We return to the city of Lodz, about 75 miles southwest of Warsaw in central Poland, the venue for the Lodz Twin Towns Tournament. The event attracted a field from across Eastern Europe, with teams representing Varna (Bulgaria), Kyiv (Ukraine), Stuttgart (Germany) and Vilnius (Lithuania). However, the two teams who have survived to contest the final are both home-grown, and many of these players will be headed for Denmark this summer to represent Poland in their respective categories at the European Championships.

The finalists are POLAND LADIES (Anna Zareba, Aleksandra Jarosz, Cathy Baldysz, Natalia Suszanowicz, Danuta Kazmucha and Ewa Morawska) and POLAND SENIORS (Michal Kwiecien, Krzysztof Martens, Apolinary Kowalski and Piotr Tuszynski). The format of the final is a 14-board match split into two 7-board segments.

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

What do you bid?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you are sitting in the North seat with:

What action do you take?

Next, with only your opponents vulnerable, you hold in the East seat:

What action, if any, do you take in third seat?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you are sitting West and hear the following auction:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start towards the end of the first set.

Hands with plenty of high-card points but no great fit are often tough to evaluate. The Seniors pair conducted a very controlled auction. Piotr Tuszynski’s system allowed him to rebid his spades without showing a sixth card in the suit, which had the effect of slowing down the auction. Apolinary Kowalski (left) showed stops in both minors with 2NT, and now Tuszynski showed his second suit. Kowalski was not willing to give up on hearts yet, so he waited with 3♦ and Tuszynski showed good appreciation of his hand by bidding 3♥ on his singleton king. Kowalski raised to game and they had alighted in the best spot.

Cathy Baldysz found the most threatening opening of the ♦Q. Kowalski won in his hand, unblocked the ♠K, and played a trump to the king, which was allowed to win. He then played a club to the nine, concealing the position of the ♣K, which made it very hard for Baldysz to duck her ace (more on that later). Winning with the ♣A, Baldysz continued diamonds to the ace, and Kowalski cashed the ♠A to pitch his diamond loser. A club to the king was then followed by the ♥Q. Suszanowicz won with the ♥A and could have saved the overtrick by playing a spade now, promoting her partner’s ♥10. When she instead continued diamonds, Kowalski was able to ruff low, draw the outstanding trumps, and claim the rest. E/W +450.

Note how much trickier the play is if North ducks the first round of clubs. If declarer continues with the ♥Q, South wins with the ♥A, plays a club to her partner’s ace and gets a club ruff. She then exits with a diamond. Declarer wins with the ♦A and cashed the ♠A to discard his diamond loser, but he cannot then get off dummy without promoting North’s ♥10 into the setting trick.

Can you see how the contract can be made if North ducks the ♣A? Would even a world-class declarer such as Kowalski have seen the winning line of play at the table? He has to lead a LOW trump from his hand. This gives the defenders a second trump winner, but it negates the effect of the club ruff, as South would have only the singleton ♥A left. Now that would been spectacular!

And, of course, that play would not have been a success had the N/S trump holdings been reversed. What a difficult game it can sometimes be.

For the Ladies, Anna Zareba bid her clubs at her second turn. When Aleksandra Jarosz rebid her hearts, Zareba was faced with the first of this week’s problems. This combination illustrates a major problem with 2/1 methods, as Zareba could hold a much better hand for her bidding so far. With such a poorly-fitting minimum, it seems to me that a raise to 4♥ is plenty on this East hand. Zareba’s decision to agree hearts with a 4♦ cue-bid seems too much, and so it proved. Jarosz advanced with a 4♠ cue-bid and, although Blackwood enabled them to stop at the five-level, they were already too high.

Krzysztof Martens kicked off the defence with an imaginative, and effective, low club lead. Declarer won in hand, unblocked the ♠K, crossed to the ♦A, and discarded her diamond loser on the ♠A. Now came the ♥K, which Michal Kwiecien (right) allowed to win. Declarer crossed to the ♦K and led the the ♥Q, but Kwiecien won with the ♥A, crossed to the ♣A and received a club ruff. A third round of spade then promoted the ♥10 for the fourth defensive trick. Two down: E/W -100 and 11 IMPs to POLAND SENIORS

The Seniors led 25-4 at the mid-match break, and added to their advantage on this deal early in the second set after both North players had answered the second of this week’s problems.

Playing Polish Club, Michal Kwiecien opened a Precision-style, nebulous 1♦ on the South hand. Perhaps Krzysztof Martens (left) did not have a natural/forcing 2♥ bid available, so he began with a negative double of West’s 1♠ overcall. When Anna Zareba’s 2♠ raise was passed back to him, Martens settled for the pragmatic choice of bidding game in his long suit.

With all suits breaking, there was little to the play and declarer lost just the two black aces. N/S +650.

