Peggy Bayer Match 9 & 10

The Scotland team were perfectly polite, but inwardly I think upset to be beaten by their younger SBU rivals. I encouraged them to channel their inner anger to the match against Ireland, where they produced a stonking 83-28 IMP win. "I like scoring up" said Niamh after this one. Why can't they play like that every match?

The SBU team didn't quite enjoy scoring up so much, and I think have been roundly beaten by England. I've not seen the final score yet, but hope they can grab a VP or two.

This board caused a lot of trouble around the event:

For Scotland our North-South pair got to 5D after a fourth suit forcing auction (1H-1S;2D-3C). This made plus one. In the SBU match they got swindled by England, who bid swiftly to 5C East-West which went undoubled down four. When he came out of the match South did say he had made a mistake, forgetting to double with three Aces.

Both Irish Peggy Bayer and Camrose teams ended up in failing grand slams, so clearly not an easy one to bid.

The gladiators are now in for the final combat, with Scotland looking to get a good result against Northern Ireland. I set a target at breakfast today of 100 VPs (average 10/20 per match), which is within reach. 

Turns out the SBU team lost by just 6 IMPs to England! Well done all of them. My players don't seem to enjoy having their photos taken but I'm now going to sneak in to the venue to take a few action shots. 

Niamh & Rachel

"It doesn't matter about our score anyway, as we were down seven doubled at the other table"

Timon, thinking about the gala dinner at 830 tonight

As we await the final result I fear that our Scotland team have not done enough to overhaul Ireland and will finish in third, with the SBU team fourth having sabotaged the senior team by beating them earlier.

In the U26 event it looks it will also be England #1, Ireland #2 and Wales #3 not far behind.

All that remains is for me to beautify myself for the gala dinner and give a short speech thanking everyone. 

 

Peggy Bayer Match 7 & 8

Everything to play for today as we launch into battle against Wales and Ireland. The day also promises at least one trip into Troon - ideally to get a belt as my best bridge shorts are a bit loose. 

I watched the first hand live.

This is the Scotland U26 pair, getting to a one down 3C. A sensible result, not repeated elsewhere. On the other table the Scotland U26 pair got to the remarkable contract of 5H-6, which was non-vulnerable and undoubled so didn't cost too much, apart from some embarrassment.

In both the Peggy Bayer matches I watched North opened 1NT. At one table the Welsh South tried a speculative Stayman, and left his partner in 2NT. Our East (Isla) correctly led a Diamond, and cashed the setting trick plus a couple more for 2NT-2.

On the other table Ireland made a conventional 2C and they found the good Diamond fit. This was played very nicely, endplaying Artem as North three times to make 2D+2.

This time I'm nearly certain that the SBU team has beaten Ireland, with a tremendous 16-4 win! On top of that, the Scotland team beat Wales 17-3. 

Intense scoring up

In the second match of the day our two teams faced off. The older Scotland team were supposed to win, but the SBU pulled out some magic and beat their more experienced rivals. 

This was a good hand for the young(er) upstarts. 4S has three top losers and a slow Heart loser, but you can throw a Heart on the King of Clubs if you avoid a Heart lead. When Eunice was the West declarer for Scotland she got a tricky low Club lead from North. I hate it when people underlead Aces, but here it works surprisingly well, as it makes declarer guess about Clubs. Eunice made the percentage play of a low Club (hoping South had the Ace) and now went one down. Bad luck, well played!

Overall the SBU team won by 46-37 IMPs.

This morning I took Iris into town, along with Artem & Shiva, to celebrate them making our first slam (6S=) by going to Greggs. 

This afternoon I went back to Troon with Eunice and Isla. We saw lots of seagulls, some jackdaws and a pied wagtail.

Here is the cross-table, though I think it's out of date and don't trust it:

Peggy Bayer Match 5 & 6

Scotland and SBU Peggy Bayer teams

In the first match after lunch the SBU team played against Ireland, and Scotland against Wales. These were the final matches in the first round robin.

I know what happened to both my pairs on this hand.

At their table Artem opened the North hand 1D, and Shiva bid a direct 5D. This makes, so I can't complain too much. But I'll complain a bit - South should respond 1H and they should end up in an easy 3NT instead.

In their match Niamh and Artem took a circuitous route to 3NT, which gained IMPs when on the other table Ireland bid to 6D. Isla doubled this and led her Ace, Eunice encouraged, and took her King of Spades for one off.

Both teams bid a safe game here

Eunice & Isla made 4S, and so did Andrew & Maoyan. Top marks to Kajetan and Prajjwal from Scotland U26 who got to the making 7H.

