This year, for the first time (?), the Trials to pick the next England team were opened up to any old palookas who cared to enter. Naturally, Michael Goldsmith and I wrote out our cheque for a modest £60 (not bad for a day and a half’s bridge, eh?) and squandered a July weekend in a bid to prove that we’re actually far better than most of you give us credit for. Naturally, we failed dismally, although there were a few moments when we felt we had a shot at qualifying. Our aim was awry and we duly shot ourselves in the foot instead.

But now in the comfort of your own homes you can face some of those tricky little decisions which sort the sheep from the rabbits.

1. South to make 3NT. No oppo bidding.

West leads § 4 (4^th) to East’s Ace and § 3 comes back (W plays 2).

1. how do you play the diamonds?
2. Assuming you get those right, W discards © 2 on the 3^rd diamond and both pitch spades on the 4^th. On © A, W plays the 3 and E the 9. On the next heart, W plays the 7. Your move.

I reached a sketchy 3NT against Jeff Smith and David Edelman. When the defence started with two rounds of clubs, prospects looked bleaker than the Aral Sea. There is not much point in starting with ¨ J at this level (hoping for a dim West to cover or hesitate) as this loses the chance that West has a small singleton. Better to play to ¨ A and finesse on the way back. Either way, four diamond tricks roll in. On the 3^rd diamond, W throws a heart and on the 4^th they both throw spades.

I played © A and a low heart to the K, dropping E’s Queen. So I made a club and four tricks in each red suit - a lucky 400. Obviously, it’s a close decision in hearts but I felt that a player of this class would be happier to discard from © 10xxx than from © Qxxx at his first pitch. They weren’t pleased!

2. We had an entertaining match against Stuart McPhee (the only other Oxon participant) and Mike Ash who did a bit better than us but still failed to qualify (alas).

Here’s a defensive problem I had against a 3¨ contract played by Mike Ash:

Stuart opened 1© with the North cards (he doesn’t usually need as much as 1 control to do so). Ash responded 2¨ , Stuart bid 2© and Ash went 2ª . Stuart retreated to 3¨ and put dummy down proudly. Michael led § K against 3¨ . I played the Jack and when Michael continued with his other club we took the first three tricks. What’s your plan from here?

This was the complete hand:

It looks like declarer has probably got a singleton heart but there is a chance if partner has got ¨ 10x(x). The key is to cash © K before pushing on with clubs. When I did this, the club at trick 5 gave Mike Ash a bit of a problem. Does he play for me to have ¨ Jxx and ruff in with the 10 or does he play for some of the situations where ¨ J is doubleton and ruff low. He could probably tell you better than I can what the exact odds are in each case but fortunately for our side he ruffed in with the 7 and the trump promotion was successful. Plus 100 was only worth half an IMP to our side - it’s a tough game!

Needless to say, if you fail to cash © K before the 4^th club, declarer can pitch a heart and ruff in dummy, cash dummy’s remaining trump, play two spades, winning in hand, and play on trumps, succeeding (as here) if trumps are 3-3 or Jack is doubleton.

3. Another hand from the McPhee/Ash match and a lead problem.

You hold ª K974 © 1096 ¨ 5 § AJ986. Stuart opens a mini-NT (9-11, I think) on your right and this is passed round to your partner who doubles. There is no further bidding. Your lead?

This was the complete hand:

Any major suit lead brings in the bacon, I think, as long as partner finds the club switch, as he surely will. Then we take the first 11 tricks and score a much needed 1100. Alas, I made the rather pedestrian lead of § 6 and declarer was able to take the first six tricks. With © A offside, he was still doomed to go one off but +100 didn’t feel like a huge triumph in the circs.

4. Another lead problem with a lot of points at stake. You hold ª 104 © 42 ¨ QJ7532 § 1052, dealer at green. Do you open 3¨ ? Of course, you do! Well I did, anyway. Next hand bids 3© , partner passes and RHO converts to 3NT. This is passed round to partner who doubles. RHO redoubles and 3NT redoubled becomes the final contract. LHO professes to little idea what the redouble means (SOS?). No pressure on the lead, then …..

Here’s the deal:

I felt I had to lead a black suit but wasn’t sure which. My spades are shorter, so that looks best (although partner didn’t bid 3ª over 3© ) but a club could well be right too. Fortunately, I led a spade. Declarer ducked for a round or two, then took his obvious eight tricks, but partner had the rest. +400 and huge sighs of relief. Good double, Michael.

