We are back for a third and last visit to the final of the 2023 Gold Cup between DE BOTTON (Janet de Botton, Artur Malinowski, David Bakhshi, Tom Townsend, Thomas Charlsen and Thor Erik Hoftaniska) and ALLFREY (Alexander Allfrey, Andrew Robson, Peter Crouch, Simon Cope, Richard Plackett and Espen Erichsen). The format is a 64-board match divided into eight 8-board stanzas.

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

What do you bid?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

The DE BOTTON team had, at one point, led by 61 IMPs. With two 8-board sets left to play, that lead has been reduced to only 29 IMPs. Remembering what happened the day before in the semi-final, when DE BOTTON came back to win after trailing by 48 IMPs going into the final stanza, no one is thinking that this match is over.

Early in the penultimate stanza, both North players had to answer the first of this week’s problems…

Janet de Botton made the auction easy by raising spades at her second turn. Artur Malinowski advance with 3♦, ostensibly a game try, and then jumped to 4♠ when De Botton bid 3♥. With no indication that her partner was interested in anything beyond game, De Botton was never going to bid again, and thus the good slam was missed.

With clubs breaking 3-3, declarer theoretically has 13 top tricks unless the defenders cash their ace at trick one. However, declarer need not rely on such fortunate distribution, as taking a diamond ruff in dummy gives him 12 tricks. N/S +480.

After an identical start, Simon Cope (left) advanced with a 4♣ cue-bid after Peter Crouch’s 3♥. That was enough to encourage Crouch to roll out the Old Black and bid a slam when he found two aces and the trump queen opposite.

There was no problem in the play. Twelve tricks here too: N/S +980 and 11 IMPs to ALLFREY.

There was more good news for the chasing team on the very next deal.

N/S offered some gentle competition, but the Norwegians were not hard-pressed to bid to their heart game. With trumps breaking 2-2, there were just two black-suit aces to be lost. E/W +650 and what looked for all the world like a dull flat board. But you never can tell.

Janet de Botton is no mouse, and she charged in with a 2♠ overcall on the South hand. Andrew Robson showed his hearts via a negative double and Artur Malinowski upped the ante with a raise to 3♠. I would guess that most would simply bid 4♥ on that East hand, but Alexander Allfrey (right) preferred the flexibility offered by a strength-showing double. When the double ended the auction, it looked as if Allfrey had taken a losing option. There are numerous lines of defence that beat 3♠-X by two, but that is only +500 and what looked like a 4-IMP loss for the ALLFREY team.

I won’t go into the gory details of the play, but suffice to say that it was a car crash and declarer managed to go four down. That meant E/W +1100 and a massive 10 IMPs to ALLFREY.

ALLFREY won the penultimate set 24-11, so the margin going into the final eight boards was a mere 16 IMPs (117-101).

With both North players having to answer the second of the problems posed earlier, restraint earned a swing for ALLFREY on the second deal of the final stanza.

Andrew Robson (left) settled for 1♠ at his second turn. When Allfrey gave preference to diamonds, Robson made one more try for game, emphasizing his good spade suit, but Allfrey again retreated. With no encouragement from across the table, Robson gave up and settled for the partscore.

With 5♦ needing little more than finding one of the two major-suit kings onside, N/S +150 was perhaps a missed chance for ALLFREY.

After the same start, Thor Erik Hoftaniska made a game-forcing jump to 2♠ at his second turn. Thomas Charlsen showed his diamond preference but, with such sterile shape and solid heart values opposite probable shortage in his partner’s hand, he had no reason to move after Hoftaniska’s 3NT bid.

The Norwegians had reached game, but it was the wrong one. Simon Cope had an easy club lead and declarer was quickly one down. N/S -100 and 6 IMPs to ALLFREY. The margin was now 10 IMPs with six deals remaining, but that turned out to be as close as ALLFREY was to get. The penultimate board closed the deal for DE BOTTON.

The bidding here is all rather strange, but the result was probably about as good as it could be as the cards lie. There was no alert for Robson’s 1♥ bid, so perhaps it was just natural and forcing, in which case it seems like a rather strange choice (when, if you are not going to pass, either a negative double or 1♠ would seem more descriptive). Then, Allfrey’s jump to 3♠, on a 4-3-3-3 shape, make me think that North had shown spades somehow. Perhaps 1♥ was a transfer?

If he did know that his partner had spades, this was particularly well-judged by Allfrey, as many would surely have raised all the way to game. There are two clubs and two red aces to lose off the top. Indeed, if the defenders could find their club ruff, even 3♠ would prove too high. They couldn’t: N/S +140.

Standard Scandinavian employs something more akin to a sabre than an epee on this sort of hand. Thomas Charlsen’s 2♣ opening showed either an unbalanced game-force or 18-21 balanced. Peter Crouch did his best to disrupt the auction with a pre-emptive jump to 3♦, and Hoftaniska, in typical fashion, was not shy. His double showed a game-forcing hand facing 18-21!

Charlsen had an obvious 3NT and now the spotlight fell on Crouch. Could he avoid a diamond lead? Indeed, leading a low club and getting a diamond switch would have held declarer to only five tricks. Even leading a major gets a plus score for East/West. When Crouch led a low diamond, declarer was in clover. He now had two diamond tricks and four spades, and he could establish three hearts simply by driving out the ace. N/S +600 and 10 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

DE BOTTON won the final stanza 20-13. After the miraculous comeback in the semi-final, they had held on to win the final by a score of 137-114.

Congratulations to Janet de Botton, Artur Malinowski, David Bakhshi, Tom Townsend, Thomas Charlsen and Thor Erik Hoftaniska. David Bakhshi first won in 2002 and he has now won the Gold Cup seven times. For Janet and Artur, this was their fourth victory in the event, having first won it in 2005. Both Tom Townsend and Thor Erik Hoftaniska had previously won in 2021 and, for Thomas Charlsen, this was his first Gold Cup win.