Winners of the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams: Executive Director Paul Cuneo presents the Vanderbilt trophy to Zia Mahmood of team Wolfson. (From left): Joe Grue, David Gold, Steve Garner and Brad Moss Jeffrey Wolfson not pictured
Wolfson leads the pack, wins Vanderbilt
Team WOLFSON (Jeffrey Wolfson, Steve Garner, Zia Mahmood, David Gold, Brad Moss, and Joe Grue) withstood a fourth-quarter surge by BERNAL (Francisco Bernal, Leonardo Cima, Giorgio Duboin, Michael Kamil, Antonio Sementa and Alfredo Versace) to win the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams.
WOLFSON held BERNAL, who was playing five-handed due to a player falling ill, to just 5 IMPs in the first quarter. They led by 36 after one set and by 39 at the halfway mark. By the end of the third quarter, their lead had grown to 55 IMPs. But BERNAL came back in a big way: They went on a 34–0 run over the first nine boards of the fourth quarter to come within striking distance, down just 21 with six boards to go. On Board 25, WOLFSON picked up 6 IMPs when they settled in a minor-suit partscore; the other table stretched to the 11-trick game, going down one. After a couple of push boards, the teams traded small pick-ups. The final board saw both teams settle in 6♠ though a grand was makeable on a finesse. The final score was 141–113.
Runners-up in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams: Antonio Sementa, Alfredo Versace, npc Claire Alpert, Francisco Bernal, Giorgio Duboin and Leondardo Cima Michael Kamil not pictured