Holiday double - Walberswick and Southwold

Anna and I strolled happily into Walberswick bridge club last Tuesday, delighted to have an afternoon to ourselves playing bridge. "Good evening!" I brightly announced to everyone, even though it was only 2 pm.

For the first ten hands Anna was dummy a lot, and I fear suffered a post-prandial slump, especially when she was in the seat in the sun opposite the allotments. When we were sitting out she deliberately had a caffeinated tea, for the first time in several years, and a Mint Club biscuit.

I played quite briskly, except for one hand where I totally ground to a halt. 

In 3NT, I was hoping for lots of Club tricks with

♣AJ9872

♣KQ

There was only one outside entry to dummy. I planned to unblock the ♣KQ, then cross over and enjoy the rest of the tricks. But when I played the ♣K, West showed out. What's the solution?

Overtake the ♣Q with the ♣A and play Clubs from the top, giving up one Club trick to East but getting the rest. I figured this out but was thinking about the whole hand and must have been deep in thought for at least five minutes.

Below is the best bid and played hand, against Ben and Jen Cardwell:

W	N	E	S
			1♣
1♥	x	2♥	3♣
3♥	4♣	4♥	-
-	-

I had the South hand and of course opened 1C. West overcalled 1H and Anna sitting North made a takeout double showing four Spades. East raised to 2H, I stretched to 3C, West bid Hearts again, Anna 
supported Hearts and East bid on to game.

At this point I thought 4H was probably going down, but didn't quite have enough with my South hand to double, and nor did Anna as North.

Anna led a Club from North and there was no defence. I tried a Spade, but declarer played low to her Queen in dummy, and there was no Spade ruff. She ruffed a Club, drew trumps, and we only got one Spade, one Diamond, one Club for 4H=.

Overall we finished the day second, behind Sally Kent and Jeanne Beare. If we'd have found the 5C sacrifice above we might have won.

-----------

Wednesday evening we played bridge again, this time in the Sole Bay Bowls Club. Google Maps didn't get us there, not did the map on the Bowls Club website. Typing the address into Google got us to a Health Centre from which we could see people playing Bowls but couldn't get over the fence. Finally we got in at 7:08 pm, which is shockingly late as you're supposed to be sat down ten minutes before play.

It was a nice venue once we settled in.

Early on, at favourable vulnerability Anna opened 2♦ and I had :

♠ x x   ♥ J x x  ♦ J x x   ♣ Q x x x x

I tried a raise to 4♦. To my surprise, this actually got doubled for penalties, and Anna had to play it. She had a couple of useful Kings and scraped 4♦x-3, which was hopefully a good save against a vulnerable game.

Anna was also bidding aggressively, as in this hand against Frances and Keith Griffiths:

 

W	N	E	S
			1♠
-	1NT	-	2♦
-	4♠	-	-
-

 
I opened the South hand 1S and Anna made a 'bucket' 1NT bid, showing 6-9. Even playing four cards majors some would raise to 2S with that North hand, as you won't be happy if partner passes out 1NT and you get a Heart lead.

I rebid 2D, and Anna fully appreciated the value of a double fit and raised me all to game. This is good Teams bidding, but at Matchpoints I'd rather try for a top just making a comfortable 2S+2.

West led a Club, which East won. She'd been listening to the auction and returned a Diamond, on which I played low from hand and West ruffed. At this point I'm down if West returns a Heart to get another ruff, but luckily he tried Clubs again. 

I was then able to draw trumps with the Ace-King (as they were now 2-2) finishing in dummy, and after some thought realised I didn't need the King of Hearts onside, I could just lead the Queen of Diamonds from dummy to pick up that suit, finally losing just one Heart, one Club, one Diamond, for a stressful 4S=.

No idea what this is

At the end of the evening we went down to the Nelson for a pint of Adnams, and I reflected on a missed Heart slam which was mostly my fault.

