New Initiatives, University Clubs and Online Bridge

After all the excitement of the Olympiad last week with the Under 21 Silver medals early in the week being equalled by the Open team and then surpassed in that nail-biting last few boards of the Women’s event, I want to talk today about how England’s Bridge in the future can build and go forward.



This lot should peak in about 2028 so we need to look to the future.

Middlewich in Cheshire could very much be thought of as grass roots. Wikipedia describes it as a market town of 13,000 inhabitants. "Wich" betrays an origin related to salt production and springs and Middlewich has three canals and a long history. Almost bang in the middle of Cheshire it is set in peaceful and beautiful countryside. It has an active but small Bridge Club and next week they are making a big effort to inform and involve the community. Pauline Smyth is one of the keenest members and working in the town’s modern and attractive library she is in a good position to make an impact on the local poulation.

So next week, October 27th to 31st, as part of the Family Activities programme for half-term, we are running Taste Bridge sessions on four afternoons and two evenings. Invitations have been sent to primary and secondary schools and to local clubs and groups. Members of the Bridge Club have volunteered to come along and help. Paul Hackett hopes to drop in and we shall be glad of support from other bridge-players in the area. The aim is to show how bridge can be fun, how the basics of minibridge can be learned in less than an hour and and also how it can develop into a modern and competitive MindSport. We are particularly hoping to attract teachers, because The Minibridge Initiative of the Youth and Education Trust allows us to offer funded inset teaching for groups of teachers.

The place is Middlewich Library, Lewin Street, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 9AS.



Further information can be found on their poster.

I’ll post some photographs and a report next week. Let’s hope a pair of twins aged 9-10 drop in who can become gold medal winners in 2032!



Young Brigeplayers enjoying themselves at the Youth Challenge earlier in the year.

Another area that concerns me is our university bridge. Some colleges and universities have thriving clubs, bridge is popular in Durham and Oxford has a number of keen players, but in other places the bridge club has almost disappeared. Amy Stout has been working hard to get Leeds University Bridge Club up and running again after a shaky period. Nadia Stelmashenko has been trying to get something going at Wolfson College in Cambridge. The EBU can offer help, maybe fund or organise some beginner’s lessons, so I’d love to hear from anyone who would like to get something started up. I’d like to see some iniatitives from local clubs in University towns and cities. Most bridge Clubs must have someone who works or has contact with the local Uni. Get in there and get something started.

Finally an opportunity for Junior Bridge Players to join in a fun activity on Bridge Base Online. Each Wednesday between 4pm and 5pm there is a session in which international players make themselves available to play with Juniors. There are usually a couple of hundred kibitzers and if you register with BBOJunior online half an hour or so before the start you can even play a couple of hands. The players are truly World Class, Michael Rosenberg and Jan Jansma have taken part in the last two weeks. I’m usually online so chat to me if you are there, my BBO nickname is very originally mamos. If you haven’t tried BBO or need help, drop me an email and I’ll help you set it up. It’s easy and painless, even your Grandma could do it!

Watching the Final, Five

The excitement is over. I expect most of you know that the England team won the Silver medal. The feelings are amazingly mixed. The team themselves must know how close they came to winning the whole championships and a gold medal and these opportunities don’t come along too often. On the other hand to be the second best team in the world surpassed English ambitions and expectations, so everyone involved with the team should be amazingly proud. Our young players are as good as any in the world and that’s great credit to those involved in training them who give up so much time and passion to the players. Michael Byrne and Alan Shillitoe have done a fantastic job, not just in the last ten days in Beijing, but over an extended period of more than two years. We and the team owe them many thanks.

Here’s what I wrote yesterday afternoon as the match went on. All the hands and scoreboards are to be found on the web or at BBO. Email me if you cannot find them. Scroll down for my final comments.

Board 17
A flat Board to start with. Both Norths with an eight carder headed by AK go on to 5 after West has sacrificed in 4. With three Spade tricks to lose that’s one off. Still -15

Board 18
More Heart and Spade competition. Rob has made 4+1, but the French have bid the same and a second flat board looks inevitable. Only ten. One IMP. -14

Board 19
Rob two off in a pretty hopeless 3NT, but after a better start the French declarer went two off as well. No change

Board 20 has some swing chances. Rob has made 12 tricks in 4, but Spade lead would defeat 6 or 6NT. French up to 4NT and thinking. This might be a swing for either side. In 6 now all depends on the lead from Ed in North. He has Kxx, but has lead a safe club. Oh dear! Not so safe -13 where it might have been reversed. -27 now and we do need some good boards.

