We travelled via Eurostar from London to Saint Cloud, in the western suburbs of Paris, where 26 teams have gathered to contest the national final of Division 1 of the French Interclub Teams Championship. The format for the final is an eight-round Swiss of 12-board matches played over two days. On this visit, we will see the best of the action from the opening matches.

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

What action, if any, do you take?

We start our coverage in the first round with a match between Bridge Club Garches Vaucresson, captained by Hilda Setton, and B.C. De Gradignan-Bordeaux, led by Xavier Dupuis. Early in the match, both North players found themselves with the problem above.

Quentin Robert (left) was a member of the French team that won the Junior Teams at the 2009 European Youth Teams Championships. In 2017, he collected a silver medal from the Open Teams at the European Transnational Teams Championships in Montecatini.

Having passed as Dealer, Robert still did not think he had enough to enter the fray over West’s 1NT response. Jean Luc Aroix continued with a Gazzilli 2♣ (either clubs or any 17+) on the East hand, and Jeremie Tignel then bid an artificial 2♦, showing 8+HCP and confirming game values if his partner had the strong hand. That was all Aroix needed to know, and he jumped to 3NT.

Robert opened the ♣6, so the defenders quickly cashed four clubs and the ♦A to put the contract one down. E/W -50.

After the same start, Thibaut Charletoux chose to make a takeout double of hearts on the North cards. Thomas Bessis redoubled to show a good hand, Xavier Dupuis retreated to 2♣, and Cedric Lorenzini ended the auction with a sharp penalty-oriented double.

Declarer won the trump lead cheaply and played a heart to the nine. Winning with the ♥Q, Bessis returned a second trump. Declarer ducked a heart to West’s king and Lorenzini played a third round of trumps. Winning in hand, declarer could do no more than run the ♥J, pitching a diamond from dummy. Dupuis now had seven tricks, five trumps, the ♥10 and the ♦A, but that was still one down: E/W +200 and 6 IMPs to SETTON.

Our next deal had all the hallmarks of a dull flat game…

After a natural start to the auction, it looks like Tignel’s 2♣ rebid was a Gazzilli variant. With two balanced hands, no major-suit fit, and a combined 27-count, one would expect the auction to reach 3NT eventually, and it duly did.

Pierre Franceschetti led a spade, dummy’s nine winning. Declarer played a low heart, and North went in with the ace and switched to a diamond. Declarer won in dummy, crossed to the ♥J, and played a club to the jack. He then continued with a low club to the queen and king, exposing South’s ♣10 to a marked finesse. Ten tricks: E/W +430. That all looks straightforward enough…

When Xavier Dupuis opened 2♠ (spades and a minor) on the South hand, he caught the opponents with the perfect combination. Lorenzini started with a double, and Bessis advanced with a Lebensohl 2NT, showing a hand in the 0-8 range. Did Lorenzini dare risk doing anything more than bidding 3♣ and finding his partner virtually broke? He decided not. Bessis also had a maximum, but how can he risk venturing further facing what could be a minimum double?

Thus it was that, even with their combined 27-count, the top pair in the country bid only to a club partscore. That’s why people pre-empt. Here, both players held an ace more than they might, but the question of whether to bid on or not was essentially a guess from both sides of the table. Lorenzini made ten tricks: E/W +130 and 7 IMPs to DUPUIS.

SETTON won a low-scoring match 17-11. With both of these teams carrying expectations of contending for the title, it was a result with which neither would be particularly unhappy.

In Round 2, we get our first look at the defending champions, B.C. De Marle, captained by Philippe Caralp. Their opponents in this round are The Bridgerie, led by Eric Gautret.

Jerome Rombaut (right) was a member of the French team that won the Schools Teams event at the 1994 European Youth Championships. He played in his country’s Junior and University teams throughout the 1990s and made his debut in the French Open team at the 2002 European Championships. He collected gold medals at the 2016 European Team Championships and from the Open Teams at the 2018 European Winter Games. He finished fifth in the 2018 World Open Pairs and, playing with his son Leo, collected a silver medal from the Open teams at the European Transnational Championships earlier this year in Strasbourg.

On this deal, Jerome took advantage of the favourable vulnerability and third seat to open what was revealed as a weak two in diamonds. Eric Gautret doubled on the big hand, and Catherine Mus responded with 2NT. There was no alert, so this may well be natural rather than Lebensohl. Perhaps with no conventional methods to explore the hand further, Gautret bid what he thought he could make.

Leo Rombaut led the ♦7 to ten, jack and ace. Declarer drew trumps and then crossed to the ♣K to play a heart to the king. That lost to the ace and declarer conceded a second heart at the end. E/W +650.

Regis Lesguillier did not open the North hand, so Karim Chraibi got to open with his system strong bid in fourth chair. Thereafter, Chraibi bid his strong major and then rebid 3NT. When Ricardo Salvador made a quantitative raise to 4NT, Chrairbi decided he had enough to accept the invitation, and jumped to 6♠.

Jean Louis Marlier led a trump. The contract is obviously poor and, in such circumstances, declarer should look for a layout of the defenders’ cards that allows him to make his contract. On this deal, there are three possibilities. Your best chance is to find Q-J-x of diamonds tripleton, allowing you to ruff the ♦10 good for a heart discard. An outside chance (but the one that works on this layout) is to find Q-J-10 of clubs coming down, so that the ♣9 can be ruffed good to provide a twelfth trick. The obvious chance is to find one of the defenders with a doubleton ♥A. A fourth alternative, and the one chosen at the table, is to take the approach that always seemed to work for the Rueful Rabbit, of running your trumps and hoping the defenders will throw the wrong things away. They didn’t, so declarer eventually went one down. E/W -100 and 13 IMPs to GAUTRET.

With Gautret’s raise to 2♥ promising four trumps, it looks as if Mus’s 2NT is some sort of game try. With 14 HCP and a balanced hand, Gautret not only accepted the try, but did well by suggesting a no-trump game as an alternative. With her partner very likely to hold three spades for his 3NT bid, might Mus not have foreseen the danger of spade ruffs against a heart game?

Jerome Rombaut opened the ♦2 and, when declarer played low from dummy, Leo might have gone wrong, but he correctly rose with the ace. Unfortunately, he then tried to give his partner a diamond ruff at trick two. Declarer won in her hand with the ♦Q, drew trumps, and eventually established her black-suit winners for just the loss of two more aces. E/W +620.

Could the CARALP E/W pair manage to get to 3NT and then find the careful play needed to bring home game?

Here, Salvador made his game try with 2♠. Exactly what Chraibi’s 2NT means is a bit of a mystery. One would think he would want to accept the game try, and yet 2NT looks natural and non-forcing. However, when Salvador then retreated to 3♥, also presumably non-forcing, Chraibi raised to game. Whatever the various bids meant, it seems that it was more difficult to reach 3NT with these methods.

Jean-Louis Marlier (left) and Regis Lesguillier have twice just missed out on a medal in a European event. They finished fifth in the Senior Pairs at the 2018 European Championships, and fourth in the same event earlier this year at the Transnational Championship in Strasbourg.

On this deal, Lesguillier also led the ♦2, but Marlier made no mistake. He won with the ♦A and switched to the ♠J. Lesguillier won with the ♠A and gave his partner a spade ruff, then regained the lead with the ♣A to deliver a second ruff. Two down: E/W -200 and another 13 IMPs to GAUTRET.

This match was very one-sided, GAUTRET winning 45-6 to move up amongst the leaders after two rounds.

We will be back soon with the best of the action from the remaining matches on the opening day of this final.