The EBU’s Premier League is upon us again, the pain of relegation ever-present as my team battles it out in the second division to try to finish in the top two and earn promotion. After two of the three rather endless weekends (a triple round-robin if you please) we are lying well and… let’s hope it doesn’t go pear-shaped again.

This hand caused the most discussion, played by my teammate Nick Sandqvist.

Our opposition cleverly pushed us to slam whilst many tables were allowed to play in game. Nick ruffed the Heart lead and saw that the problem was to avoid losing two Diamond tricks. Spades offered a reasonable shot at throwing West in, so after eliminating Hearts he tried three rounds of Spades. If West produced an honour he could discard a Diamond from dummy and hope West is endplayed, or, if he thought West had another Spade he could ruff, come back to hand and throw him in with the next one instead. On this occasion, Spades offered no salvation so Nick had to concentrate on Diamonds, after eliminating the side suits.

Running the nine of Diamonds works on this layout, but if East can cover it with either the 10 or Jack, it spoils the endplay. If instead Declarer attempts to run the seven, 10 or Jack from East is not good enough — only if he can insert the eight can he do any damage. The right play percentage-wise is therefore to run the seven, which Nick worked out was better. Unfortunately East hopped in with his eight and we lost a huge swing. Pips — don’t you hate them!

The last weekend is in November in Solihull. Fingers crossed for promotion please.