We remain ‘down under’ this week, for the second day of the final stage of the trials to select the Australian Open team for the 2023 Bermuda Bowl in Morocco. The final, played over 120 boards, pitted the number one seeds HANS (Sartaj Hans/Peter Gill, James Coutts/Liam Milne and Shane Harrison/Andy Hung) against DALLEY (Paul Dalley/Tony Nunn, Tony Leibowitz/Paul Gosney and Robert Fruewirth/Jamie Thompson). After four sessions on the first day, DALLEY led by 34 IMPs, 155-121.

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting in the North seat with:

Partner opens a Precision-style 1♦ and West overcalls 3♣. What, if anything, do you bid?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you are sitting West with these cards:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you mull those over, we start with a quiet set to open the second day. Quiet, that is, apart from one very loud explosion.

It’s not often that you see the bidding at the seven-level on the second round of the auction, nor five consecutive bids in the same suit. Some might consider Andy Hung’s (left) jump to 7♦ too much, but it certainly puts serious pressure on his opponents. After Jamie Thompson’s 5♦ cue-bid, it seems clear that N/S will get to at least a small slam. And, whatever contract they bid, whether 6♥, 6♠ or 7♥, seems fairly likely to make.

Whilst declarer could only make seven tricks in his sacrifice, it still seemed likely that it would be worth a 1-IMP gain against -1430, with the potential for a bigger pick-up too. N/S +1400.

The standard of opening bids seems to be getting ever lighter – Paul Dalley got the ball rolling by upgrading this West hand to an 8-12 1NT! Sartaj Hans started with a penalty double and then heard his partner make a takeout double of East’s retreat to 2♦. West upped the ante to 3♦ and Hans cue-bid 4♦. The first of this week’s bidding problems left you to decide what to do when partner then bid 4♥.

We will see what the BBO expert bidding panel make of this hand in February, as exactly how to move forward seems far from clear. Another cue-bid, 5♦, perhaps? Bearing in mind partner’s earlier takeout double, giving up in game, as Hans did here, seems particularly timid. I predict that few members of the panel will pass, but perhaps I will be proved wrong. N/S +710 and 12 IMPs to DALLEY.

Hearts is certainly the partnership’s best suit, and a small slam is an excellent proposition, needing little more than finding the ♥Q and either a 3-2 trump break or a club finesse through the opening bidder. I’m sure we have all been in worse making grand slams. Whilst teammates’ result at the other table perhaps looks rather eccentric, I think 99% of the blame for the lost IMPs lies in this room.

DALLEY won the opening stanza of the second day 23-13 to pad their advantage to 44 IMPs with 45 boards remaining.

This all looks eminently sensible. There was a spade, a diamond and a trump to lose: N/S +620 and what looks for all the world like a dull, flat board.

When Jamie Thompson (right) overcalled 3♣, Sartaj Hans was presented with the second of this week’s problems, a much trickier situation than his counterpart at the first table faced. Should North pass and play for penalties, bid his heart suit, or take a shot at 3NT?

Hans chose the latter, and now had to find a way to nine tricks on a club lead to West’s king. At trick two, he led a diamond, East following with the nine and dummy’ ten winning. With two diamond tricks in the bag, he could now have made the contract by attacking hearts, setting up four tricks in that suit to go with one spade and two tricks in each minor.

However, when the ♦10 won, declarer crossed back to his hand in hearts and played a second diamond, to the jack, queen and West’s king. Now a club came through declarer’s remaining J-10-x. Hans played an honour, so East won with the ♣Q and cleared the suit. West now had three club tricks ready to cash and the ♠A as an entry, and East still had the hearts stopped. That was two down: N/S -200 and 13 IMPs to DALLEY.

Peter Gill’s 1NT response was alerted and described as 0-12 or 0-6 with support, a method which may be all very well for constructive bidding when the opponents are kind enough to leave you alone. On this hand, though, the effect was to give Jamie Thompson easy entry into the auction on the West hand. Although Sartaj Hans jumped and got his side quickly to game, the damage had already been done, and E/W had found their fit. As it happens, both 4♠ and 5♣ are easy makes. Thompson lost just a diamond and a slow spade in 5♣: E/W +600. Would West have come in after 1♥-Pass-4♥-? or even 1♥-Pass-3♥-?

