Last week, we left the second weekend of the 2022 English Premier League after four of the seven matches in the second round robin. With just over half of the 21 matches in the event completed, these were the overnight scores:

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting West with this fairly uninspiring collection:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with only the opponents vulnerable, you hold in the North seat:

What action, if any, do you take?

The opening BBO VuGraph match on Sunday featured the teams currently lying second and third respectively, HINDEN and BLACK. The only double-digit swing came on a potential slam hand on which one pair was perhaps cajoled into a losing decision.

There is no substitute for good bidding judgement. Yes, the East hand has plenty of promise once partner opens the bidding. However, with precisely none of his points in the two suits that his partner had bid, Tony Forrester was not tempted to venture beyond game. At his second turn, he simply bid what he thought he could make, and quite right he was too.

At first glance, it may appear that 6♠ is a slam on a finesse – either the ♦A is onside or it’s not and, even if it is wrong, perhaps they will not lead a diamond. So, that makes it better than a 50-50 proposition, doesn’t it?

It is not quite that straightforward. Suppose, for example, that South leads the ♦A and continues with a second diamond. Your finesse has won, but you are in no position to claim. You still have to deal with the third diamond in your hand and two club losers. Yes, both defenders might follow to three rounds of hearts, or South might ruff the second or third round to put your contract down. Or, perhaps you take two discards on the hearts and then ruff a club in dummy. Even after that all goes to plan, though, you still have to find a way back to your hand to draw trumps without running into a trump promotion. “Slam on a finesse” is rarely as good as 50%, as there are often other things that can go wrong. Yes, when a side suit breaks 5-1 and the defenders take a ruff, or trumps split 4-0, you can consider yourself unlucky, but those small percentage chances all add up to reduce the odds.

On this layout, Tom Paske had an obvious diamond lead. Forrester ducked the first two rounds of diamonds, picking off North’s doubleton ace. He won the club switch with the ace, drew trumps, and claimed the rest. E/W +450. Bridge really is an easy game!

In the replay, a lead-directing double by Frances Hinden (right) perhaps persuaded David Gold that bidding slam was a good idea. I have seen this strange-looking 1NT rebid from this pair before, but I still do not know exactly what it shows. What we do know is that David Gold’s 2♦ advance was an artificial game-force, and spades were agreed at the three-level. When Andrew Black then cue-bid his club control, Hinden doubled. Would you not now be encouraged on that East hand?

Gold duly rolled out RKCB, found his partner with two key cards, and jumped to 6♠. To say that he was unimpressed when Chris Jagger tabled the ♦Q as his opening lead is probably something of an understatement. Jagger is certainly good enough to have led the ♦Q from AQJ(x), and perhaps that is more likely than finding North with the singleton ♦A, so Gold covered with the king, more in hope than anger. The defence cashed three diamond tricks and played a fourth round, ruffed with the ♠J. Declarer later lost a trick to the ♠10 to go three down: E/W -150 and 12 IMPs to HINDEN, who won the match 30-19. Elsewhere, DE BOTTON won by 22 IMPs to increase their advantage at the top of the table.

The two teams on BBO VuGraph in the penultimate match of the second round robin were MOSSOP and DE BOTTON. The leaders showed the devastating form that had carried them to the top of the table this weekend, and the VuGraph audience was treated to a spectacular defensive play:

Espen Erichsen’s raise to 2♥ allowed Justin Hackett to raise spades, so Jason Hackett led a spade against 4♥, giving declarer an easy ride. Justin won with the ♠A and switched to a club at trick two, Jason winning with the ♣K and returning the suit. Thor Erik Hoftaniska won with the ♣A, drew two rounds of trumps, ruffed a spade, pitched his diamond loser on the ♣Q, crossed back to his hand with the ♦A, and ruffed his remaining spade loser. A diamond ruff then enabled him to draw the outstanding trump and claim: E/W +450.

David Bakhshi (right) made his international debut as a member of the English Schools team at the 1994 European Youth Championships. He collected his first medal, a silver, from the Zonal Teams at the 2002 World Championships in Montreal. He added a bronze from the Open Teams at the 2005 European Transnational Championships and another silver as part of the England squad at the 2014 European Team Championships. He has also enjoyed considerable success playing in major US events, notably in partnership with Andrew Robson. Most recently, he was a member of the England team that reached the quarter-finals of the 2022 Bermuda Bowl in Salsomaggiore.

On this deal, David Mossop’s pre-emptive jump to 3♥ shut North out of the auction, with the result that Bakhshi opened the defence with the much more challenging ♦K. There are a couple of lines of play that would have ensured the contract, but Gunnar Hallberg opted for one that gave the defenders just a very difficult chance. He won with the ♦A, cashed his three top hearts and then played a low spade from his hand. Can you see how Bakhshi defeated the contract after winning with the ♠Q?

Playing a club away from the king is clearly no good. How about a spade? There are two ways for declarer to make the contract on a spade exit, but he must be sure to throw a diamond from dummy. If North wins with the ♠A, the defence can cash a diamond winner, but declarer then has two spade tricks on which he discards two clubs from dummy, and a club ruff is then his tenth trick. If, instead, North ducks the spade then, having scored one spade trick, declarer can play the ♣A and a second club, setting up a trick for the ♣Q, which he reaches via a spade ruff. Again, he has ten tricks.