At the end of the match our SBU players came out jubilantly, claiming they had beaten Ireland, by a handsome margin of 30 IMPs. I didn't believe it, and waited for the official score. That seemed to confirm what they had said, a famous win!

In the other match Scotland narrowly beat Wales. Well done both teams!

----------------------------------

It literally was too good to be true, and the scores against Ireland had been accidentally reversed. We actually lost by 30 IMPs.

Biscoff Ice Cream in Troon

In the sixth match Scotland could not repeat their heroics and lost to England, whereas the SBU team lost to Northern Ireland, but not by as much as the scorecard currently shows. 

On both tables West opened 4S, North doubled, South passed, and it went three down. This is presumably as declarer wins seven Spade tricks and nothing else, though looking at it now at two minutes to midnight I wonder if North could get a trump promotion in Diamonds.

Anyway, on one table it was recorded as 4Sx down three by West, and on the other as 4Sx down three by North, which is clearly a mistake, which will get fixed in due course to slightly improve our score.

At the end of six out of ten rounds teams sit somewhere between third and sixth overall, it's quite hard to tell. Certainly behind England and Ireland but not sure about Northern Ireland or Wales. 

Late result - in the Speedball I think Ailsa and English partner Aleks finished 3rd (58%), and Niamh with Welsh partners James and Woody finished 4th (55%)! 

But it's all a bit random in the speedball, as myself and my partner (41%) will tell you.

I conceded 4Hxx against this pair, with an overtrick! 

Peggy Bayer 2026 - Match 3 & 4

Dreamed last night we lost by Wales by 189 IMPs. Woke up early to find a gummy snake stuck to my shoulder. Peeled it off and went down for breakfast, only to find two of my team already there. That's never happened before.

Here's most of the team, looking fresh-faced ready for a full day of matches

First up the Scotland team have a tough tie against England, and the SBU team against their closest rivals Northern Ireland.

I sat in for the first board. I saw Niamh open 1S, and Rachel smoothly pass with a 0 count with one Spade. The cards lay well for declarer, who made 1S+2, the perfect result - maximum overtricks with no fear of missed game.

At the other table I saw Anya open the same hand 1S, but this time the opponents interfered with 2D then 3C. Anya gave the 3S bid a squeeze, picked up the pass card, gave the 3S bid another squeeze and then finally passed. "Think with your head, not your hand" will be my advice for later. On this hand it doesn't matter what you do, as your partner is always going to pass, but on another hand your fidgeting might unethically prompt partner to raise Spades where they wouldn't otherwise. This is a problem playing in person, where you have to keep your mannerisms to yourself, a difference to playing online.

Surprisingly, the best contract here is 4H from West, which we might have got to if East had 'found a missing Jack' and counted 20 points and opened 2NT.

We had a few good ones against England. On this board the English West opened a strong NT. We don't play any conventions over this, so North (Ailsa) found a natural double. This went five off for +1100. In the other match where 1C was opened our North overcalled 2C, Michaels, so Artem and Shiva got to 4S. A good result all round.

At the end of the round, the scorer came in to give me two scorecards. "Well done!" she said, then apologised as she'd given me the wrong cards. But the result was the same. To my surprise, we had beaten England 44-32 for a famous 12-8 VP win. The English player who I'd given a lift to yesterday said well done to us. The SBU team also beat Northern Ireland comfortably.

Peggy Bayer 2026 - Match 1 & 2

This year the U21 and U26 Bridge Home Internationals are in Scotland, meaning we have the honour of providing two teams for each event. I am the non-playing captain for both the U21 teams, called Scotland and SBU, of which many are from The High School of Glasgow, and many are considerably under twenty-one. 

Event Website including Player Photos, System Cards and a link to Kibitz (which is just the U26 event).

Before the match I had to drive to Prestwick train station to pick up a couple of players. The airport seemed completely deserted, but I finally found them waiting the other side of a glass partition. I couldn't work out how to get there and in the end had to run down an up-escalator to get there - it was a bit like the Travelator in Gladiators but in reverse.

I ended up picking up three extra Scottish players and one English guy joined two to, cramming seven of us in the Zafira. Not sure they realised that's they were in for. Because of this I ended up being late for the team meeting I'd called, and there was precious little time for me to inspire the team. Luckily Niamh and Rachel said they'd already been inspired by a member of the public.