At the other table, West was faced with the last of this week’s problems:

At this table, Tony Leibowitz jumped to 3♣ on the South cards, showing a weak heart raise. This also seems like a fairly inefficient method, as you surely want to bid the most, and thus make it hardest for the opponents, when you have the worst hand. Thus, it seems that a jump to 3♥ should be the weakest, then, if you want to use the jumps to 3m to show heart raises, 3♦ should be the next weakest and 3♣ the strongest.

Leibowitz’s 3♣, showing the weakest raise, should surely have encouraged Liam Milne to at least make a club-showing double, if nothing else. Whether East would then have bid 5♣ over North’s jump to 4♥ is not clear, but at least it would have kept his side in the ballgame. Once Milne had passed 3♣, the jump to 4♥ by Paul Gosney (left) was virtually certain to end the auction, and it duly did so.

James Coutts led a diamond at trick one, so the defenders found their diamond ruff to beat 4♥ by two, but even at 100-a-trick, that was hardly much compensation for a vulnerable game gone begging. E/W +200 and 9 IMPs to DALLEY.

DALLEY dominated the second set of the day, winning it 59-34 and extending their lead to 69 IMPs (237-168), giving them at least one foot (and probably much more) on the steps of the flight to Morocco. HANS won the penultimate set 34-13, reducing the deficit to 48 with 15 boards to play, but was this resurgence all just too little too late?

Halfway through the final set, HANS had reduced the margin to 40 IMPs, but then came a deal that just about summed up the way the match had gone for them.

Jamie Thompson overcalled 1♠ and then made what was, presumably, a minimum-showing, non-forcing raise to 3♥. Robert Fruewirth advanced with a 4♣ cue-bid and heard a diamond cue-bid from his partner. With there likely to be wasted spade opposite, and partner unable to even jump to 4♥ at his second turn, even the 4♣ bid is questionable. Quite how news of a diamond shortage improved his hand is unclear, but Fruewirth decided that he still was not ready to give up on slam. Exactly what his jump to 5♥ asked for is unclear but, whatever it was, Thompson quite rightly concluded that he did not have it.

Could James Coutts find the opening club lead to make his opponents pay for their exuberance? It may appear at first glance that he will get two chances to find the defensive ruff, once on opening lead and again when he regains the lead with the ace of trumps. However, his spade lead allowed declarer a safety play. Fruewirth called for the ♠Q from dummy and, when North could not find the king amongst his cards, away went one of declarer’s clubs. Cashing the ♠A then allowed declarer to discard one of his high clubs, which meant that he was now safe from a club ruff when he conceded a trick to South’s ♥A. E/W +650. With a 40-IMP deficit to overturn and boards fast running out, this was perhaps a chance missed by the trailing team.

After the same start, Shane Harrison had to start with a 2♣ cue bid as, presumably, they were playing a change of suit as non-forcing. This seems to be an almost unplayable method, as it means that the overcaller can never bid the full value of his hand facing a cue-bid as a fit is not guaranteed. Of course, playing transfer advances of overcalls offers the best of both worlds.

When Harrison eventually got around to bidding his suit, having already lost one complete level of bidding, Hung decided that he liked his hand enough to raise via a 4♣ cue-bid. Harrison advanced with a diamond cue-bid and Hung signed off. Harrison perhaps has more reason to bid on here than Fruewirth had at the first table. Quite why Hung though his hand was worth a raise to slam is another matter entirely. “We were 40 down” does not seem like a particularly good reason to me, but perhaps that is the most likely explanation. Players in this situation seem to forget that you can gain 13 IMPs by stopping out of a poor slam just as easily as by bidding a good one.

Of course, Paul Dalley (right) was never going to lead anything other than the ♣A against slam, so the defenders duly found the ruff to accompany their two aces: E/W -200 and 13 IMPs to DALLEY.

 When 12 more IMPs went in the same direction on the very next deal, the overweight female was clearly heard, loudly warbling away.

The final stanza finished 55-54 in favour DALLEY, who won the match 305-256 to earn their places in the Australian team for the 2023 Bermuda Bowl in Morocco. Congratulations to Paul Dalley/Tony Nunn, Tony Leibowitz/Paul Gosney and Robert Fruewirth/Jamie Thompson.