The British Bridge League’s Gold Cup is one of the oldest and the most prestigious event on the British calendar. First presented in 1931, the list of winners contains most of the greatest names in British bridge. The format is a straight knockout played throughout the year, with teams entering from England, Scotland and Wales. In recent times, nine consecutive victories have been required in order to win (ignoring possible byes in an early round). For many years, the most successful individual was Boris Schapiro, who first won in 1945, and in 1998 was victorious for the 11th time. More recently, Tony Forrester broke Shapiro’s record with his twelfth victory in 2013 and added another win in 2014.

This year’s semi-final line-up featured four of the original seeded teams. In one semi-final, DE BOTTON (Janet De Botton, Artur Malinowski, David Bakhshi, Tom Townsend, Thomas Charlsen and Thor Erik Hoftaniska) takes on PENFOLD (Sandra Penfold, Brian Senior, Alan Mould, John Holland, Rumen Trendafilov and Vladislav Isporski). That is the match that was covered on BBO VuGraph. In the other, semi-final, it is KNOTTENBLATT v ALLFREY. The format is a 64-board match divided into eight 8-board stanzas.

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with only your opponents vulnerable, you are the Dealer sitting in the West seat with:

What, if anything, do you open?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you hold as West:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start our coverage on the opening deal of the match. Both North players declared 3NT on the same opening lead.

I cannot explain the auction after Tom Townsend’s 15-17 1NT opening, but the final destination was the normal one and Rumen Trendafilov opened the ♣5. Townsend rose with the ♣J and played a diamond to the queen and ace. Could the Bulgarian find the heart switch needed to test declarer? No, he continued with the ♣Q and thus Townsend was soon claiming nine tricks. N/S +400.

Playing a weak no-trump system, Brian Senior had to start with 1♦. He rebid 1NT after the 1♠ response and Sandra Penfold raised to game. Thor Erik Hoftaniska (left) also opened a low club and, here too, declarer won trick one with the ♣J. A diamond to the queen was allowed to win, as was a diamond to the king, and Senior played a third round of diamonds, splitting the suit.

Hoftaniska did find the switch to the ♥2, Thomas Charlsen winning with the ♥A and continuing with the ♥J. Could Brian Senior flatten the board by withholding his queen and blocking the suit? No, he covered so the Norwegians cashed four heart tricks to go with the ♦A, beating the contract by a trick. N/S -50 and 10 IMPs to DE BOTTON to open the match. DE BOTTON won an otherwise quiet opening stanza 12-9. The second set offered much more scope.

Defence is the most difficult part of the game. Although no one could make much of anything, declaring in both rooms proved to be the winning formula for PENFOLD on the opening deal of the second segment.

With only a combined 23 HCP and no fit, it should be no surprise to find that N/S cannot legitimately make a game. It is perhaps also equally unsurprising that the Bulgarian pair bid to game anyway. If the defence simply wait patiently and lead hearts every time they get in, declarer can make only three hearts and two tricks in each black suit before the defenders can cash at least five winners.

Charlsen led the ♥5 against Rumen Trendafilov’s 3NT, declarer winning in dummy with the ♥K and playing a spade. Clearly afraid of dummy’s clubs and concerned that perhaps declarer needed only one spade trick for his contract, Hoftaniska rushed in with his ace on the first round of spades. He continued with a heart, maybe hoping that declarer would misguess when his hearts were only Q-x-x and Charlsen had led from A-x-x?

With four spade tricks in the bag, declarer’s tally was now up to nine and Trendafilov was soon claiming: N/S +400.

In the replay, the usually-sound Alan Mould chose the perfect moment for a somewhat out-of-character (particularly at these colours) Michaels intervention. David Bakhshi thus had the first of this week’s problems to contend with. Not that it was much of a problem: Bakhshi doubled, as I think about 100% of an expert panel would if presented with this situation.

