A total of 26 teams lined up for the start of the 2022 English Premier League season. Those teams were split into three divisions, with eight teams in the top tier. As well as a major competition in its own right, the Premier League is also effectively an international trial, with the winning team earning the right to represent England in the next Camrose Trophy. The format is a complete round robin of 16-board matches over the course of each of three weekends, so teams will play a total of 48 boards against each other team.

After the first complete round robin, these were the standings:

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are West holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are sitting North with this collection:

What do you bid?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are West with this distributional minnow:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with neither side vulnerable, you hold as South:

What action, if any, do you take?

The opening BBO VuGraph match of this second weekend featured the teams currently lying third and fourth respectively, BLACK and MOSSOP. Both West players had to deal with a variation on the first of this week’ problem hands:

Derek Patterson (right) remained silent on the West hand and then had to find an opening lead against 5♣. Looking at all four hands, you can see that the defence can score two red aces and a diamond ruff to beat the contract by a trick. However, Patterson opted to lead his partner’s suit, the ♠5, giving declarer a chance.

Peter Crouch won the spade lead and cashed his second winner in the suit, shaking a heart from dummy. With the two minor-suit jacks both falling, we can see that he could simply draw trumps and play diamonds to make eleven tricks. However, it is not clear single-dummy that declarer can rely on the diamond suit to produce three tricks. Crouch therefore ruffed a spade in dummy and played a heart to the jack and ace, theoretically establishing a discard for dummy’s fourth diamond while he still had a sure trump entry to his hand. Of course, Patterson did not need a second invitation, and promptly shifted to his singleton diamond to get his ruff. A rather unfortunate N/S -50 but, as things turned out, making 5♣ would only have limited the loss on the deal.

After a similar start, Tom Paske competed to 3♠ on the West hand and Justin Hackett completed the description of his hand with 4♦. Andrew McIntosh now decided that perhaps his side could make a vulnerable game and Jason Hackett’s swift red card expressed his doubt about that opinion.

Justin opened with a top club, which was an okay start, but the defence then needs to play three rounds of trumps to hold declarer to seven tricks. Instead, Justin switched to the ♥9 at trick two, which allowed declarer to score diamond ruffs in his hand, and also set up his ♥8 as a winner. Even so, Paske still had only eight tricks: N/S +500 and 11 IMPs to MOSSOP.

There was only one other major swing in the match, the Hacketts reaching a good 6♦ contract that failed when clubs were 5-1 and the defence could lead to the ace and score a ruff. MOSSOP thus won a very low-scoring affair 16-15. Above those two teams, HINDEN suffered a 7-IMP loss to SMALL whilst DE BOTTON won big against the bottom team to narrow the gap at the top.

In Round 2, those watching live on BBO VuGraph got their first look at DE BOTTON, as they took on AARDVARKS in what turned out to be a very one-sided contest. Both North players faced a variation on the second of this week’s bidding problems:

Dave Robinson opened a natural 1♣ and Paul Barden responded with a heart-showing 1♦ transfer. When Artur Malinowski’s 2♦ overcall was then passed back to Barden, he competed to 3♣, but Robinson had only a weak notrump hand type and saw no reason to bid again.

The ♦J was led to the king and ace and declarer appears to have three red-suit losers. However, Malinowski switched to a spade at trick two, which allowed declarer to dispose of dummy’s second diamond. Not that the overtrick was likely to matter greatly: N/S +150.

After effectively the same start, Tom Townsend (right) made the more aggressive advance of 2NT, and David Bakhshi was suitably encouraged to raise to game.

The ♠K onside with the bidder gives declarer nine tricks on any defence. The opening diamond lead around to the king gave declarer his tenth trick. When he then cashed his five club winners, West discarded a spade. So, by the time Townsend started on spades that suit it was worth four tricks: N/S +660 and 11 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

DE BOTTON won the match 59-10, their second big win of the weekend. With HINDEN recording a 25-IMP victory over the cellar-dwellers, the top two were now almost neck-and-neck, while the gap to the rest of the field widened with both BLACK and MOSSOP losing.