Board 21
Another -11 after a series of unlucky guesses by our East. -38

Board 22
Flat 2 making a very lucky ten tricks.

Board 23
A bit better on a fairly horrid sort of hand the French end in 3NT going three down, while Ed and Tom play 4. A cross-ruff develops and nine tricks are made for 5 IMP pick up. -33

Board 24
England drop an imp in 4, -34, although there still seems some confusion about the score for Board 21. It’s possible Ben did not go down but with eight boards left, time is running out and nothing seems to be going England’s way

And so it turned out to be. Just a few imps changed hands in the last eight boards, except on Board 29 when an excellent slam, well bid by Ben and Rob gained 11 IMPs to give us a glimmer of hope with just three boards left, but there just wasn’t the ammunition to get those last final swings. The French clinched the gold medal by 25 IMPs. (Well 24.7 if you want it exactly!)

Final thoughts

Congratulations to the French team. They played well and in the end had the steadier nerve in the crunch zone. We must not lose sight of this best performance ever by a U20 or U21 team and must look to the future. At the international level, the future looks bright. Some of this team are about to move up to U25 level and with all their skill and talent should be able to make an impact. There is also a strong nucleus remaining, which will form the basis of the U20 team of the future. The cycle is already underway, because the European Championships, with the opportunity of qualifying for the next World Championships in 2010, is only 9 months away.

It is only human to be disappointed, but the reality is different. Well done to the team. All three pairs played an equal part in the success and that’s real progress because in the past, the team has had to rely on two pairs.
The real work now is to try and use this success to publicise the game and persuade more schools and teachers to encourage youngsters to play, to try and set up more university bridge clubs and get more young players to start playing. We all know that it is great fun and Beijing demonstrates that we can actually all do well on the international stage.

The attention now turns to the two major Championships of the Olympiad where both our Open team and Women’s Team have reached the semi-finals of their events. The Open team play Germany, which will be a very tough match over two days and the Women must be slight favourites against their Turkish opponents. How great it will be if in a few days time we are celebrating an even more spectacular performance than that of Dan and Adam, Ben and Rob, and Ed and Tom. Well done, lads.

Watching the Final, Four

Boards 33-48 of the final of the U21 World Championship were not dull! 88 IMPs were exchanged and unfortunately France had the better of things coming out with 57-31. But oh dear, it could have been so different. At the time the match really seemed to be slipping away, but at the end the French lead was just 15 with absolutely everything to play for in the final 16 boards starting shortly before noon today.
The match was broadcast on BBO so in a day or two you’ll probably be able to find the files in the BBO archive. I’m afraid some of it wasn’t pretty, but it’s incredible to think how tense the lads must be as they play for the World Championship. IMPs seemed to fly out of the window — a poor slam was bid and a good slam was missed by the same pair. Later the same pair bid and made 6 for +1430 only to lose 7 IMPs. The explanation was that the French pair had been bounced in the other room by excellent English pre-emption. As a result the French pair had bid 7, which was doomed to fail because the English North held the A. Convinced that the French must have a Spade void, North bid on to 7. This was doubled and went six off for a penalty of 1700. This would have been ok if 7 was making, but of course it was not. That one board alone would have reversed the lead in the match. There was plenty of good stuff and well bid games won back IMPs. The deficit can be made up in just one board and the French have shown that they in turn will make plenty of mistakes. A cool and calm approach will win the day.

Good luck to all our team.

Watching the Final, Three

Restart at 6am our time. Must be mad here. England start with a lead of 21 IMPs.

Board 17 of the final (-2)

A not unreasonable sacrifice by NS costs 500 against the 420 for 4 by E/W. Even though it’s IMPs out it shows the boys are keeping the pressure on their opponents. Meanwhile in the Open and Women’s series, both teams in the quarter-finals have healthy (60 IMPs or so) leads after 4/6 sessions. I don’t think anyone would have dared predict so much success for the team. The Senior team are sadly a similar margin behind Japan in their round of eight, which nonetheless is an excellent performance following on their tied sixth place in the recent European Championships.

Board 18 flat in 4 a pretty straightforward hand. More coffee. I cannot see the score for Board 19 yet, but I know England have gained 13 IMPs!

Board 19 was flat — West making eleven tricks in 4 so the swing must be on Board 20, which I know is a potential slam for N/S.

Board 20 Got it now. Ben and Rob are playing N/S and have made 6 for +13. The slam depends on a finesse, which for once wins so the lead is extended to 32 IMPs. Let’s hope the Bridge Gods continue to smile on the team. If the East and West hands had been swapped, the lead would have been down to single figures. Phew.