With neither black suit an option for South, that leaves only diamonds, but cashing the ♦Q and continuing the suit establishes two diamond winners for declarer in dummy. The only winning defence after taking the ♠Q is for South to lead his low diamond. North wins with the ♦J and returns a club, ensuring four tricks for the defence. Bakhshi found this fine defensive play at the table to beat the contract by a trick: E/W -50 and 11 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

Note that declarer can make the contract if, after cashing three top hearts, he either exits with a diamond or cashes the ♣A and then exits with a minor. At this point, the defenders are truly endplayed. Playing diamonds sets up winners in that suit, playing a spade allows declarer to score a spade trick to go with five hearts, two clubs, one diamond and a spade ruff. Exiting in clubs is no better as it provides declarer with an entry to lead to the ♠K to achieve the same result (except, of course, that he might misguess the suit). Declarer can also prevail by ducking at trick one, winning the diamond continuation, drawing three trumps, and exiting with a low spade to towards the jack. This puts Bakhshi in the position discussed earlier, but without the winning option.

DE BOTTON won the match 49-4, stretching their lead over the field. Behind them, BLACK and HINDEN both also recorded victories, albeit by smaller margins.

DE BOTTON remained on BBO VuGraph for the final match of the second weekend, this time against third-placed BLACK, and what a back-and-forth affair it turned out to be.

Two Club auctions are often difficult, and they become even more so when the opponents intervene. Faced with the first of this week’s problems, Peter Crouch (right) had a conventional toy to help (no surprise there!). He had a 4♥ bid that showed 5-5 in hearts and a minor. Convenient, for sure, but could it have been Qxxxx/Qxxxx, did it promise this sort of values, or might it have been even stronger? Presumably, it could not have been much stronger as Simon Cope passed 4♥, suggesting that it might, in fact, have been quite a bit weaker. As it happens, 6♥ is not hopeless, but it does need declarer to guess well.

West led a spade to declarer’s ace, and Crouch crossed to the ♥A to lead a diamond to jack and queen. Erichen returned a trump and declarer took the losing finesse. With the ♦10 coming down, the ♦7 set up so declarer did not have to guess the clubs for his eleventh trick. N/S +650.

At this table, Tom Townsend started with 1♣, but when he later ventured past game having found the heart fit, Bakhshi liked his fifth trump and his pointed-suit controls enough to commit to slam.

Played from the other side, East started with a diamond through dummy, the jack covered by the queen, and Tom Paske promptly returning a low diamond at trick two. Townsend ruffed, cashed one high trump from his hand, crossed to the ♠A, and played a second heart. With the spade pre-empt on his left, and what looked like a lead from diamond length rather than shortage, the finesse was always going to be tempting. Andrew McIntosh duly won with the ♥Q to put the contract one down: N/S -100 and 13 IMPs to BLACK.

The very next hand was another potential slam deal, on which both West players had to deal with the second of this week’s problems.

Espen Erichen (right) solved the problem with a value-showing, penalty-oriented double. That still didn’t stop Simon Cope jumping to 4♥ and, when Thor Erik Hoftaniska ploughed on with 4♠, it was clear to Erichsen that he had already shown (and perhaps more than shown) what values he had. He was thus never tempted to venture beyond game, and it was only a question of which game he chose. He opted for the 6-2 fit, which rated to be safer with lots of distribution around and partner likely to get forced at trick one.

South led the ♥K, ruffed by declarer who then drew three rounds of trumps. With South now marked with at most one spade, declarer played to the ♠A and advanced the jack. North ducked, but a third round of spade limited North to just one trick in the suit. Declarer had a club to lose at the end: E/W +600.

After the same start, Tom Paske decided that he did not have enough for a penalty-oriented double of 2NT. Again, North jumped to 4♥ and East bid 4♠. Having shown nothing so far, and with partner committing to a vulnerable game on his own, it is understandable that Paske thought he had to take positive action. He started with a 5♣ cue-bid, doubled by North, and he redoubled to confirm first round control. Before he then had to decide what to do over Andrew McIntosh’s likely 5♦, North competed to 5♥. McIntosh made what was surely a forcing pass (arguably too much considering what he has already shown, perhaps?) and Paske was sufficiently encouraged to jump all the way to slam.

The only good news for declarer was that, on repeated heart forces, even the five-level is too high in spades. In response to his partner’s lead-directing double, Bakhshi led a club against 6♠. Declarer won and crossed to his hand in diamonds to take a trump finesse, hoping for the miracle king-doubleton with South, but it was not to be. North won with the ♠K and cashed his club winner. E/W -100 and 12 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

An exciting set finished with both North players confronted by the week’s final problem hand.

Simon Cope (right) made his international debut as a member of the England Junior team at the 2007 European Youth Team Championships. A veteran of various international events over the past decade, he has also enjoyed success at US Nationals. He was twice won silver medals as coach of the England Open Team, at the 2008 Olympiad in Beijing and at the 2014 European Championships.

We have all learned the lessons about sacrificing on balanced hands. On this deal, perhaps holding three aces also deterred Cope from taking a bid at the five-level. That all seems eminently sensible and, even more so when Peter Crouch led the ♠5.

Cope won with the ♠A and cashed the ♣A, Crouch signalling suit preference with the ♣J, so Cope duly returned a spade for his partner to ruff. It was safe for Crouch to try to cash a club now. That didn’t work but, when Cope later turned up with the ♦A, the contract was one down: N/S +100.

Just like at poker, doing the ‘right’ thing is not always the winning move at this game, which is perhaps one of its attractions. Tom Townsend offered to swap the +100 available from defending 4♥ for -100 in 5♣-X. However, Townsend’s enterprise was rewarded when McIntosh bid a questionable fifth heart, allowing Townsend to lower the boom for N/S +500 and 9 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

DE BOTTON thus won a close match 48-46. Elsewhere, the surprise result of the round, and perhaps the weekend, was second-placed HINDEN suffering a 41-IMP hammering at the hands of MOSSOP. At the end of the second weekend, two-thirds of the way through the event, these are the standings.

Next week, we will be in France for the second weekend of the Premier League there. We will be back with the final weekend of the 2022 EPL in a couple of weeks.