We are now two-thirds of the way through the English Premier League season. The league is divided into three eight-team divisions. The leading two teams in Division One will be invited to represent England in next year’s Camrose Trophy. If England qualify, the winners will also be England’s representatives at the 2024 European Champions Cup.

A complete round robin of seven 16-board matches were played on the first and second weekends. The same thing will happen over this final weekend. By the end of this weekend, teams will have played 48 boards against each other team in their division.

These were the standings in Division 1 after the first two weekends:

Only one problem this week. With only your side vulnerable, you are North holding:

What action do you take?

We start our coverage towards the end of the Round 15 match between MOSSOP and DE BOTTON. With just two deals remaining, MOSSOP led 23-21. Then the two North players were charged with making nine tricks in 3NT on this layout.

Both David Bakhshi and Phil King raised their partner’s 1NT opening to game. Despite finding opener with a fit, game is not great because of the blockage in clubs. Most opening leads leave declarer with little chance, but both East players fished out the only thing that does not beat the contract automatically, a low heart. At both tables, declarer captured West’s ♥K with the ace at trick one. Now, how to deal with the blocked club suit…

Artur Malinowski’s answer was to run the ♣J at trick two. Espen Erichsen won with the ♣Q and tabled the ♠J. Having already lost a club and with a heart winner already established for the defence, Malinowski cannot afford to lose three spades, so he rose with the ♠K. The defenders quickly cashed five spade tricks for two down: N/S -200.

Derek Patterson (left) took the alternative approach. He started clubs by cashing the ace and king. That brought down West’s queen and established dummy’s long clubs as winners, so he crossed back to hand with the blocking ♣J and led a heart towards dummy. With the ♥J providing access to the long clubs, East rose with the ♥Q and cashed the ♠A. Declarer now had 11 tricks: N/S +660 and 13 IMPs to MOSSOP.

Astute readers may be asking, “What if West does not play the ♥K at trick one?” Declarer makes the same second heart trick, but with the ♥10 now, but the ♥J no long provides an entry to dummy. To make the contract now, declarer must run the first round of clubs to West’s queen, and then withhold the ♠K until the third round. The defenders can get one club and three spades, but declarer scores five clubs and two tricks in each red suit. Perhaps that is the most testing defence after the low heart lead. The final deal of the match was a bidding test for the E/W pairs.

Espen Erichsen opened 1♣ and rebid 1NT. He then showed his diamonds when Thor Erik Hoftaniska forced to game. With an excellent club fit and tenuous major-suit holdings, Hoftaniska chose to head for the minor-suit game.

Patterson led a spade and Phil King took two tricks in the suit and then switched to a heart. Now declarer just needed to avoid a trump loser. When he played a club to the ace, King followed with the jack. The Principle of Restricted Choice tells you that the odds are 2-to-1 in favour of South’s jack being a singleton rather than from Q-J doubleton. So, Erichsen ruffed a heart back to his hand and played a club to the nine. When King produced the ♣Q, that was one down: E/W -100.

I am not a fan of bidding suits out of order (that’s how you end up playing in a 4-2 diamond fit rather than a 5-3 club fit) but there are exceptions to every rule. With excellent diamonds, terrible clubs, and not much of a spade stop either, if ever there was a hand on which to open 1♦ with this shape, this is it. When Jason Hackett (right) then showed a spade stopper in response to his brother’s fourth-suit bid, the partnership had almost negotiated the choppy waters to reach the desired destination.

Malinowski led the ♥J against 3NT. Jason won with the ace and played a club. When Malinowski followed with a low card, playing the ♣9 from dummy guaranteed the contract. Bakhshi thus won the first round of clubs, but declarer now had nine winners via four clubs, three diamonds and two hearts. E/W +600 and another 12 IMPs to MOSSOP.

What had been a very close match until near the end had turned into a big win for MOSSOP, by a score of 48-21, just about keeping them in touch with the teams ahead of them. DE BOTTON remained on VuGraph for Round 16, this time against KNOTTENBELT

One of the main problems with a 2/1 system is that extra values can easily get lost. In this auction, Michael Byrne forced to game with 2♦, he then agreed hearts at the three-level, and then came a series of cue-bids. So, here we are at the four-level, and Byrne has a 16-count but could just as easily have had a 13-count for his initial 2♦ response. Does that extra king mean that he should advance beyond game? Has Kieran Dyke yet shown anything more than a minimum opening bid? I don’t know whether 3♠ was ‘serious’ for this pair here. Dyke revealed his extra values with his jump to 6♥, but it was too late for Byrne to reevaluate his hand at that point. With neither major suit breaking, it was possible that twelve tricks would be high enough anyway, although Dyke did make 13. N/S +1010.

The auction began the same way at this table. Indeed, Thor Erik Hoftaniska (left) made his first cue-bid in diamonds, leaving his partner little room to do anything other than bid 4♥. However, when the Norwegian confirmed possession of all key cards and showed grand slam interest with 5NT, Erichsen quite reasonably decided that he had whatever his partner was looking for.

Hoftaniska won the opening diamond lead and, whilst some declarers might have thought about trying to do something with the spade suit, the Norwegian immediately ruffed a low diamond in his hand. When then he cashed his two high trumps, East discarded, so now the path was clear. He played the third high trump from his hand, crossed to a club, and drew the last trump with the ♥J. He now cashed his club winners. One possibility is that if either defender holds five diamonds, he will be forced to discard spades. That chance didn’t materialize, but the appearance of West’s ♠Q on the second round gave declarer his thirteenth trick with the ♠J. N/S +1510 and 11 IMPs to DE BOTTON. A little lucky, perhaps but, as they say, “You’ve got be in it to win it.”

On our final board for this visit, both North players had to decide what action to take on this week’s problem hand.

Holding a balanced 17-count with a diamond stopper, Kieran Dyke (right) entered the fray with a 1NT overcall, which it certainly a viable option on the North hand. Michael Byrne had no reason to take any action, so there ended the brief auction. The defenders led diamonds and Dyke ducked until the third round. He then cashed three heart winners ending in dummy and played a spade towards his hand. West rose with the ♠A cashed his diamonds, and exited with a club to the queen and ace. Taking a spade finesse, although it is likely to be working, risks the contract, so Dyke settled for his seven tricks. N/S +90.

Hoftaniska chose to start with a takeout double on the North cards. Ben Handley-Pritchard made a competitive diamond raise but that was not enough to shut out Espen Erichsen (left). Hoftaniska did not need more than a small murmur from his partner to commit to game on this hand.

Ed Jones led his singleton club to the queen and ace. Erichsen played a trump to the ace and called for dummy’s remaining club. Handley-Pritchard won with the ♣K and played a second round of trumps. Erichsen won in hand an led a spade, inserting the jack when West followed low. Declarer conceded a diamond and he eventually ruffed dummy’s last diamond, threw a spade on the ♣J, and led another spade towards dummy. Ten tricks: N/S +620 and 11 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

Despite these two big swings, the rest of the set did not go the way of DE BOTTON, and KNOTTENBELT won a close match 46-42.

After two matches on this final weekend of the Premier League, these were the standings:

No change in the order of the top five, although Hinden have opened a narrow gap at the top and Knottenbelt has made a small dent in the margin between the top two and the rest of the field.

We will be back soon with the remaining Saturday matches from the third weekend of the EPL.