DE BOTTON remained on VuGraph for Round 3, this time against the PENFOLD team, who had climbed into the top half of the table with their victory over BLACK in the previous round. Both West players had to decide what to do on the third of this week’s problem hands:

We have all heard that “6-5, come alive” but Espen Erichsen was not inspired by his weak suit at this vulnerability. His pass meant that John Holland was able to respond with a comfortable 1♥, and Alan Mould raised all the way to game. The defence began with the ♠A and a second spade. The 4-0 trump break means that declarer needs to be careful, but Holland was up to the task. N/S +620.

Kay Preddy (right) made her international debut in the British Women’s team at the 1991 Venice Cup in Yokohama. Along with her life-partner, Norman Selway, she was a member of this same PENFOLD team that won bronze medals from the Seniors Teams at the World Championships in Wroclaw earlier this year.

When it comes to the “Man or Mouse” question, Kay undoubtedly takes after her late mother, former British Women’s international Jane Preddy. She demonstrated which side of that fence she was on with her aggressive 2♠ overcall on this deal, which effectively shut Tom Townsend out of the auction. Selway’s raise to 3♠ then made life impossible for Bakhshi, despite his 18 HCP.  The defenders cashed their four minor-suit winners and waited for their trump trick: N/S +100 but 11 IMPs to PENFOLD.

This match finished with the narrowest of wins for PENFOLD, 26-25. With HINDEN also going down, by 9 IMPs to BLACK, DE BOTTON still edged their way to the top of the table despite their loss.

The final match on Saturday was the one for which everyone had been waiting, with DE BOTTON and HINDEN meeting head on. It turned out to be a real nip-and-tuck affair, and after 13 of the 16 boards, with the massed kibitzers still awaiting a swing of more than 4 IMPs, the score had advanced to 12-7 in favour of HINDEN. Then one South player faced the last of this week’s problems:

Chris Jagger opened 1♠ and then rebid his good six-card suit after Tom Townsend’ 2♣ response. When Townsend then jumped to 3NT, Jagger had to decide whether to give up here or soldier on with 4♣. The key question may have been “Why has partner jumped to 3NT when 2NT would have been forcing?” The answer is likely to be that partner has very short spades and plenty of high cards in the red suits, so Jagger’s pass is certainly not unreasonable. Is the North hand a tad too good to make such a discouraging jump? Perhaps the ♣10-9 tip the balance, it’s that close.

There was little trouble in the play, Jagger quickly making ten tricks: N/S +430.

Espen Erichsen (right) made his international debut at the 1993 European Youth Championships and two years later he collected a silver medal from the Junior Pairs at the World Youth Championships. As a member of the Norwegian Junior team, he won gold at the 1996 European Youth Championships and silver a year later in the World Junior Teams. In 2005, he collected another gold medal, this time from the Mixed Teams at the European Transnational Championships in Tenerife.

On this deal, Thor Erik Hoftaniska showed a game-forcing hand with 5+ clubs and four diamonds. With great major-suit controls and four-card support for his partner’s longest suit, Erichsen had no issue with bypassing 3NT. When Hoftaniska advanced with a diamond cue-bid, Erichsen then Blackwooded himself to slam.

West led the ♥10 and Erichsen won in dummy. Next came a spade to the ace and a spade ruffed with the ♣5. East showed out, be he did not have the ♣8, so declarer was still in the game. The ♣K came next and that was allowed to win. Declarer could not afford to play a second round of trumps, as East would win and play a third round, leaving declarer a trick short. So, Erichsen crossed to the ♥A and took the diamond finesse. When that won, declarer crossruffed. East could overruff with the ♣A and play a one more round of trumps, but that was okay as declarer still had a winning spade for trick 13. A magnificent N/S +920 and 10 IMPs to DE BOTTON, who won the match 19-13 to edge a little further ahead at the top of the table.

The overnight break comes with marginally over half of the 21 matches in the event played. These are the standings:

We will be back next week with the best of the action from the second day of play on this second weekend of the 2022 EPL.