Welcome back to Strasbourg, where we have reached the quarter-final stage of the Open Teams at the European Transnational Championships. It is also finals day in the Women’s Teams. There are only a smattering of members of the BBO Bidding Panel still alive, but we are now guaranteed at least one medallist in each of the events. In the Women’s Teams, Sally Brock is in the BAKER team, so is assured of at least a silver medal. In the Open we have members left in just two teams, Cedric Lorenzini in VINCIGUERRA, and Simon Hult and Andrew McIntosh in TEAM BLACK. As those two teams are playing each other today, at least one is certain to make it though to the semi-finals and a guaranteed bronze medal. Good luck to all of our panellists in their hunt for gold.

We take a break from the Open today, to concentrate on the action from the final of the Women’s Teams. Only an ardent statistician could tell you how many European, North American and World Championships medals the players in these two teams have between them. Suffice it to say that it is a three-figured number. A year ago, in the McConnell Cup at the World Championships in Wroclaw, these two teams won silver (TRI POLAR) and bronze (BAKER) medals. Here in Strasbourg, they battle it out for gold, and we are expecting a great final.

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

What action, if any, do you take?

What would you do if partner had opened 2♥ and East had bid 2NT?

Next, with both sides vulnerable, you hold as South:

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with just your side vulnerable, you are sitting in the West seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

The score stood at 36-36 at the end of the first stanza. The large crowd watching live on BBO VuGraph did not have to wait long for the second-half action to start. And, what an enormous fire-cracker it was, just in case anyone was dozing off. This was the second board of the set…

Karen McCallum opened a second-seat 3♥ at favourable vulnerability, and Nevena Senior overcalled 3NT to leave Lynn Baker (left) with the first of the problems posed above. Yes, 4♥ rates to be relatively cheap, but are the opponents making their game? Baker chose to take the insurance.

It looks like declarer has six losers in 4♥-X. Senior opened the ♦K, declarer winning with the ace and returning a diamond to East’s queen. It is not obvious, but East needs to be particularly careful now. How would you defend?

Senior cashed the ♣A and played a second club to her partner’s king, but one of the defenders’ tricks now disappeared, as Smith was legitimately endplayed. She tried exiting with a diamond, but that was a ruff-and-discard, and away went the spade loser from declarer’s hand. E/W +300.

To get the maximum, assuming you are not going to underlead your ♣A, East has to switch to a spade after winning with the ♦Q (with or without cashing high trumps first). East can then win the first round of clubs and play a second spade, establishing the queen, before West is endplayed with the ♣K.

It was a cheap save against a vulnerable game, but this time it was a phantom. If the defence starts with three rounds of spades against 3NT, declarer can make only a spade, five clubs and two hearts before having to let South in to cash her winners.

As things turned out, the result at this table was almost irrelevant. Which team gained a huge swing on the board came down to a 32-IMP guess… and an unnecessary one, at that!

Irene Baroni decided that the North hand was worth only a weak two, so Fiona Brown got to overcall at the two-level. Taking the diametrically opposite view to her counterpart at the other table, Kathie Bertheau chose to double and defend. Brown’s redouble then made the stakes even higher.

Three rounds off spades is not good enough against declarer’s eight-trick game. Indeed, a winning club guess will give declarer eight tricks on any defence, so Bertheau went for the jugular – she started with a top spade and then switched to a heart at trick two. Brown won in hand, cashed the ♣A and played a second club towards dummy. Of course, Bertheau followed with the last small club. Declarer eventually guessed to play the jack. Baroni won with the ♣Q and cleared the hearts, and now declarer had only six tricks. E/W -1000 and 16 IMPs to TRI POLAR.

Had Brown guessed the clubs, she would have inevitably picked up the diamonds too, and thus finished with ten tricks. That would have been E/W +1680 and 16 IMPs in the other column. The sad thing is that there was no need to guess the clubs at all. After winning with the ♥A at trick two, declarer should have started with the ♦K. If the ♦J is either singleton or doubleton, you will have eight top tricks (four diamonds and the A-K of hearts and clubs). As it happens, when you cash out your eight tricks, the ♣Q comes down, so you will then end up with eleven tricks for +2080!! (Of course, if the ♦J does not come down, you would then have to guess the clubs.)

