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