Board 21 Flat in a rather odd way. Ed and Tom (E/W) went one off doubled in a rather ambitious 3NT for -100 but Ben and Rob defeated 3 by two to save any IMPs.

Board 22 I cannot see the hand yet, but France seem to have gained 13 IMPs. It’s a long time before the fat lady will sing (or indeed cry). Tom has gone off in a 4 contract made at the other table. Ah now I see the hand it appears that nine tricks is the normal result so on the surface it looks like the swing came from some defensive lapse by Ben and Tom.

(Now an hour or so later I know this is wrong — a board was misscored – this one I think and not -13 but flat — so all the later margins are wrong — England are 13 IMPs better off than I feared)

Board 23 is flat. A slam for E/W. Well done Ed and Tom. (Truthfully, not so hard, but a test of nerve at this stage).

Board 24 Our boys are in part-score contracts at both tables failing by a single trick, but that’s 4 IMPs away. It’s one of those hands where the contract and outcome seems to be different at every table. There are some penalty doubles and -500s flying around so perhaps it’s not so bad. Starting to get nervous again.

Board 25 I can see that Ed has failed to make 4 and after five minutes or so I get the even worse news that 4 has made at the other table. Mmm. 4 looks cold for one off so more defensive problems. As dawn breaks (07.10) on the English-Welsh border, the lead is down to just three IMPs. I cannot see the hand for this board yet, but I know that on 26 and 27, Tom has declared 4, making one and going one off on the second.

Board 26 4= at both tables

Still worse, no score for 27 yet, but France have gained 10 imps to take the lead. Looks like a passive spade, a trump lead from Ben, solved declarer’s problem of finding J. An unlucky way to lose ten imps, the 4 contract looks normal, but failing more often than making. Lots of games have made at Tom and Ed’s tables in the next few boards, two at each table, but Ben and Rob’s scores are slower coming through so we shall have to wait to see if they are flat.

Phew ten imps back on 28. Tom succeeded in 4, while his French counterpart failed. We’d settle for our 3 IMP lead in 36 boards time though if finishes that close we’ll have lost about a half our hair (not much to lose there) and about three pounds (plenty to go there)

Board 29 flat in 3NT=. Seems like a normal result. Three boards to go in this stanza

Board 30 flat — ten tricks to England in 4 and the same number to France in 3NT. The latter looks somewhat eccentric with South holding a 6-1-1-5 shape, but you cannot argue with success. Still 3 ahead.

Board 31 flat too, eleven tricks for West in 4. A pretty dull hand to be truthful. Tom and Ed have gone three down in 4 on the final board but it’s impossible to tell if that’s good or bad until we see the hands.
Bad I’m afraid – 5 IMPs away, 3NT only goes one off at the other table. Not a good set, England led by 32 IMPs at one stage, but ending up losing 23 and surrendering the lead by 2 IMPs at the halfway stage in the match.

Correction: So the real margin was -10, not -23. Not great but England still lead by 11 IMPs. I’ve been talking to Sheepy — Rob Myers on BBO. Team in good heart and looking forward to the fray.

Both teams know how close the match is and what is at stake — a gold medal in a world championships. There is little between them and I’m sure that there will be plenty of swings in the decisive 32 boards still to be played. Good luck to our team and their coach and NPC, wish I was there with them, but not sure I could cope with the agony and ecstasy.

Two more sets to go, playing again at 08.50 and 11.40. You can see running scores here or here and maybe some BBO coverage of the same hands from the U28 event

Watching the Final, Two

06.00 I cannot believe that I’m sitting here waiting to see some more scores from halfway round the world an hour before dawn. There are three sets to go and roughly six hours of Bridge left. Let’s hope it’s very boring and England build up a big lead.

I’ve found some scores from the first set of 16 boards. While I’m sure that being in Beijing with all that’s going on in the World Mind Sports Games is fantastic, many supporters of Youth Bridge are disappointed that access to information is swamped by everything else that’s going on in the six different Bridge championships. I’ve found some scores from the U21 match, but unfortunately the hand records that go with them are not available yet so it’s hard to tell exactly what’s been going on, but England made a fantstic start to the final scoring 32 unanswered IMPs on Boards 1-3.

On Board 1 Ben Paske, playing with Rob Myers made 3NT, while Adam and Dan defeated 4. +10. On Board 2 Ben lost 150, going 3 off in 4, but Adam succeeded in 4X for +790 in the other room. The French playing against Rob and Ben then seem to have imploded on Board 3 when they conceeded 1070 in 4X+2, while Adam and Dan made no such mistake and lost a more normal 620 against 4. Apart from that there appears to have been a game swing and a part-score swing each way, but the rest of the boards were flat or just one or two IMPs either way.