A couple of boards later, both South players had to answer the second of today’s problems, and a pattern started to emerge…

Lynn Baker overcalled 2♥ on the South hand. When the English pair bid to game, the Americans again took the save against a contract that might or might not be making. There were two trumps and a trick in each black suit to be lost, so the tariff this time was E/W +500.

Kathie Bertheau did not come in on the South cards, so the English pair quickly reached game via a Drury sequence. When dummy appeared, Fiona Brown (right) must have been overjoyed to see that her contract was likely to depend on a winning club guess. Where had she seen that before?

Bertheau led a heart. Declarer won, played a spade to the king, and a second spade back to her queen, Bertheau winning and continuing hearts. Declarer pitched a diamond from dummy as she won with the ♥K, drew the last trump, and led a club towards dummy. Brown called for the ♣9 and was, no doubt, relieved to see that North could not find the ♣J. That was E/W +620 and Brown’s reward for her correct club guess, just 3 IMPs to BAKER. It’s a tough game!

It was not long before the next “To Bid or Not to Bid” question appeared, with both West players facing a variation on the last of today’s problems.

Lynn Baker made a defensive raise of her partner’s opening 3♠, but Nicola Smith was not tempted in on the shapely West hand.

The defence was accurate. Nevena Senior led the ♥K, covered by dummy’s ace and ruffed with the ♠Q. Smith cashed the ♠A, then switched to a low club. Senior won with the ♣A and cashed two hearts to put the contract two down. E/W +100.

Irene Baroni opened only 2♠, but Kathie Bertheau (left) has spent years watching Jessica Larsson raise to 4♠ on this type of hand, so there was no pussy-footing 3♠ bid from the Swedish star. Sally Brock is no fool, but she rushed in anyway. Thereafter, either of the English players might have limited the damage.

Is 4NT clearly both minors here, or could it be any two suits? It’s a question worth checking with your regular partner, perhaps. If 4NT is certainly minors, perhaps Brown might have settled for a quiet 5♣, with her heart values potentially wasted. Brock’s 6♦ seems to make it clear that she thought she had shown specifically minors, and that 5NT asked her to choose one. Once the doubling started, they were in trouble wherever they played. 7♣-X was probably the cheapest available spot, but that was still two down. E/W -500 and another 12 IMPs to TRI POLAR.

There was still just time for one more big swing.

With three top losers and big holes in both black suits, it is hard to argue much with the judgement of the American pair to stop in 2♠. With finesses against the ♠K, the ♠10 and the ♣K all working for declarer, ten tricks were made. N/S +170.

Zia has spoken about playing in ‘Heat 1’, when whatever you do seems to work, and Bertheau/Baroni had enjoyed exactly that sort of set. After the same start to the auction, Irene Baroni (right) made a pre-emptive raise to 3♠ and Bertheau, with no real justification other than that they were playing in Heat 1, carried on to game.

Brock led a club to ten and jack, and Bertheau advanced the ♦K. Brock won and led a second club, covered by queen, king and ace. When declarer than played the ♣9, Brock felt she had to ruff. Bertheau overruffed in dummy and led the ♠Q. East covered perforce and, because West had already expended one trump, declarer did not even have to guess the spades on the second round. Ten tricks, N/S +620 and another 10 IMPs to TRI POLAR.

TRI POLAR won the second stanza 50-9, so they led by 41 IMPs at the midway point. It was not an insurmountable lead, but BAKER had a huge mountain to climb against a team who apparently couldn't do anything wrong. And, so it proved: BAKER won the third stanza 39-21 to reduce the deficit to 23 IMPs going into the last set, but TRI POLAR won the final set 36-32 to take the title with victory by 143-116.

Congratulations to all of the medallists in the Women’s Teams:

In the Open, it was the end of the road for yesterday’s giant killers, DAISY CHAIN, who went down 140-111 against VINCI (Italy). There were big wins too for FRANCE GREEN (France) and VINCIGUERRA (France/Monaco). The one close match was between ROSENTHAL (USA/Norway) and LANKVELD (Netherlands), The Dutch trailed by 12 IMPs going into the final set and were still 7 IMPs behind with two deals remaining, but they gained 19 IMPs on the final two boards to win 109-97.

We will be back soon with the best of the action for the Open Teams semi-finals.