This is our final visit to the second weekend of the 2023 The English Premier League. The league is divided into three eight-team divisions, and the leading two teams in Division One will be invited to represent England in next year’s Camrose Trophy.

A complete round robin of seven 16-board matches will be played on each of the three weekends. By the end of the competition, each team will have played 48 boards against each of the other teams in their division. We have so far seen the highlights from the first five matches of this second weekend and, on this visit, we will see the best of the action from the remaining two matches. These were the standings in Division 1 after Round 12, with BLACK and HINDEN a match clear of the field at the top:

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are East holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you are the Dealer sitting in the East seat with:

What, if anything, do you open?

Finally, with only your side vulnerable, you hold as North:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you mull those over, we start with the best of the highlights from the Round 13 match between HINDEN and KNOTTENBELT. HINDEN led 7-5 approaching the midpoint of the match. Then came a crucial high-level decision.

A lively auction left Ben Handley-Pritchard with the first of this week’s problems. With two aces missing, the best that H-P can do once the opponents have reached 5♠ is to double and collect the +300 on offer. When he instead advanced to 6♣, the best news was that at least no one doubled.

Atthey started with the ♦A. He then made sure of beating the slam by cashing the ♠A before giving his partner a diamond ruff. The defence had lost its second ruff but, at 50 a trick, that was of small consequence. E/W -100.

After the same start, Frances Hinden (left) did not bid over South’s pre-emptive jump to 4♠. When Chris Jagger reopened with a double, she then advanced with 4NT, showing two places to play. Jagger’s 5♦ then ended the auction when Keiran Dyke opted to defend at the five-level on the North hand.

There were no ruffs available against a diamond contract, so the defenders made only their two aces. E/W +400 and 11 IMPs to HINDEN.

The optimism of youth met the voice of experience on our next deal.

Michael’s Byrne’s ultra-light 1♠ overcall encouraged Keiran Dyke to think that his side should be in game, so he bid what he thought he could make. Not today! It was not a good spot, even undoubled. The defence was accurate and held declarer to seven tricks. N/S -300.

Neil Rosen (right) has been around as long as I have. Well, almost as long. He declined the invitation to make a vulnerable overcall on the South hand, and then judged it best not to get involved when his partner bid the suit in which he was void. The defence dropped a trick here and allowed John Atthey to make eight tricks. N/S +110 and an unexpected 9-IMP windfall for HINDEN.

As the match drew to a close, both East players had to decide whether to open on the second of this week’s problems…

Ben Handley-Pritchard chose to pass as Dealer, and Neil Rosen also opted not to open the South hand. Rosen then came to life with a 4♦ splinter bid when his partner overcalled in hearts. John Atthey had no ambitions beyond game, to he signed off and no one had any more to say.

Handley-Pritchard chose not to lead his partner’s suit, choosing instead the ♦J. Declarer won with the ♦A and away went one his club losers from dummy. The defenders got their third trick back when Atthey subsequently misguessed spades. Had they cashed their clubs on the go, that guess would have been for the contract, but here it was only for the overtrick. N/S +420.

When Christ Jagger (right) opened the East hand, he virtually guaranteed that his side would gain IMPs on the deal. The only question was, “How many?” Hinden’s pre-emptive jump to game and North’s double set Michael Byrne a problem that he had no realistic chance of getting right. Of course, the only way to go plus was to defend 5♦-doubled for +300 and a 3-IMP loss, but how many votes do you think passing partner's double with that South hand would get on an expert bidding panel? A smattering, perhaps, but I suspect few would be willing to risk a double game swing.

Hinden had an obvious club lead, so the defenders took the first three tricks and then exited with a diamond. When declarer subsequently lost to the ♠Q he was two down. N/S -100 and another 11 IMPs to HINDEN, who won the match 39-8.

The VuGraph match from the final round of this second weekend was BLACK v SANDFIA.  The action kicked off early, with both North players facing a variation on the last of this week’s problems…

With only doubletons in both majors, Simon Cope had a tricky problem when Mike Bell (left) upped the pre-empt to the three-level. Cope passed, and the three-level was too high for Crouch to balance, so Tim Leslie was allowed to steal the board.

The defence started with two top clubs and a club ruff, followed by their remaining two aces, so declarer was one down. N/S +50 looked like poor recompense for a vulnerable game, and so it proved.

In the replay, Andrew McIntosh opened with a natural weak two, and Tom Paske also raised to the three-level, leaving Stafano Tommasini (right) with effectively the same problem. He braved a double and Ben Norton jumped to 4♠.

With diamonds breaking 2-2, there was little to the play. The defenders scored their two hearts and later came to a diamond trick, but that was their lot. N/S +620 and 11 IMPs to SANDFIA.

Unfortunately, the play records are incomplete on the only other major swing in this match, so exactly how Peter Crouch made what looks like a completely hopeless 3NT, are lost in the mists of time. A number of small swings gave BLACK a win by 36-19.

With fourteen matches completed over the first two weekends, we are now two-thirds of the way through this competition. These are the standings with one full round robin still to play:

HINDEN has again taken the lead from BLACK, but those two teams are still locked closely together. Their lead over the rest of the field has been steadily growing, and is now comfortably more than a match.

We will be back in November with the highlights from final weekend of the 2023 English Premier League. For now, we are headed to Australia to bring you the best of the action from the latter stages of the Open Teams at the Sydney Spring Nationals.