Scottish Silver Pairs

A few days after we got back from Riga several of the Scottish U21 and U31 teams played in the Swiss Pairs, for Bronze and Silver players. There were 50 pairs, and this was the top ten:

Youngsters in 1st, 5th, 6th and their coaches in 4th.

Here's a good hand, from Board 32 out of 35:

The winning pair, Niamh and Rachel, played 4S by East, a common contract. South led a Diamond. 

Declarer has a definite loser in trumps, at least one loser in Hearts (unless South leads them), and a loser in Clubs. Somehow Niamh got 11 tricks. At matchpoints scoring 4S+1 was worth 90%, compared to the normal score of 62% for 4S= (as managed by Kevin Ren), though some Easts took only 8 or 9 tricks.

The top score East-West was 100% for 3NT+3, on the King of Hearts lead (and presumably some other helpful defence).   

European Youth Teams (Riga 2026) - 7

Into the final day of play. Here's a good teaching hand from Match 24 against Greece:

Good bidding to get to 3NT, by West. You get a friendly Heart lead from North.

Count your tricks: 0 Spades, 3 Hearts, 2 Diamonds, 3 Clubs. Only 8.

Where is the 9th trick coming from? Spades is a guaranteed extra trick, as you have the Queen-Jack-Ten between the hands. Diamonds could yield the extra trick required if the suit splits 3-3 or even 4-2. Clubs gives an extra trick if the suit is 3-3 or you win a finesse of the 10.

So which suit should you play? It's clear to play Spades. You are guaranteed the 9th trick, and even get a 10th if the Spade suit splits 4-3, as it does here. You have entries to both hands and at least a double stopper in every other suit so in theory nothing can go wrong.

We lost to Greece 20-0 in Victory Points, so it looks like quite a few things did go wrong!

The penultimate match was a competitive loss against Denmark. It was 18-33 IMPs, mostly caused by this board. I'm going to say Artem was rather unlucky:

When South opens 1H Artem, sitting West, is a bit stuck for a bid. Personally I would double, though if partner responds with 4S you might not be happy. He found a sneaky pass, which seemed to work well when he could later double them in 4H.

4H by South is actually a decent contract, seemingly with just three losers, and when they got to declare most Souths made 10 tricks.

In this sort of auction, the best lead from the West hand is a trump. This is safe (not like underleading Aces in a suit which could cost, your Ace of Trumps isn't going anywhere), and cuts down on the ruffing power which declarer is clearly going to need in his low point count game. Leading anything else is playing your partner for a high card, which they very likely don't have.

Leading a low trump is best, as then when you get back in you can play Ace and another, playing three rounds of trumps altogether. And with the other three Aces you are expecting to get back in.

Artem led the Ace of Spades (top of doubleton), which I confess I might have done too. Declarer wrapped up 10 tricks, for 4Hx, and on the other table we were 5Hx-1.

In our final match, against Latvia, we were losing heavily but rallied at the end, finishing the 336 board tournament with this fine effort:

The West hand is very similar to one Anya had near the start of the tournament. On that occasion she opened 3D. We discussed it afterwards, and I said that a hand like that you instead open 1D and keep on bidding Diamonds. All our team are fast learners, and that's how Anya bid it this time:

North doubled (unwise with a nine-card Spade fit) and Anya took the maximum number of tricks for 4Dx+1.

Last time West had a hand like that Michael Heubeck and I both said we might open it 3NT, and that's exactly what the Latvian West did here (a Gambling 3NT, with a long running minor). East chose to pass, as he two of the three other suits covered. That turned out to be not enough as Rachel and Niamh took the first six tricks for 3NT-2, a great team board.

In the end we still lost to Latvia but did enough to secure 12th place in the European U21 Teams:

Well done to Poland winning, and the rest of the top nine who also qualify for the World Championship (in Poland).

In the U31 Teams they won their last match to move up a place too:

Now the players and captain will enjoy the closing ceremony before coming home tomorrow.

