Scotland's six are Kevin Ren & Michael Kennedy, Jamie Day & Kajetan Granops, Rufus Behr & Tamsin Munro. Two of them are former pupils of my High School of Glasgow Bridge Club, although the system they now play is a long way from the one I taught them (personally I think a weak NT would surprise the other countries and be quite effective, but no one else does).
In their first match Scotland claimed an impressive 20-0 win against Estonia. It took me a while to find Scotland in the table as they were right at the top. They followed that up with a great win against Germany, before sliding to losses against Israel, Ireland and Poland, finishing yesterday with a comfortable win against Bye.
Kevin and Michael are guilty of overbidding sometimes. However, here's a rare board against Ireland where they stayed out of slam and were a bit unlucky as the way the cards lie it makes easily:
In 6H there are 10 top tricks, so you need two from Clubs. With South having the Ace-Jack that works nicely. I think to succeed you need the Jack of Clubs to drop in three rounds, or a ruffing finesse with the Ten-Nine of Clubs. Alternatively, you can try and ruff a Diamond in dummy, after throwing one on the Spades. This needs Diamonds 3-3 or South to have the Nine of Hearts (so works here too).
So not a brilliant slam, but it's got chances.
This is the Scotland auction. I think 2H must have been Kokish (showing a good hand with Hearts, and forcing 2S), then 3D showed Hearts and Diamonds. East's 3H bid showed a non-minimum (could have jumped to game with a weaker hand), and West signed off.
On 18 tables 6H was bid eight times, with the rest in 4H (and one table in 3NT).
Good luck to the team today when they take on Finland, Netherlands, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Update: after a great start Scotland U26 slipped heavily to finish in 19th and last place. The results I looked at there were only a few real errors, mostly just a lot of misjudgments. In the crucial final match against Austria this was typical:
Update: after a great start Scotland U26 slipped heavily to finish in 19th and last place. The results I looked at there were only a few real errors, mostly just a lot of misjudgments. In the crucial final match against Austria this was typical:
Kajetan sitting South opened 1C, and the Austrian West overalled 1D. Kevin sitting North bid 2C. This is probably not the right bid playing five-card majors (where the 1C opening could be short), but I think it's well understood that raising there could be very weak. South blasted 3NT though, and with the cards sitting badly it was not a success.
On the 18 tables in the U26 no one else ventured as high as 3NT, with the best results for North-South from playing in Spades.
Our one gain in that match (we lost 60-11) was when Kajetan was one of the few declarers to make 4H on the deal below:
I think it just comes down to guessing trumps - choosing to lead the Queen on the second round rather than cashing the Ace (unless you get a helpful Club lead). Our declarer got it right, to avoid a 20-0 match whitewash. Of the 18 tables the 8 playing in 3NT all made it too.
The top eight below qualify for the World Championship:
I watched some of Netherlands and Israel and they were very good. They knew what they were doing, didn't try too hard to win IMPs and played the cards safely.
In the U31 event Scotland finished 11th out of 13 (France won).
Finally, to fit the narrative of Scotland losing and complaining about hard luck, here's an excellent double of 4H you'd never expect to make:
West opens 1H and after lots of bidding between West and North, West bids 4H. North is delighted to double, and makes a sensible lead of the Ace of Diamonds. North is never able to attack Spades, so declarer only loses two trumps and the Ace of Diamonds.
The winning lead is a low Diamond (South wins and returns a Spade). But that's never going to happen. A low club from North also works, and is more tempting, but still needs an unlikely Diamond underlead.
Everywhere it was bid 4H made, including when Scotland were doubling the 4H. Bad luck Kevin.
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