Captain Artem passes on some wisdom

The first match has now kicked off, Scotland against SBU, so my two teams playing each other. A guaranteed win (and a guaranteed loss). For Scotland our most experienced team of Niamh & Rachel alongside Isla & Eunice (all High School of Glasgow S6 pupils, 17 years old). For SBU the lead pair of Artem & Shiva alongside Emmett and Anya (three HSOG, one Hutcheson's, all S3, so 14 years old).

I pulled up a chair to watch the live action. My West player had sorted his cards into five suits, so I thought I'd stick around and see what he ended up doing. His partner then underled an Ace and I decided it would be more relaxing to go next door and not watch any more.

I will feature the first board of the match (and on Sunday, the very last). It's a good one, a nice slam hand. I can see what happened to the U26 team on RealBridge. The Scotland U26 team bid successfully to 6C, gaining against the U26 SBU team who settled in 3NT+2. 

Not a convincing auction from Antone and Kevin but a good result! The Irish North-South bid a less good 6S and the Welsh 4S+2. 

In our match I saw our North (Artem) open 2C. He ended in a decent spot of 4S, making twelve tricks. On the other table our most experienced North-South pair did something strange and ended in 4H, which luckily just made too.

At the end of match one it was 32-29 IMPs in favour of the senior team. Lots of games bid and made, so well done to both teams.

In the other two games England drubbed Wales and Ireland drubbed Northern Ireland, so our teams are currently 3rd and 4th!

-----------------

I'm now waiting for the second match to finish - which isn't until half eleven.

Reflections on the hotel - it seems nice, although it's quite an old building and I've not yet learned my way around yet. When I open a door I'm never quite sure what will be on the other side. There are traditional keys for the doors, and needless to say one of my team has already locked herself out in. 

Just before the second match started a different Scotland Junior came to see me to say there could be a problem, as one of the pool cues has 'broken'. Behind her two English players mimed someone snapping a cue on their knees. Apparently an apology email has been written.

We are now in action for the second round. Two tough matches, against Ireland for the Scotland team and England for the SBU team. This time I managed to stay to watch two live boards before leaving. 

I saw Niamh and Rachel defend accurately against a 3NT contract, setting up and cashing their Heart suit. On the same board debutants Andrew and Mayoan bid well to stop in 2NT, but declarer didn't have time to set up his long suit and went several off.

Next board the youngsters bid to a spirited 5C. Look at the Club suit, a classic combination:

If they split are 2-2 you are home. If they split 3-1, then you can survive here if you start with the Ace, dropping South's singleton Jack, then finesse against North's Qxx. But our declarer began with the King and had to go one off. Bad luck, keep bidding the games. But bid 3NT instead of 5 of a minor.

I'll be happy with any victory points out of these matches.

The master tactician planning the next win

The results are in. Here is one of our successes against the England team:

You can see that 5D from North suffers from three top losers. If they don't take them, you can throw two of dummy's Hearts on the Spade winners, but there is still work to do. Well done Artem bidding and making the contract for a ten IMP gain.

Here's one Andrew & Maoyan did well on, bidding and making 4S:

After West opens the auction went 1S-3S; 4S and this is a nice friendly deal in that you can draw trumps and still have plenty of trumps left for ruffing. Making five Spades, four Hearts, one Club. In fact, an eagle-eyed declarer can make an eleventh trick if he notices the Queen-Jack of Hearts falling.

The other 14 boards didn't go so well, and overall the SBU team lost to England by about 100 IMPs translating to a 20-0 trouncing. The Scotland team did better and lost to Ireland 15-5. This is the current table:

Barcelona Open

I'm just back from a weekend in Spain playing in the Barcelona Bridge Open. It was fun with lots of good bridge. I played with Yuqi, a Japanese U21 player who is on an exchange in Spain. We finished an extremely average 78th out of 156 pairs, with 49.9%.

Final scores and Full results

Here is a diary I kept, supplemented with some bridge hands and photos.

Friday 30th January

Left work in a hurry this afternoon and drove to Edinburgh for a flight to Barcelona. It was arranged that I would arrive half-way through the first session and take over from a substitute, so I was keen to get there as quickly as possible. Once the plane landed I dashed through passport control and got a bus to Hotel Catalonia, barely stopping for a single pastry before bursting into the bridge room, which was the whole of floor minus one. 

Taking my seat, I settled in for the highest standard bridge tournament I've ever played in. The most similar experiences I've had are a few years ago playing a season online in the top division in Scotland, and twenty ago playing in the Brighton Congress where I nearly said hello to my hero Zia Mahmood. Since then it's all been school bridge and the occasional club night. 