European Youth Teams (Riga 2026) - Day 456

Day 4 

Matches 13-16 were losses against Netherlands, France, England and Netherlands again.

Wasn't all bad. In the board below we got a rare gain against England:

Anya sitting West decided that the five level belonged to here, and boldly bid on to 5S. I think this is good judgement, as you have a double fit for partner's suits of Spades and Diamonds, so it's exactly the right time to bid one extra.

North couldn't help doubling again, and if declarer gets trumps right she makes the contract. Anything except starting with the Ace works here, so well done Anya for 5Sx=.

At the other table we defended a more normal 4S after this auction

South's 2NT bid showed Clubs and a major, so if I was North I would be bidding 5C automatically as you also have a double fit (Clubs and whatever major your partner has).

At the end of the day we are still in 13th place:

Day 5

Match 17 was a respectably close loss to Czech Republic. We are so close to great bridge - take this deal:

 

Our North-South pair of Rachel and Niamh had a good auction to 5C:

East took her two Aces and had a trump trick to come, so off one. 

The other table featured an artificial bid: 

1D is a transfer response. Our defence is that Double shows the bid suit (Diamonds) and bidding the suit being transferred into (Hearts) is takeout. So in a parallel Universe West would have made a double, and East would lead Diamonds to beat 3NT (or the opponents would play a failing 4H or 5C).

On the day though didn't find a Diamond lead and the contract made.

Next up was a similar size loss to Poland, then Sweden. We are not getting whitewashed and are slowly gaining on Estonia, who have now become our great rivals:

Day 6

We started with a decent 17-3 VPs loss against Israel, before a respectable 19-1 VPs loss to Norway. Then came the big match against the Estonians.

At the halfway stage we were losing by 21-13 IMPs in a tense encounter, making me glad I wasn't the non-playing captain, or the pair sitting out and watching. But after that the IMPs came rolling in, with the Estonians getting caught out overbidding and being doubled several times. It happened twice to them on the last board, netting us 17 IMPs.

On one table East-West got to 4S, which Niamh sitting South doubled. 4S is close, but South's two trump tricks meant one off. 

On the other table the Estonian North-South tried 3NT, after North opened 2NT showing both minors. This time Artem found the double, leading to 3NTx-5!

We won 53-21 IMPs, this time getting the big win for ourselves. 

The final match of the day was an easy win against Bye, so another 12 VPs, and into 12th place.

Poland and Israel are close at the top, but the real battle is between the two at the bottom. Estonia just beat Latvia so it's close again - let's see what tomorrow brings!

European Youth Teams (Riga 2026) - Midway reflections

Now I'm back home I won't be following the event very closely, so although the team still have four days tough bridge to play, it's time for my reflections.

The event itself has been impressively organised, with tight security and enforcement of the rules. All of the bridge seems to have run smoothly, with scores always available and no technical glitches as far as I could see. I would have liked the organisers to do more in terms of the social side, perhaps providing a late night speedball or two where you had to play with someone from another country, or maybe a group outing, to make the most of the fact that many of Europe's best young bridge players are gathered together.

On that topic, I'm glad as Scotland non-playing captain I got us all out of the hotel and into Riga Old Town for an evening, and even better the U31 team came too. These veterans could have sat on their own, but joined in with the younger players, including playing poker and a very large game of Spoons, and other games I didn't understand.   

In terms of the bridge, our limitations have been shown up and it is understandable that we will lose more than we win at this level. Our training sessions have focused on familiarising the team with the unusual bidding of the other teams (Multi 2D, Strong Club etc) which has been useful, but you can't replicate years of practice in dealing with common situations.