2♥-Doubled was not such a bad spot for declarer, despite the adverse vulnerability. Whatever happened, even if John Holland (right) lost 200 on the deal, his side would still come out ahead. Townsend led a top club and switched to a spade, ducked to South’s jack. Holland won the diamond switch in dummy and advanced the ♥J. This was the key moment for the defence and, when Bakhshi rose with the ♥A, it was all over. 

Holland won the diamond continuation in dummy and played a second round of trumps to North’s king. He won the second round of spades with the ace, crossed to the ♦A, and tabled the ♣Q. Townsend covered and declarer ruffed. Bakhshi could take his trump winner whenever he liked. Declarer could ruff one of dummy’s losing spades and throw the other on a high club. N/S -670 and 14 IMPs to PENFOLD the start the second set.

A couple of boards later, both West players had to decide what action to take as Dealer on the second of this week’s problem hands. 

Holland’s 3♥ opening found the ideal scenario, with both opponents holding a balanced 13-count. Neither had quite enough to come in vulnerable at the three-level. 3♥ lost two diamonds, a spade and three trumps. A paltry N/S +100.

By contrast, Thomas Charlsen’s 1♥ opening allowed Vladislav Isporski in with a routine takeout double. Rumen Trendafilov (left) jumped to 3NT and Hoftaniska helped the Bulgarians along with a double on the way out.

The double achieved its objective as Charlsen led a spade, dummy’s queen being allowed to win. A club to the queen lost to the ace and Charlsen switched to the ♦Q. Trendafilov ducked in both hands and then ducked again when Charlsen switched back to spades. Hoftaniska won with the ♠10, but what could he do now? Declarer had one spade, two clubs and three tricks in each red suit as soon as he gained the lead. The defenders could take the ♠A as their fourth trick, but that was it. N/S +750 and another 12 IMPs to PENFOLD, who won the second stanza 32-5 to lead by 24 IMPs after two sets.

In the third stanza, the level of craziness reached fever pitch for those watching live on BBO VuGraph. Kibitzers always love to see that experts are as capable as anyone of reaching absurd contracts. Blackwood accidents always provide a salutary lesson, and this one was a classic. The auction was fairly normal at this first table.

Alan Mould had a 3♦ bid to show a three-card limit raise in spades. When Holland did not sign off, Mould clearly had enough to bid game. With the ♦A and the ♠J both lying favourably for declarer, Holland made eleven tricks. E/W +650 looked like just another flat game hand, but a funny thing happened on the way to the forum.

Janet de Botton chose to start with a game-forcing 2♦ response on the East hand. A slight overbid, perhaps, but certainly not in the ‘stupid’ category. (Trust me, I’ve seen and done plenty of stupid things at the bridge table, and this one ain’t even close.)

The auction proceeded as shown in the third of the problems posed at the top of this article. When De Botton bid 4♠, it is certainly not at all ridiculous for Artur Malinowski to think that slam is still possible. Indeed, it would seem to be a rather pessimistic view if he didn’t. So, he advanced with Blackwood and, when De Botton showed 0/3 key cards, it probably did not even occur to Malinowski that it might be zero. So, he asked for kings and, when De Botton showed the ♦K, Malinowski pictured two discards on high diamonds for his two heart losers. The grand, it seemed, would simply depend on North not holding J-x-x-x trumps. Not bad odds, so Malinowski jumped to 7♠.

When Brian Senior doubled, Malinowski probably thought he had run into an unlucky 5-0 trump split. (“Well, it’ll be the same at the other table.”) Not until he saw dummy did the meaning of North’s double become crystal clear.

Of course, bidding a grand slam off the ace-king of trumps and another ace looks like a completely ridiculous result, and yet it happened without anyone doing anything seriously wrong. It really can be a funny old game. E/W -500 and 15 IMPs out of the blue to PENFOLD.

Perhaps De Botton could have jumped to 4♠ at her second turn, rather than just agreeing trumps with a 3♠ bid. Perhaps, then, Malinowski would have realized that she had an unsuitable minimum for her original 2/1 response. It is certainly easy to see how pairs could have an accident on this combination.

We leave our coverage on that note, but we will be back soon with the continuation of this match…