Before starting, I introduced myself to my partner, who I was meeting for the first time. Yuqi is a talented Japanese player who was also looking for a partner. We'd agreed to play the system he used at the Youth World Championship, reduced from thirty pages to four pages, and had practiced a few times online alongside the Scottish Juniors, who were rather hoping he would defect to play for us. 

I sat North. On the very first board I was pleased to have an easy pass, then my left-hand opponent opened 4♥, passed out.

Danny Yuqi W N E S - - - 4♥ - - -

Yuqi sitting South led the Queen of Spades, on which I encouraged. He followed up with the Jack, which I overtook with the King and cashed the Ace. First three tricks for the defence. Where was our fourth trick coming from?

I promptly played a Spade, deliberately giving declarer a ruff and discard in the hope of promoting a trump trick for us. After considerable thought (three or four minutes, some with his head in his hands), declarer threw a losing Diamonds and accepted down one.

On reflection, my Spade is a bad play. If declarer has any Diamonds left, then it's better for me to play a Diamond to my partner's presumed Ace. Given my Hearts of Q8, it's quite likely that if I play a Spade declarer can ruff and draw trumps then throw his Diamond on dummy's good Clubs. I know my partner has either one or two small Hearts only. So in fact declarer could have succeeded either ruffing with the Jack of Hearts or a high one.

But I had played my Spade with such confidence that I think declarer assumed he was sure to lose an overruff (because South had the Queen), and he was worried about going down two. Phew! We got 91% on the board, as most stopped in 3H, or made 4H. 

On the next board I defended safely for down one, and by Board 3 felt confident to risk a friendly joke, against a pair of stony faced Italians who did not respond. After that I would my neck in. A delightful Dutch couple made me feel welcome then pleasantly destroyed us in 4H+1 when everyone else was only making ten tricks. With the matchpoint scoring conceding an extra trick got us a very bad score. 

At the end of the session we had 47%. I made no big mistakes but was maybe a bit timid. After the session a welcome beer and snacks were provided.

Saturday 31st January

Slept in until 9am. Wanted to take advantage of the hotel breakfast but instead went on a run through the city, which was perhaps a mistake as it was very crowded with lots of roads to cross. A Green Man means cross if you dare. 

With no morning session Yuqi and I went out for paella. He says Spanish food is a bit like Japanese, lots of rice and seafood. Then I went for a nap and to another cafe, ready for the 5 pm start.

We got off to a great start, and then I got a bit carried away. This was the turning point. North opened 1H and I was sitting East.

Yuqi		Danny
W	N	E	S
	1♥	4♣	-
-	-	-	-

The textbook bid is 3C, or maybe Pass. I went one extra with a 4C overcall. I hoped this would put pressure on the opponents, but they happily passed. My partner of course has the best hand at the table but has to pass too.

4C lost the first three tricks in Hearts, then South played a Diamond. I won in hand, crossed to dummy, threw my losing Spade on another Diamond (not expecting the spade finesse to work), and led a Club up. North snapped up his Ace and played another round of Hearts, putting me to a guess, as to how high to ruff. You can see that on this layout I can't guess wrong, but even so, 4C-1 netted only 31%. Top result was 3NT East-West, which a few pairs did find.

Then I had a chance for some good declarer play in 2NT. I had a secret Club suit of AKQ6, which I planned to play at the end, fairly confident that by then both defenders would be squeezed into throwing away too many Clubs to keep a stopper. Despite making a deliberate effort to watch out for Club discards, I missed one, and bottled it at the end and didn't risk playing my winning Six of Clubs.

Missing a squeeze is forgivable, but then I made my only really big blunder of the weekend. I was in another 2NT, needing four Club tricks from AKxxx opposite xxx. The suit split 3-2, but I foolishly cashed the Ace-King then played a third round, and was now stranded from my other two winners (should duck on first or second round). 

Firmly on the tilt, I accidentally made a game forcing bid when I just wanted to play at the two level. I had done a good job memorising the system but bodged here. The auction continued out of control until luckily Yuqi bid one of my suits, and I was able to pass 3H, to the surprise of everyone else at the table. This made exactly, for a solid 56%, and after that good fortune we finished the session well, moving up to 49% overall.

Afterwards I went for a drink with the Welsh Juniors (James, Jo and Sophie), then on to the official bridge dinner, on a friendly table with Serbian and Swedish bridge players. I had a fantastic egg dish followed by a very meaty Catalan stew. I think the Spanish style is to have only large meal a day. I've had two, and am surprised that Yuqi, a slender Japanese man half my size, is eating the same.