After the same start, Ewa Morawska (right) made what to me looks like the best bid on the North hand if you have it available in your system, a fit-jump to 3♥. This showed a game-forcing hand with at least five good hearts and at least a four-card diamond fit. Piotr Tuszynski competed to 3♠ and Cathy Baldysz passed to show no great interest in anything.

When Morawska then continued with 4♦, Baldysz decided that she should show her club control on the way to game. Presumably expecting something like xxx/Q/KQxxx/Axxx, Morawska jumped to the two-ace slam. I’ll leave you to decide for yourself whether it is the 5♣ bid or the 6♦ which is too much on these hands.

There were two obvious losers: N/S -100 and 13 IMPs to POLAND SENIORS.

Deciding what to bid in third seat after two passes is often a tactical decision. Both East players had to make that judgement on the third of this week’s problems. Let’s see which approach worked out best…

Piotr Tuszynski chose to open 1♠ in third seat. Cathy Baldysz (left) overcalled a normal 2♥ but then the auction took off, to the extent that she faced a tough decision at her second turn. This is really the sort of situation in which you want to be playing a double as saying “I want to bid on, what do you think, partner?” That would have solved Baldysz’s problem, as her partner would have as obvious pass of such a double. Without such a toy to assist her, Baldysz had to make a unilateral decision, and she chose to bid on.

Apolinary Kowalski was kind enough to find the only lead to give Baldysz a chance, the ♠A, but it was not much of a chance. Baldysz ruffed and cashed the ♣A. What would you have done at trick three?

My good friend, Mr GIB, tells me that the only way to make the contract now is to lead a high heart from hand. That seems a singularly unlikely thing to do, and Baldysz did what I suspect a number of us would, and played the ♣K and ruffed a club in dummy. East overruffed with the ♥7 and played a second round of spades. (Yes, she might have ruffed with the ♥9 perhaps, but it makes no difference.)

Declarer pitched her last club on the spade return, won in dummy and led a trump. East rose with the king and continued spades. Playing another trump now would have allowed declarer to escape with ten tricks (assuming that she later guessed diamonds correctly). Instead, Baldysz played a diamond to the king and a second diamond to the jack, which allowed East to score the fourth defensive trick with his remaining low trump. With +300 available defending 4♠-Doubled, N/S -200 at the five-level did not look like a great result for the Ladies.

Even worse was to come from the other table…

Faced with the same problem, Anna Zareba (right) chose a 3♠ pre-empt to get the auction rolling. And, roll quickly, did it indeed. Michal Kwiecien doubled on his three-suiter and Aleksandra Jarosz attempted to take advantage of the vulnerability by jumping to 5♠ to put maximum pressure on North. Unfortunately for the ladies, Krzysztof Martens felt ne pressure at all and, with a very easy double, he is still laughing all the way to the bank.

Of course, pre-empting can be a very effective weapon, but it sometimes turns around and bites you in the rear, as it did here.

Whilst Cathy Baldysz was toiling away unsuccessfully in her heart contract at the first table, the Seniors were enjoying a very relaxing experience playing defence on the board. Declarer had to lose two clubs, one diamond and two trumps: three down. N/S +500 and another 12 IMPs to POLAND SENIORS.

Although the match was over as a contest, the experience of the Seniors enabled them to take what most men will tell you is always the sensible option, and allowed the Ladies the last word.

For the Ladies, Anna Zareba opened a natural and limited 2♣, showing either 6+ clubs or 5+ clubs and a four-card major. Aleksandra Jarosz (left) advanced with a 2♦ inquiry and, finding four spades opposite, she jumped to game. That seems a little conservative, when as little as Axxx/xx/x/AKxxxx would make slam a decent proposition. But I cannot argue with success and, as it happens, slam was on the club finesse, which would have failed, so stopping in game was good for the Ladies.

Declarer lost a trick in each minor: E/W +650.

At the other table, Ewa Morawska was not willing to give her opponents such as easy ride, so she opened a two-suited weak 2♥, hearts and a minor, on the North cards. Piotr Tuszynski (right) overcalled 3♣, which left Apolinary Kowalski with the last of this week’s problems. Of course, he might introduce his spades but, if 3NT is the best contract, what are the chances that partner will be able to bid it when our hearts are this good? So, Kowalski took a shot at 3NT.

Warned that a heart was perhaps not the best lead for the defence, Morawska duly opened the ♦5 and thus the defenders collected the first five tricks. E/W -100 and 13 IMPs to POLAND LADIES.

The Seniors won the second stanza 30-15 and the match by 36 IMPs, 55-19. Congratulations to Michal Kwiecien, Krzysztof Martens, Apolinary Kowalski and Piotr Tuszynski.

We are now heading back to the UK to bring you the best of the action from the final stage of the trials to select the England Senior team for the upcoming European Championships in Denmark.