This is the final weekend of the English Premier League season. The league is divided into three eight-team divisions. A complete round robin of seven 16-board matches was played on each of the first and second weekends. The same thing will happen over this final weekend so that teams will have played 48 boards against each other team in their division.

These were the standings in Division 1 after the first two matches of this weekend:

As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are East holding:

What action do you take?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the South seat with:

What action, if any, do you take?

The VuGraph match for Round 17 is SANDFIA v BLACK, so this will be our first look at one of the two teams leading the field. We all know that if you make life difficult for your opponents often enough, they will sometimes get things wrong.

I am guessing that there was some conventional reason why Andrew Black could not rebid 2♦. He showed his second suit on the next round, and David Gold (left) showed good appreciation of the need for some help in spades from his partner if 3NT was to be the right contract. When Black could not provide any assistance, Gold settled for game in the minor suit.

Black won the spade lead, played a diamond to the ace, and then cashed two high clubs discarding the spade loser from his hand. He continued with the ♣Q, so the defenders made their high trumps separately, but that was still eleven tricks. E/W +600.

North/South made things much more difficult for their opponents in the replay…

Andrew McIntosh (right) overcalled 1♠ on the North cards here. Stefano Tommasini showed his clubs and Tom Paske made a pre-emptive jump to 3♠, leaving Tommasini with the first of the problems posed above. Tommasini had a spade stopper and a likely source of tricks in clubs. Perhaps most important, with his partner having bid only hearts, he did not know that his side had a viable alternative game.

Of course, 3NT can be made. Would you win the second round of spades, cross to a red ace, and play a club to the ten? Of course not, and nor did Tommasini. He started clubs from the top and, when the jack failed to come down, he could come to only seven tricks. E/W -200 and 13 IMPs to BLACK.

Tommasini’s 2♥ was a transfer, showing a constructive or better three-card spade raise. Ben Norton competed to 3♠ after Paske had rebid his diamonds, and no one was tempted to go any higher.

Paske won the opening diamond lead and switched to a low club. Norton put up the king, so Tosh took his two winners in clubs before playing a second diamond. Declarer ruffed and exited with a third round of clubs to South’s jack. Paske tried a low heart, but declarer knew where the ace was so he rose with king and claimed his seven tricks. N/S +100.

Three out of four players at the table took a much rosier view of their hands in the replay…

After the same start, Gold decided that his hand was worth only a simple raise. Here, too, South rebid her diamonds and Black competed to the three-level. Knowing that his partner was short in spades, Mike Bell decided that he would rather play than defend. You would have thought that would be that, and the result would be a 2-IMP gain for SANDFIA with both minor-suit finesses working. However, Black decided that he wasn’t done, and he backed in with 4♠. That left Sarah Bell (left) with the second of this week’s problems.

As is often the case in high-level competitive auctions, this is a three-way decision – pass, double or bid. The first question should be, “Do we think 4♠ is making?” The answer is surely “Probably not” as even West didn’t think it was making – remember that he previously tried to play in 3♠. At equal vulnerability, collecting +100 or +300 when you have previously decided that you cannot make game seems like a reasonable return, so I suspect that double would be the mainstream choice. A total trumps evaluation would seem to suggest that the likelihood is that both games are one down.

As it happens, anything but a pass produces a bonanza on this layout. Bell chose to bid on to game in her long suit. With everything right, you can actually make twelve tricks, which is why West can only make seven in spades. N/S +400 and 7 IMPs to SANDFIA. Double would, of course, have picked up +500 and a couple more IMPs.

This deal was the only small beacon of light for SANDFIA, as BLACK won the match 46-9. With HINDEN losing to DE BOTTON, this result carried BLACK to the top of the leader board with just four matches remaining.

SANDFIA remained on VuGraph for the final match Saturday. Their opponents this time were the other team in serious contention for the title, HINDEN. This was the first deal…

Facing only a simple raise from her partner, Frances Hinden (right) correctly judged that game in spades would not be a good proposition. Even if there was no ruff, game would be on the heart finesse into the opening bidder.

Mike Bell won the diamond lead, cashed his second winner in the suit, and gave his partner a ruff. The defence eventually came to the ♣A to hold declarer to nine tricks. N/S +140.

North/South can make game, but in no-trumps and not in their eight-card major suit, so which side would be happier with this result?

Stefano Tommasini (left) decided that he was worth a game try after his partner’s raise, and he advanced with a natural 2NT. With a maximum having not raised via a cue-bid, it was clear for Ben Norton to accept the invitation. With no ruffing value, though, might he not have raised to 3NT rather than jumping to 4♠?

Chris Jagger led the ♦3, East winning with the king and declarer following with the queen. Taking the cards at face value, there is no way for Neil Rosen to tell which of the unseen hands has three diamonds, as Jagger would certainly have led the three from a holding of J-6-3. However, remembering the bidding and, particularly South’s 2NT bid, should have told Rosen what he needed to know. Brain freeze convinced Rosen that it was declarer who held the singleton diamond, so he switched to a heart at trick two, hoping to set up tricks in that suit while he still held the ♣A. That was the end of the defenders’ ruff, and a winning heart finesse later gave Tommasini his contract. N/S + 420 and 7 IMPs to SANDFIA to open the scoring.

A couple of boards later, a question of evaluation created a swing…

Hinden opened a strong/artificial 2♣ and then went via a Kokish relay to show 25+ balanced. Osbourne’s jump to 4♣ then showed hearts. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding (although unlikely for such an experienced regular partnership), so it seems that someone under-valued their hand. However, just looking at the auction does not tell us who.

There are two ways to play these sequences. For most North American pairs, a Texas transfer (or, in this case, South African Texas, ie 4♣ rather than 4♦ to show hearts) just shows a hand that wants to play game, whereas starting with a three-level transfer and then raising to 4♥would show some slam interest. If that is their understanding, then is this North hand not worth the stronger sequence opposite a 25-count?

The alternative method, and more common in the UK, is for 3♦-3♥-4♥ to show a hand that wants to play game and no higher. Then, what are called two-up transfers show at least some slam interest. If that is what Osbourne showed with his jump to 4♣, is the South hand not worth 4♦ to show a suitable hand for slam?

There was only the ace of trumps to lose: N/S +680.

After the same start to the auction, Ben Norton (right) also jumped to 4♣ to show hearts. Tommasini did break to 4♦ to show some interest, which encouraged Norton to show his diamond control with a five-level cue-bid. That was enough for Tommasini. N/S +1430 and 13 IMPs to SANDFIA.

After this excellent start for the underdogs, the rest of the match was incredibly flat, with just a few overtrick IMPs exchanged. SANDFIA won the low-scoring match 29-6. Although BLACK also lost narrowly to DE BOTTON in this round, consecutive losses have put a serious dent in the HINDEN challenge for the title. Consecutive big wins have moved SMALL up into third place, so they lead the chasing pack.

With just three matches to play on Sunday, these were the overnight standings:

We will be back soon with the best of the actions from Sunday’s matches.