I hope no one wanted to lead ¨ Q!

5. A play problem after some lively bidding. You’re in 4© doubled.

You open 1© and West overcalls 2© (spades and clubs, about 5-9 points). North bids 2ª and East bids 3§ . You try 3© and partner bids 3NT (!). East persists with 4§ , you pass and partner reverts to 4© which East, after some thought, doubles. Clubs are led. Your plan?

This was the complete hand:

David Muller won § A and ran ª 10. Since partner may have ª QJ, it seemed best to ruff this and push back a club. Muller ruffed and led ª J, declining to overtake in dummy. I could see little advantage in ruffing again so pitched a diamond. Muller now led a cunning © Q to my King. The writing is on the wall but I now tried ¨ K. After further trancing, Muller ducked this one too. It would have been nice to give partner a diamond ruff at this point but I knew he was 2-1 in the reds the wrong way. As it was, Muller had the rest. A very frustrating -790.

Should I have doubled 4© ? Naturally, I was hoping that the spades were something like 4-5-4-0 round the table and that partner would have some tricks or control there. As soon as I saw dummy, I knew we were likely to be struggling.

When I win © K, is it better to switch to a small diamond rather than the King?. Partner’s Queen will fetch the Ace but declarer only has to lead another diamond from dummy and finesse the 8 to get home, as presumably he would.

6. This is the next hand and, after such a long struggle, the TD has called time. With 790 in the bag, you are dealt ª J1098762 © - ¨ J § AQ1053 first in hand at green. What do you open?

Say you open 4ª . LHO doubles and this is passed out. ¨ A is led and dummy goes down thus:

West continues with ª K. How do you play it?

This was the complete hand:

Actually I’ve switched polarity so I’m now West and bare-footed free-swearing Richard Probst is the declarer in another doubled 4M.

Probst won ª A and finessed § 10. I won with the § K, cashed ª Q and returned a club but, with clubs lying as they do, declarer now had ten tricks on top.

Was Probst playing with the odds or just lucky to finesse § 10 rather than the Queen? West has doubled but has already shown up (probably) with ª KQ and ¨ AK. So he’s not that much more likely to have § K than § J. Finessing the Queen has the advantage that, if it works, you can play off the Ace and ruff a club, possibly making an overtrick and prevailing on some of the 4-2 distributions as well.

All in all, I think I’d’ve been tempted to finesse the Queen but I guess this only shows why they made their second consecutive doubled game against us and finished second in the tournament.

That was the 4^th time I’d doubled four of a major on the Saturday. All four contracts made exactly ten tricks and I don’t think we had a chance to beat any of them. Maybe I double too often but in each case we’d have got a fairly bad score if we’d let them play there undoubled and all the doubles look reasonable (to me!) in retrospect. Clearly, we were not destined to win this particular tournament.

7. You hold ª AJ8 © KJ2 ¨ J73 § 9842 at green. RHO opens 3NT 3^rd in hand (usual system), you pass and LHO tanks for a while before bidding 5¨ . Your lead?

This was the complete hand:

This was late on Saturday night, shortly after the disastrous Muller/Probst match and, without an awful lot to go on, Michael chose © 2 as his opening lead. Declarer won in dummy, drew trumps (with great relief) in three rounds and simply lost a heart and a spade.

Can 5¨ be made without a heart lead? It’s tight. If a spade is led at any point (e.g. to try to rectify the count), East needs to win and fire a heart through, to save West from a potential throw-in later. So declarer probably does better to eliminate clubs and run the diamonds. If West comes down to ª A © KJ2, declarer has a chance, so he might try ditching the Ace and keeping a black exit card. To put it another way, this means declarer can’t afford to cash the 7^th trump. It all gets a bit messy, but perhaps declarer can still prevail if he reads the position right. Anyway, it was another -400 and we went to bed on Saturday night having hurtled down the field.

8. You’ve recovered well and there’s still an outside chance of qualifying for Stage 2 when you come up against the South African/Australian combo of Robert Sheehan (see his name on the OBA honours board) and Michael Courtney. Can you stop them winning the tournament?