A few specific bridge things it would be great to improve on

• When we have strength for game, we have to be in game. This is Teams, so playing 4D when everyone else is making 3NT is usually  bad score
• In a suit contract, we have to recognise the value of distributional hands, bidding extra when it is right to do so
• As declarer, a few blind spots. Counting tricks before playing the first card remains the number one skill. It's hard for me to tell (no records of the play), but it looks like our declarers are not always able to take advantage of information from the bidding to help them play the hand.
• Defence could improve by making safer leads, if the auction demands it. This is also hard, as it involves adjusting your traditional rules (lead fourth highest of your strongest suit against NT) to take account of the specific auction

Finally, all the Scotland team are a very agreeable group to travel and work with. Good luck to them in the remaining matches! 

European Youth Teams (Riga 2026) - Day 3

Match 9 vs Poland

Four tough matches today, against teams in the top half. Poland first up, who play a difficult system, and play it well. Two boards in and we are 24 IMPs down. This was a missed opportunity:

West found herself in 3NT doubled, with a Heart lead from North. Count the tricks: 4 Spades if you finesse, 3 Hearts, 1 Diamond and at least 1 Club. So nine tricks are there, as long as you finesse in Spades, which you should do as North has shown a hand with long Hearts. The difficulty is, you must take that finesse at Trick 2, while you are in dummy. 

At the other table North didn't enter the auction, which made life harder for declarer, who finished in 3NT-1. So we lose 3 IMPs, which is actually one of our better boards.

Another missed opportunity when Poland played 6NT and one of our defenders had ♠AKQ.  Unfortunately it was not the defender on lead. I have mentioned a few times that, if the opponents don't bid Spades, they don't have them, so maybe we could have found a winning Spade lead, but not easy and another gain for Poland. 

Next, this nasty board:

I was pleased to see our North open 5D, well bid Rachel (I like a 3NT opening, and so does Michael Heubeck). The Polish East overcalled 5S, and played there, off two. 

At the other table North also opened 5D. Our East, Iris, doubled, which is reasonable, and Anya sitting West bid 6C, also very reasonable. Well bid both of you (though 6C has no play). 

We lost by about 50 IMPs to at least scape about 0.1 Victory Points. 

One of the benefits of having such a young team is they are very keen to learn, and we immediately went over a few things afterwards. The team are doing great playing at a high level against much more experienced opponents.

Timon seems to be supporting Sweden

Good news from Scotland U31 - after loitering near the bottom of the table they just beat World Champions Bulgaria! 

Match 10 vs England

I'm following this one from Riga airport, while also trying to save battery power. I'm flying home today.

I did see that on the first board England bid 3H on also 3S on the other table, which is typical of our matches against them when they seem to declare a lot more than us. Unfortunately this time both contracts made so we start 7 IMPs down.

Final score was 29-60, with a few good ones in there. This board was a victory for the weak NT:

At one table Artem opened the West hand 1NT and played there, down one. At every other table West opened 1H, North doubled and the Spade game was reached. Even playing a weak NT I would have opened the West hand 1H, but I can't argue with an 8 IMP gain.

Match 11 vs Israel

Our second 20-0 loss. Well done to France and Israel who have both drummed us, as Artem would say. The highlight was a flat board, with Artem and Shiva getting to this fine 6S contract.

After South opened with 2NT North bid 4H as a Texas Transfer, which they had agreed but I don't think it's ever come up before. After Shiva completed the transfer Artem recognised the power of his hand and they got to 6S. As did nearly every table, but still nice to see.

It was an exciting match with a scoring correction (our 4S going down corrected to 3D=) and a 19 IMP swing (no need to see the details), but not a very high-scoring one, at least from us. Next is Czech Republic.

Match 12 vs Czech Republic

Anything above zero victory points here would be a bonus.

Update - we collected 0.01 victory points, which I suppose is above zero. Here's the standings:

Can we overhaul Estonia?

 

  

European Youth Teams (Riga 2026) - Day 2

It was a busy day yesterday with two great wins for Scotland. We also suffered a harsh ruling, with a 1 VP fine for a player sitting down to play the afternoon match at 1501. I also got a warning for submitting a match lineup late. Each lineup has to be submitted within 10 minutes of the previous match, which surprisingly includes the 10 am match, which needs to be submitted within 10 minutes of the match the evening before finishing at 7 pm. I also submitted the lineup wrongly, but the Greek captain has graciously agreed to let me amend it.

