The 2006 McConnell Cup, emblematic of world women's team supremacy, was won by a U.S.-Russian combine, which defeated an all-U.S. team in the 60-deal final.
The winners were Janice Seamon-Molson, Marinesa Letizia, Tobi Sokolow and Carlyn Steiner, who drafted Victoria Gromova and Tatiana Ponomareva from a Russian squad that had defeated them in the Women's Olympiad in Istanbul two years earlier. The McConnell Cup doesn't require team members to be citizens of the same country. The runners-up were Jill Levin, Debbie Rosenberg, JoAnna Stansby, Jill Meyers, Hansa Narasimhan and Irina Levitina, a former Russian who immigrated to the United States years ago.
Before the eventual victors could capture the title, they first had to survive their semifinal match against a strong Chinese team. Going into the final board the U.S./Russian squad trailed by 7 IMPs.
When Gromova and Ponomareva sat North-South, the bidding went as shown. North's two-no-trump bid indicated interest in a spade game, and South happily accepted.
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West led a low diamond, and the Chinese East failed to make the normal discovery play of the jack. When she played the king instead, declarer won with the ace, drew trumps and led a heart to the king. East won and returned a diamond. Gromova won, crossed to dummy with a trump and discarded a club on the queen of hearts to make four spades.
At the other table, the Chinese North became declarer at four spades after opening the bidding with one spade, and East led a trump. North won, played a second trump and led a heart to the king. East won and, with dummy's A-Q of diamonds and king of clubs in plain view, had no trouble finding the killing queen-of-clubs return.
The American/Russian squad thus gained 470 points, or 10 IMPs, to win the match by 3 IMPs, and then went on to win the title.
