We are in England again, at the 2024 Premier Grand Masters Pairs. Unlike most pairs events, this one is scored by IMPs on the Butler principle. This means that the scores at all tables are averaged to create a datum score, and each pair’s results is then IMPed against that datum as if playing teams with the datum as your teammates.

Played over two days, the format in the Premier Grand Masters Pairs is that each pair will play a complete round robin of 9-board matches against each of the other 11 pairs.

It makes a change for me to be playing in an event on which I am reporting, so I apologize in advance for including events that happened at my table.

With six matches completed, the overnight leader-board looks like this:

Clive Owen & John Sansom               +186 IMPs

Steve Auchterlonie & Kathie Nelson  +80

Paddy Murphy & Mark Roderick       +53

Mike Ash & Bob Ferrari                      +40

Derek Maggs & Marc Smith               +34

Derek Oram & Celia Oram                 +26

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

What action, if any, do you take?

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

What do you bid?

While you mull those over, we start with most West players facing the first of the problems above.

Sometimes at bridge, virtue must be its own reward. Which game should you guess to bid on this West hand. If partner holds the ♣A-K, both 3NT and 5♣ will be making. Which game would you prefer to play if partner holds, say, ♣KJ10xxxx and a red king? Is it not now likely that 5♣ will be cold on any defence, whereas 3NT will often go down if they lead the red suit in which East does not hold the king? For me, 5♣ is clearly the right choice.

Mark Roderick (left) made his international debut as a member of the Welsh Junior team at the 2000 European Youth Championships. In 2021, he represented Wales in the Mixed Teams during the online European qualification event for the world championships.

As you can see from looking at the full layout here, 5♣ went down when Roderick had an obvious diamond lead and the ♣K was offside. E/W -100 and 7.8 IMPs to N/S.

At all other tables where East opened 3♣, West bid 3NT. North led a major in every case, so the declarers all made their contract with ease. What a cruel game! At one table where East did not open 3♣, both pairs perhaps deserved to lose on the deal.

Despite having been warned, N/S having bid and supported diamonds, West still preferred to play in 3NT rather than the club game. Had the ♥Q been the ♥K, 5♣ would have been cold, but 3NT would still have failed on a diamond lead. Having supported his partner’s diamonds on three low cards and heard West bid 3NT anyway, John Hassett chose to lead a heart. Rightly or wrongly, that was not a success on this layout: E/W +660 and 7.8 IMPs in.

Pre-emption is a double-edged sword. Sometimes, you take away the bidding space that opponents need in order to reach the wrong contract. Witness this deal…

When South’s natural weak 2♦ opening was passed to Harry Anoyrkatis, he doubled on the big hand. Stefan Lindfors responded with a Lebensohl 2NT, showing a weak hand, but Anoyrkatis had enough to force his partner to bid again, so he advanced with a 3♦ cue-bid. Lindfors showed his diamond stopper with 3NT, and they had arrived.

Derek Maggs led a diamond, ducked to declarer’s jack. Lindfors took advantage of the entry to lead a spade towards dummy, scoring the ♠K. A heart to the queen then allowed declarer to lead a second spade up. Three hearts and two tricks in each of the other suits added up to nine. E/W +600 and 4.4 IMPs to E/W.

Note that it does not help for South to win with the ♦K at trick one, even though doing so robs declarer of an entry to his hand. Declarer wins the diamond return in dummy, crosses to the ♥Q, cashes his second diamond winner, and leads a spade towards dummy. North ducks and the ♠K wins. Declarer then cashes his heart and club winners before exiting with a low spade. North wins but has only spades left, so he has to concede declarer’s ninth trick to the ♠Q.

The eventual winners of the event were unfortunate to play the deal against opponents who left them room to find their eight-card major-suit fit…

Derek Oram (right) led a heart, which is best for the defence as it gives declarer nothing. Take over from Paddy Murphy now. Where would you win the heart, and what would you do at trick two?

Despite the 5-0 trump break, the contract can still be made, but declarer must be careful. He needs to win the opening heart lead in hand, and then play the ♦A and a second diamond, establishing a diamond winner on which he can throw his losing club whilst dummy’s heart entry is intact.

South wins with the ♦K and plays a second heart and, again, declarer must win in his hand. He can then cash his top clubs before playing a heart to the queen and cashing the ♦Q for a club discard. Now both North and East are both down to all trumps and declarer needs three of the last five tricks with the lead in dummy.

Suppose North puts in the ten when the first trump is led from dummy. Declarer wins with the ♠Q and exits with the ♠7 (or ♠9). What can North do? If he exits with the jack, declarer’s king wins and the ♠6/♠5 are good for one trick against North’s A-4. North does no better to exit with the ♠4 as declarer can then win in dummy with the ♠6 and lead towards the queen, again restricting North to only two winners in the suit. Is it better if North follows with the ♠4 on the first round? No, declarer wins cheaply in his hand with the ♠5 and exits with the ♠K. North wins with the ace and plays the ♠J, but declarer lets him win and he has then to lead from 10-8 into declarer’s Q-9 at trick 12.

At the table, declarer won the heart in hand and led the ♠K at trick two. That was a quick one down as he now had to lose three trump tricks and a diamond. E/W -100 and 9.6 IMPs to N/S.

On our next deal, a number of players were faced with the second of this week’s problems.

John Hassett (left) has been a regular member of the England Senior team since making his debut at the 2004 World Team Olympiad in Istanbul. It is hard to criticize Hassett for his 5♠ bid on this deal. Who could guess that the opponents would be able to double you for 800 at the five-level after partner’s vulnerable intervention? The good news for Welsh international Adrian Thomas was that neither of the overnight leaders thought they had enough to double. Declarer had to lose two hearts, two clubs and a trump. E/W -300 turned out to be cheap save even against non-vulnerable opponents, and it was an 8.6-IMP bonanza for the E/W pair.

Trevor Ward jumped all the way to 6♦ at his first turn, leaving Derek Maggs with a choice of poisons. 6♦ can always be made, although I, like everyone else who defended 6♦ on this deal, made life easy for Rob Cliffe (right) by leading my ace. That was N/S +1090 and 10.4 IMPs to N/S.

This auction is rather unusual, but I preach to my students not to lead aces against slams. It so often gives away a trick. I was not alone in choosing the ♣A on this deal and, at the table where North declared the same contract, East made life easy for declarer by leading the ♠A.

The big lead held by Clive Owen and John Sansom overnight quickly disappeared, as is apt to happen at this form of scoring, where a single board can often be worth a whole bushel of IMPs. Paddy Murphy and Mark Roderick had a storming second day to take the title by some considerable margin.

The leading pairs at the end of the two-day competition were:

Paddy Murphy & Mark Roderick       +244 IMPs

Clive Owen & John Sansom               +146

Ian Pagan & Catherine Seale             +69

Rob Lawry & Rob Stevens                 +60

John Hassett & Adrian Thomas         +51

We are off to the Netherlands next, to bring you the highlights of the Dutch Premier League final.