I've not been having morning meetings with the whole team, preferring to let the teenagers sleep in. This meant once again I was at breakfast on my own at 7 am today, with the rest of the team appearing about 9 am, and no sign of the pair who aren't playing the first match. 

Match 5 vs Greece

For their kindness in letting me amend my lineup we will look kindly on Greece, but still be ruthless on the table and destroy them. My heart rate climbed from 50 to 71 waiting for the team to arrive this morning. I was so relieved to see them arrive five minutes early I took this photo.

I entered the arena sat behind Niamh and Rachel for the first board, and remembered why I don't normally watch. Too stressful. Luckily they bid and played the first board beautifully, so I could leave happy:

 

It's a marginal game but I'm glad they got there. Against 4S by North East led the Ace-King of Clubs then a sneaky low one, declarer ruffing low. Making the South hand ruff is a good defence, as it could make it harder to setup the Diamonds.

Rachel crossed to her North hand with her top Spade, then finessed Diamonds. This is good play, setting up the side suit before drawing trumps, as if you draw trumps you've lost all your entries to dummy and you'll go down if the defence duck the Diamond. When she finessed Diamonds I was pleased to see West take his King, and now the contract is home.

4S= gained us 6 IMPs against 2S on the other table. Well done!

Watching this match on the Scottish team table, saw we have raced to a 19 IMP lead. Gave this all back on two boards, so I went out to get a cake from a Konditoreja I'd seen yesterday. If my children were here I'd have got them all Minion Pop-cakes. I got the most expensive cake in the shop. What looks like a layer of cream in the middle is actually meringue! Riga is full of surprises. 

Too much

Back in the bridge match, we are currently still ahead against Greece. Credit goes to Artem for a board where he held:

and when the opponent opened 1NT he overcalled 2NT, showing both minors, which propelled the opponents into 5S-2 and a big gain.

Rachel had a similar successful action yesterday. Against a strong 1C opening, she had

and found the bid of double, showing both majors. Even better, Niamh helped out by bidding 2H and the opponents ended in a strange 5NT-1.

After leading by 15 a bad run at the end resulted in losing 49-41 IMPs, not quite making a 100 IMP turnover. Unfortunately this means only 7.56 VPs, which I'd have taken at the start but feels bad having been leading.

Match 6 vs Sweden

This match was close for a while but we ended up losing 43-22, to collect another valuable 5 Victory Points. I can't find any particularly good hands, but this one is interesting:

Most North-South pairs reached the normal contract of 4S+1. On our table the Swedish East opened 2D, and South is close to a 2S overcall. Then West bid 2H, and North is close to a double. When East bid 4H that ended the auction, going down a couple and winning the board. Well done Sweden, though Scotland should have found a way into the auction. Top marks also to the Israeli East who opened 3D and played there.


Match 7 vs Latvia

The three teams competing for 11th/12th/13th are Scotland, Latvia and Estonia, so this was a must-win. Unfortunately, we didn't. Latvia bid boldly and made a lot of games. I had been waiting for this to happen, as we bid fewer games than other teams but have so far got away with it as the cards lay badly. In this match they lay well, and Latvia raced ahead. 

This one was an easy win:

Anya opened 3S and Iris raised to 4S, which made 11 tricks. On the other table West only opened 2S and the game was missed (I would have opened 4S).

We lost 60-23 to take just 2 Victory Points.

Match 8 - Bye

An easy 12-0 win. Here's the scores after Day 2, with 8 out of the 26 rounds completed:

I tried to organise a bowling evening which didn't happen, but with both Scotland teams being free this evening we all went into town together. On the way there it rained a lot, but on the way back the Old Town looked nice, including House of The Cat.

Failing to appreciate the historic architecture

Mao?

River Daugava