Sunday 1st February

After a three course meal last night starting at 10pm I once again didn't really feel like breakfast, but had plenty of orange juice and coffee instead. 

The final session of the bridge was about to start. Could we haul ourselves above 50%, in a very good field?

Things started well when I made 3NT with no Heart stopper.

Yuqi		Danny
W	N	E	S
	-	1NT	2♥
3♦	-	3NT	-

I opened the East hand 1NT, preferring it to 1D for reasons I don't remember. South overcalled 2H showing Hearts and a minor, and Yuqi bid the West hand 3D, natural and game forcing. Although I have massive Diamond support I instead bid 3S, and Yuqi bid 3NT. I thought this promised a stopper, and maybe South did too, as he led a Diamond.

I have nine top tricks. I could have cashed all my Diamond winners then maybe taken a Spade finesse for an overtrick, but realistically I was never going to risk the contract, so I just claimed after checking if the Queen of Spades fell. Making this terrible 3NT was worth 77%, not even more as 5D also makes for the more sensible bidders.

We kept up a good start, until the wheels fell off when I made a fairly decent 2D overcall, which got doubled. We ran to 3C doubled, even worse, when 2NT would have been a decent spot. 

A highlight was getting to play against the great Argentinian Diego Brenner, who had a cool demeanour and leather jacket. I was also looking good in some shorts and 'double penguin' (T-shirt and socks). We got one good board against him when I played 2C-1 (could have made it, nearly did) then Diego fixed us with a four card overcall.

   

Yuqi Danny Diego W N E S - - 1♦ 1♠ 2NT 3♦ 3NT -

I opened the East hand 1D and Diego bid 1S with the South dross. Yuqi bid 2NT, which I alerted, then realised that I'd forgotten I opened the bidding, and withdrew my alert. Diego was very nice about it. We ended in 3NT and North found the Spade lead to hold us to 9 tricks. 3NT= was worth just 15%. What a big difference Matchpoint scoring makes.

About half the players were Spanish and the other half from all over Europe. There were some friendly Croatians who had been in Barcelona a week to watch a Champions League Match. We also played against the Italian great Alfredo Versace, who wore a big hoodie often with the hood pulled tight around him. 

On the final hand I finally got to play a singleton-invite system that we had agreed.

Yuqi		Danny
W	N	E	S
		1♠	-
2♠	-	2NT	-
3♣	-	3♥	-
3♠	-	-	-

I opened the East hand 1S, and Yuqi raised to 2S. I bid 2NT, forcing Yuqi to bid 3C, then I showed my Heart shortage. Yuqi settled for 3S, and I played there. 

South lead a Diamond. I have six top Spade tricks, the Ace of Diamonds, and at least one ruff, so eight tricks to start off with. I set up the Clubs, and was able to ruff both a Club and a Diamond, plus the 8 of Clubs became a winner, for ten tricks and 3S+1. A great one to finish on, getting us 64% on the hand.

In the final session we moved up slightly to finish on 49.9%. However, remember that the first few boards of the event were played by Yuqi and a substitute, and they only averaged about 43%, so for the boards I played we actually averaged 50.5%. Sad that for me a win is beating 50%, I'm a long way from really winning.

After the bridge I popped into Barcelona for a quick haircut then went to the airport, where I was able to play a couple of hands online with the Scottish Juniors before flying home.

It was a very tiring weekend but lots of fun. The event was well run and thanks to the organisers including Nico, the tournament directors, and all the friendly Catalan people.

Now that's done I can concentrate all my bridge efforts on getting the Scottish Juniors ready for the Peggy Bayer in three weeks.

Okome

We played this hand today in Okome, a Japanese restaurant.

No one vul S deal ♠ K Q x x ♥ K x x ♦ K Q J x ♣ A x ♠ J x x ♥ Q J x ♦ x x x ♣ K Q x x 18 9 9 4 ♠ x ♥ A x x x x x ♦ A T ♣ J x x x ♠ A x x x x ♥ x ♦ 9 x x x ♣ x x x

Alex W N E S 1♠ - 4♠ - - -

The South player found a bold 1♠ bid. Something of an overbid, but he is only seven years old. His partner was an Aloe Vera bottle who was kindly making up the table. The bottle had a comfortable 4♠ bid, luckily with a bit to spare.

West led a top Club. Declarer won, and drew trumps in three rounds. Then he led a Diamond up to the King and Ace. East won, took a Club, and returned the ♦T. Declarer recognised his ♦9 was a winner, so now he had ten tricks. He gave up a Heart and claimed the rest, putting the cards aside to tuck into the chocolate moon-balls.