It's been a hard weekend's bridge. On Saturday it was off to London for the final weekend of the 2009 Premier League, the third leg of a masochistic marathon for the hard men (yes, mostly men) of English bridge. And on Sunday it was up to Solihull for a county match against Warwickshire that turned out to be the trickiest set of 32 boards I have ever encountered. Meanwhile our Premier League teammates were still at it in London and our respective wives were filing for divorce.

First the Premier League. After 240 boards (yes, 240), my team (Alan Wilson and myself; Stuart McPhee and Mike Ash; Jim Gobert and Chris Chambers) was lying second to the team bankrolled by trillionairess, Janet de Botton, and in with a theoretical chance of being promoted to Division 1 in 2010 where some even bigger sharks lie in wait.

And it was Team de Botton, kitted out in their famous purple t-shirts, whom we had to play over 40 boards for most of Saturday.

Problem 1

Here's a problem that the lovely Janet herself faced first thing on Saturday morning when we had the temerity to pre-empt against her and her partner, Artur Malinowski. Sitting East, with dealer South and East-West vulnerable, she held:

♠ K Q J 4
♥ A Q 9 6
♦ Q 6 3
♣ A 10

and the bidding proceeded:

W N E S
3♥
Pass Pass 4♥ Pass
4♠ Pass ??

Do you agree with Janet's 4♥ on the first round and what do you call now?

Many experts play a cue-bid of 4♥ here as showing a big 2-suiter but, even if you don't, I think 4♥ is a poor choice on this flat 18-count. A double is likely to work well if partner has a spade suit but may leave him with a difficult bid (and the partnership too high) otherwise. 3NT looks a fair practical call.

Anyway Janet bid 4♥ and should really have been a little relieved when partner called 4♠. Should she bid again? No, she has already done more than justice to her hand and may already be too high. But what do I know? Janet actually bid 4NT (Blackwood at this point). Her partner showed two aces (!) and she bid 6♠. In fact this was partner's hand:

♠ A 8 5 3 2
♥ -
♦ A 10 9
♣ K 8 7 6 3

When trumps broke 2-2, 6♠ proved to be a cakewalk. Every other West in the room had bid 3♠ or double on that lot but Malinowski had passed. Then he had called a mere 4♠ over partner's rock-crusher 4♥ bid. Is this what bridge is like for Team de Botton? Quite baffling.

Other problems:

 

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