The English Premier 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.
By the end of the competition, teams will have played 48 boards against each other team in their division. A complete round robin of seven 16-board matches were played in the first weekend. The same thing will happen over this weekend, and the process will be repeated on the final weekend, next month. On our last visit, we saw the highlights from the opening match of this second weekend. These were the standings in Division 1 after Round 8:
BLACK | 97.60 VPs |
HINDEN | 91.79 |
KNOTTENBELT | 86.93 |
MOSSOP | 84.49 |
SENIOR | 77.19 |
SMALL | 75.25 |
SANDFIA | 68.07 |
DE BOTTON | 59.92 |
As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are South holding:
What action, if any, do you take?
Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting in the West seat with:
What action, if any, do you take?
While you consider those, we start with the Round 9 match between the two leading teams, BLACK and HINDEN. Early in the match, both South players were faced with a variation of the first of the problems above…
After an essentially natural auction, Peter Crouch (left) had to make the five-level decision. Was Simon Cope’s pass of 5♦ forcing, and thus encouraging play rather than defence? If so, then that surely tips the balance, and Crouch duly opted to bid on.
5♥ is not a bad spot, essentially needing to find either the ♥K or the ♠Q onside. Cope ruffed the opening diamond lead and successfully ran the ♥J. He drew the remaining trumps and played a spade to the jack. The defenders could get only their two spade winners: N/S +650.
After the same start, Andrew McIntosh did not raise diamonds at his first opportunity. Graham Osbourne perhaps erred by showing his good heart raise with a 4♦ cue-bid, as that allowed Tom Paske to emphasize his suit/hand with a double. Now, when Chris Jagger bid 4♥, Tosh came alive with 5♦.
With the South hand not in the pass out seat, is it now less clear to bid on? Is Osbourne’s pass of 5♦forcing, and thus encouraging North to bid again? N/S elected to defend, which cost them 3 IMPs, but Jagger then gave away a trick on opening lead by choosing the ♠J. Now the defenders had only three clubs and a heart: N/S +300 and 8 IMPs to BLACK.
Graham Osbourne reversed at his second turn and Chris Jagger (right) advanced with 3♣, which both showed club support and confirmed the values for game facing 16+. Osbourne showed his spade fragment but Jagger returned to clubs, setting the suit. A couple of cue-bids later, Jagger had heard enough to jump to slam. Slam was a decent contract, needing either to pick up the trumps or find the ♠K onside. N/S +1370.
The auction here was identical up to 4♣, but then a wheel fell off. I would guess that 4♦ would have been RKCB for Crouch, so he advanced with a heart cue-bid. At the table, Simon Cope wrote a note that explained 4NT as showing 4♣/4♠ and something else, but the VuGraph operator could not see what. Having reversed, Crouch certainly didn’t have anything to spare in terms of high-card values and perhaps he also knew that the ♠K was missing, so his 5♣ bid is understandable. Cope had plenty of values, but was perhaps worried about his lack of controls. I would guess they have since worked out who should have done more. The upshot, though, was N/S +620 and a bonus 13 IMPs to HINDEN.
A low-scoring match finished in a 22-19 win for HINDEN. BLACK remained on VuGraph for Round 10, this time against SENIOR. Both West players had the opportunity to answer the second of this week’s problems early in the match.
When Norman Selway passed for a second time on the West hand, Tom Paske was left to play peacefully in 2♥. Selway led a trump and declarer played three rounds ending in dummy. A club to the jack then lost to West’s queen. Conscious of the possibility of being endplayed later, Selway cashed the ♣A before exiting with a spade. With the ♠K and two club tricks to go with his five trump winners, Paske now had eight tricks: E/W -110.
After the same start, Andrew Black (left) ventured a takeout double of hearts on the West cards. David Gold bid only 2♠, but Alan Mould chose an unfortunate time to compete to 3♥. Chances are that Black was intending to pass 2♠. However, when Gold showed signs of life by balancing with 3♠, Black decided his hand was worth a shot at game.
Despite only a combined 20 high-card points, 4♠ is not a bad contract on the bidding. It essentially needs two out of three finesses to work, two of them through the no-trump opener. As it happened, Mould held all three of the key kings, so the contract was always destined to make. In practise, Mould led a club at trick one, Gold winning with dummy’s queen. When he then won with the ♠K at trick two, Mould continued with a second club. Declarer was thus able to establish the diamonds and get two of his hearts away. E/W +650 and 13 IMPs to BLACK to open the scoring.
After starting the match 19-0 down, SENIOR clawed their way back into the contest, and they had edged ahead by 2 IMPs by the time the final deal of the match arrived.
Black opened a quiet 1♣ on his monster. David Gold chose to pass John Holland’s 1♦ overcall, presumably intending to play for penalties with six diamonds. When Black jumped to 3♣ with both opponents bidding, Gold confessed to some values and showed something in diamonds, so Black took a shot at game in no-trumps.
John Holland led a top diamond and then switched to a heart at trick two. Black won in hand and rumbled six rounds of clubs before exiting with the ♠Q. Mould won with the ♠K and could have played a diamond to get the defence a third trick, but his heart exit allowed declarer to claim the rest. E/W +660.
After the same start, Kay Preddy preferred to show her values and diamond stop immediately with a 1NT response. Norman Selway (left) has played plenty of rubber bridge in his time, and he is rarely one to mess around in the bidding. His partner’s failure to bid either major confirmed that she must hold at least a modicum of club support, so Selway jumped to what he thought he could make. Selway’s bidding judgement was absolutely spot on.
McIntosh led a top diamond against 6♣. The average club player, to whom it never occurs that their trump suit might not break, would have made this contract by the simple expedient of drawing trumps, eventually conceding a trick to the ♠K. Selway thought he saw a better line. He ruffed the diamond lead, crossed to the ♥K, and successfully ran the ♠10. He then played a spade to the jack and the roof fell in. McIntosh ruffed and exited with a trump.
Selway won in hand and ruffed a spade with the ♣A, but that was not enough. He could get back to hand and draw trumps, but South still had to make the ♠K at the end. E/W -100 and 13 IMPs to BLACK, when it could/should have been a similar number in the other direction. BLACK won the match 35-24.
With ten matches completed, these are the standings:
HINDEN | 120.15 VPs |
BLACK | 119.73 |
KNOTTENBELT | 100.75 |
SMALL | 100.23 |
SENIOR | 98.33 |
MOSSOP | 96.37 |
SANDFIA | 88.83 |
DE BOTTON | 77.85 |
HINDEN has just crept ahead of BLACK at the top of the table, and SMALL has moved up into the top half of the table.
We will be back soon with more highlights from the second weekend of the 2023 EPL.