I’ve also been able to find some information about the Round Robin and the Butler scores. In major competitions, Butler scores for each pair provide a guide to who has played well. All three of our pairs has Butler scores of greater than +1 IMP, which means that they scored an IMP a board better than the field. It may not seem much, but it’s a fantastic performance and reflects a consistency and superiority which is very marked. They were all in the top six, which means that it was a real team performance with all three pairs involved in the tournament and playing a big part in the team success.

It’s 1pm in Beijing and Session 2 is about to start. Watching Bridge scores on the internet is a bit like watching cricket on Teletext. Every now and then the score changes, hopefully in the desired direction. I can see the hands and the contracts too so hopefully I’ll be able to make some sense of the team’s progress.

Watching the Final, One

Great excitement that our U21 team has reached the FINAL of the World Championships at the World Mind Sports Games. With the England teams in the Open, Women’s and Senior’s teams all still fighting in the quarter-finals of their events and so much going on in Beijing, it’s hard to get information, but when I woke at 4.05 this morning, I rushed to my computer to look at the running scores. The U21s are playing France in the final, the team we lost the bronze medal to in the European Championships by 1 VP. I’m not sure what we expected of the team this time. U21 Bridge is not exactly predictable, but Mike Byrne and Alan Shillitoe have worked so hard with the squad and I guess “nervous optimism” summed up the supporters’ general viewpoint. They finished second in the round-robin behind... yep France, so the final looked a close but realistic ambition. Good wins in the quarter-final against Netherlands and a nail-biter against the hosts, China in the semis saw the team into the final with a 5.7 IMP deficit because of the round-robin defeat in the first round. The only way of following progress in the final is by watching a feed of the running scores on an experimental webpage.

When I start at 4.10, we’ve scored 28 IMPs after ten boards and lead by 22. Go boys go! It’s not easy to master technology at this time of the morning. The computer is slow. I try to send a text message to Michael Byrne the NPC of the team with words of encouragement and support. After two failed attempts (sending messages to my brother-in-law!!) I succeed. What’s the score now? Where’s the coffee?

It’s 5.10, 16 boards played. There has been very little more scoring and the lead has remained fairly constant. +21. 48 boards to go. The next set starts at 6.00 am our time. Can they do it? Let’s hope so.

There’s no information on the team line-up at this stage but the six players are:

Tom Paske and Ed Jones
Ben Paske and Rob Myers
Adam Hickman and Dan McIntosh

Updates throughout the day. It is a 64 board match with three more segments of sixteen baords to play. It’s going to be a long morning.

Junior Successes at Brighton

Lots of young players took part in the Brighton Congress and there was no better advert for the skill and expertise of our young players than the win of John Atthey and Simon Cope in the largest event of the the whole congress, the Swiss Pairs. John, who is 23, is an important part of the U25 Squad, and although Simon is now too old to be a junior, he is much involved in coaching and encouragement of our junior teams. Simon and John led for much of the competition, except for a sequence on Saturday evening, but they came back strongly on Sunday to win comfortably in the end.
This was a great performance; a look at the top thirty places shows that the entries included a large number of players and pairs with international experience. Both players will be playing in the newly formed Premier League, starting next month, albeit in different teams.

Other young players in the top twenty pairs included Mike Bell, playing with the U20 Squad Manager Mike Byrne, who finished 11th; Andrew Woodcock and Ollie Burgess, who will represent England in the U28 team at the Mind Sports Olympiad in Beijing were 13th; and Dan McIntosh, with Chris Cooper, was 19th. Dan is in the U20 team for the same event. The huge strength in depth of the field at Brighton provides a great opportunity for serious squad practice and the junior players all welcome the opportunity they are given to take part.

We are currently discussing how more suitable midweek competitions could be organised for our young players to enter alongside the two big weekend events. The midweek teams was a strong event, bolstered by the entry of a Dutch junior team and, with 28 teams competing, the largest event for years. The competition is KO, played each afternoon and was a triumph for the junior group. Mike Byrne and Simon Cope joined up with Mike Bell, the Paske brothers and Ed (Ken) Jones. They coasted through the week and although the final was a close affair they were worthy winners.

Most of the other mid-week events are relatively light-hearted, and the juniors seemed to enjoy swapping partners and joining in. (Indeed when I took part in the Speedball Pairs one night I seemed to be the oldest player in the room — it was great fun. If you've never tried Speedball you really should give it a go — three minutes a board and a Bridgemate to cope with as well!)

