcome to the Christchurch Club

Submitted by sitemaster on Sat, 12/10/2019 - 07:41

Members as at Sept 2019Members as at Sept 2019X-Clubs is proud to welcome New Zealand's largest club, Christchurch, as our 38th participating club. Christchurch brings us to half of NZ's largest 16 clubs playing the same deals at any given session. Here is an updated table of which sessions each club plays.
Participating ClubsParticipating Clubs

X-Files 01

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Tue, 17/09/2019 - 17:14

From Monday 16 September 2019
Board 1 Dealer N, nil Vul

QJ985
AJ3
AQ6
84
T
84
JT84
AQ9752
AK432
T2
K97
KJ6
76
KQ9765
532
T3

The bidding was:

SouthWestNorthEast
--1NTPass
2333
Pass4

Anybody Home? Perhaps YES!

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Fri, 13/09/2019 - 11:05

The message is not getting through, or is it? A few weeks ago I wrote a review on a very similar hand where all Easts opened 1NT and all Souths passed. With any hand that looks like being able to compete, it is usually profitable to do so.

Board 8 from Thursday 12/09/2019
Dealer W Nil Vul

A82
4
JT643
K982
KT9
9863
85
A764
J54
QJT7
AQ9
QJT
Q763
AK52
K72
53

The Space Invader!!

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Thu, 12/09/2019 - 21:19

Pre-empts serve more than just one purpose. Generally, we understand a preempt as a bid that takes away space from opponents and makes their bidding more difficult. But if used judiciously they can make our own bidding much easier.

Board 15 from Wednesday 11/09/2019
Dealer S NS Vul

JT9654
K7
A92
AJ
KQ3
9532
KJ53
83
A872
AT64
Q64
62
QJ8
T87
KQT9754

The X(Club)Files

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Mon, 09/09/2019 - 15:09

This article begins a new series that will comment on deals throughout the week. Readers may send requests to Vil (villyn@xtra.co.nz) for hints or comments on anything that puzzles them.

This freak deal occurred in a recent session. I still don’t know if I bid and played it correctly, but the end result was that I failed, as did a number of others. There is a lot to be discussed and learnt from the deal.

Board 12 from Friday 7/09/2019
Dealer W NS Vul

AKQJ42
AKQT75
8
863
6
QJT974
K95
T75
J98432
6
T86
9
AK532
AQJ7432

Answers Answers Answers

Submitted by Vil Gravis on Sat, 07/09/2019 - 20:09

The very first board, and a number of pertinent points crop up.

Board 1 from Wednesday 4/09/2019
Dealer N Nil Vul

87
AK72
KQ873
Q9
AT6
Q9
T9652
AKT
K32
J6543
A4
542
QJ954
T8
J
J8763

Q.1 What is North’s opening bid?
Q.2 Should East overcall if North opens 1D?
Q.3 If North opens 1D and a) East passes, should South bid? b) East overcalls 1H, should South bid?
Q.4 If East passes and South bids 1S, what should North bid next?
Q.5 If North does bid 2H and everyone passes, what should East lead?

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