You hold an exciting ª 764 © A53 ¨ 98543 § 86, dealer at green again. LHO opens 1§ (Precision) and partner overcalls 2© (weak). RHO bids 2ª (natural, 8+ points) and you up the ante to 3© . LHO bids 4¨ , RHO tries 4NT, the 5§ response shows three of five aces and RHO jumps to 6NT.

1. what do you lead?
2. say you lead § 8. Dummy goes down with:

ª Q3

© 86

¨ AKQ107

§ AQ54

The 1^st trick goes 8, Q, 3 10. © 6 is led from dummy to the 2 and King. Your play?

If you’ve thought about it for more than 3 seconds, you’re probably too late to achieve anything by ducking.

(c) Say you win the 2^nd trick with © A. What do you play back?

I was the muggins in 6NT and Sheehan was West. He’d done well not to lead © A. On a non-spade lead, 6NT is rather better than 50%, judging from the fact that East called 2© . I played a heart as quickly as possible so that even the Sheehans of this world would struggle to duck. If he does duck, there is a slight danger of going more than one off. More importantly, I want to find out where © A is ASAP in order to retain some tiny squeeze chances if it is wrong.

Perhaps caught slightly unawares, Sheehan captured the 2^nd trick with © A and thought for at least two minutes before returning © 3.

Do you see the effect? If he’d just pushed back © 5 like most of us lesser mortals, his partner would have been squeezed in the majors. Admittedly, this is because he holds all seven of the cards that matter but yes, it’s true, © 4 is the crucial menace. By saving © 5, Sheehan can protect that suit. What’s more, Courtney congratulated him on this far-sightedness as soon as the hand finished. Worthy winners!

If Sheehan had returned © 5, would I have made it? I don’t see why not. The only other minuscule chance of a 12^th trick is that ª K is a singleton somewhere but in running the minor suit winners in dummy, you still get that chance as well. There is literally nothing else to play for. As you cash the last minor winner, you get down to:

As you cash ¨ 10, East will probably try ditching his heart but, as long as you’re watching carefully, you now know that © 4 is a winner. If © 4 isn’t established, you just discard it on the diamond and hope that ª K comes crashing down. Great hand and great defence.

9. Partner’s turn to have a tricky slam to make against Garvey/Cooke:

Michael opened 1NT (14-16). I went through a 2¨ transfer and rebid 3§ (GF, may not be a genuine suit). Michael signed off in 4© to show limited slam interest but I tried a cue of 5§ . Michael bid 5¨ and I passed the buck with 5© .

Should Michael bid one for the road? Say you bid 6© . West leads a generous ª A and switches to a club. Make your slam!

After leading ª A, West switched to a club at trick two. There are now 11 top tricks and even if the clubs don’t split, a bewildering array of squeeze possibilities. There’s no easy answer but I suspect the key to the hand (if there is one) is to realize that the entries are not quite fluid enough for a 3-suit or double squeeze and the best you can aim for is a criss-cross squeeze in the minors. Draw trumps, finishing in hand, cash ª A, cross to § K and run the hearts coming down to this ending:

On the last trump, you throw ª 7 from hand and West is squeezed. If he throws a club, you cash § Q before crossing to hand. More likely, he throws a diamond and you make it by crossing to ¨ A, cross back to § Q and win ¨ Q at trick 13. Mind you, this is far from routine, I think. If clubs were 3-3 all along and West is discarding a diamond from Kxx, you’ve just blown it. I can’t see any way of telling for sure.

Naturally, few of us would play for the 3-3 club break when there’s a spectacular criss-cross squeeze instead, so I’d like to think I might have made that one. Who knows?

Anyway, Michael played off his winners in a slightly different order and went down (essentially) when clubs failed to break. Few pairs bid the slam so that was another huge swing out and we finished the tournament on a downer.

Elsewhere 6© was sometimes played the other way up, in which case a spade lead looks rather more damaging. But perhaps it actually makes it easier to make the slam. There’s little point in going up with ª K at trick one. Play low. East wins and returns a club (say). Cross to a top heart, ruff a spade, cross to the other top heart, ruff out ª A, cross to © 9 and cash your established ª K. Cross back in clubs and you are now at the same 4-card ending shown above. Why, the hand practically plays itself! (Of course, East could return a diamond at trick two, but we’ll ignore that possibility.)

All in all, Smith/Goldsmith fell a long way short of England class on these and other hands but it was great fun to pit our wits against some of the country’s most ambitious players. I thoroughly recommend everyone else having a crack next year!