The second weekend of teams saw less Junior success. Ollie Burgess and Mike Bell, in different teams, made the 'B' Final, which put them in the top 16 of the 193 that entered. The highest placed all junior team were our Camrose team from this year: Fiona Brown, Susan Stockdale, Dave Cropper and Steve Raine who finished 53rd, just outside the top quarter. The first named pair will also be in Beijing with the U28s.

Off to Loughborough this weekend for the Junior Teach-in. It will be great to see all the young keen bridge players hoping to learn and set off on their first lessons. There is still room for extra participants, email me at mamos@ebu.co.uk or John Pain at john@ebu.co.uk.

Brighton

It’s that time in August when most of the EBU seems to decamp to Brighton for the Summer Congress. I love Brighton, a little seedy but lively and cosmopolitan, lots of places to eat and for the second week in August bridge-players everywhere with those sacred pieces of paper with hands on engaged in that holy ritual “What happened to you on Board 32?”

There’ll be lots of juniors of course. Big Swiss events are great for young and upcoming players because, a couple of good matches and you get the chance to play against the leading stars of our game. In eight board matches anything can happen. It’s pairs this weekend and though I won’t be in Brighton until Sunday, I’ll be following the results carefully to see how all of the Juniors are doing.

It’s an important time especially for the Under 21 Team selected to go to Beijing to play in the Mind Sports Games. They have been preparing assiduously, brushing up systems and making sure their agreements are all tidied up. Look out to see how they get on this weekend. I predict good things for our three pairs:
Ed Jones and Tom Paske
Rob Myers and Ben Paske
Adam Hickman and Dan Macintosh

James Paul and Graeme Robertson are not going to Beijing because of university commitments, but they did well in the European Youth Pairs in Poland recently (finishing 6th) so we can expect them to finish high up as well.

A team of young Dutch players are also preparing for Beijing by coming to Brighton and will play a midweek challenge against our team which is sure to be fun as well as competitive.

Junior Bridge is not just about internationals and high level competition. I’m getting lots of enquiries at the moment about bridge in schools and how the EBU can help. We have good teaching materials and Minibridge is a great way to start even for those as young as seven or eight. If you are involved in a school in any way and think you might be able to start a little group, get in touch and we may be able to get some more young people involved.

The Junior Teach-In in Loughborough is only a few weeks away, but as always there are still some places. Click here for details. Young bridge players are just like their seniors, entries are always left until the last moment. Individuals or groups are welcome and it’s a great opportunity to come along and meet others and enjoy some expert bridge tuition. All standards are catered for from complete beginners to experienced Junior internationals.

I’ve been busy preparing hands for the Autumn Simultaneous Pairs which will be played as minibridge, and as bridge in competitions in Schools and Universities. It’s another chance to get involved so look out for details of that on the EBU website.

Finally are there any university students out there who would like to form a Bridge Club at their university next term or perhaps need some help reviving a club that needs a boost? Let me know and we may be able to help with tuition and advice:- mamos@ebu.co.uk

I’m pretty busy next week at Brighton with TD training during the week and helping with the Swiss Teams at the weekend, but do come and talk to me. I’m free all day Friday so if you’d like a chat drop me an email or leave me a message at EBU reception and we’ll fix a time.

England Juniors in Poland

Our England Junior representatives are currently in Wroclaw, Poland today to take part in the 9th European Youth Pairs. If you know very little about this city or the Silesian region, there is some interesting information on the European Bridge League site to be found by clicking here

Our pairs are taking part in three categories and are lead by Michael Byrne who is acting as the EBU’s representative and NPC. For several pairs, this is an important part of the preparations for the Mind Sports Olympiad in Beijing in October.

In the Girl’s U25 category we will be hoping for an excellent performance from Fiona Brown and Susan Stockdale. After victories in the Channel trophy and the Junior Camrose, the partnership won the Under 28 trials for Beijing.

The relatively young pairing of Ed Jones and Tom Paske may find the going tough in the U26 Pairs, but both are determined characters and will be desperately trying to do well.

Our largest contingent will be playing in the U21 Pairs. This will be a new experience for most of the pairs, but lots of training and serious practice has been taking place and we hope that some of our pairs will reach the prestigious A final.

We wish them all the very best of luck.

Bulletins and results will be found on the EBU web-site and I will keep you informed of the results.

Fortunes are bound to be mixed as the opposition will be stiff and competition severe. Whatever the results the outcome will be that our players will have benefited from the extended experience of competing against the best of Europe’s young players.

European Youth Pairs

The 9th European Youth Pairs takes place in Wroclaw, Poland, from 15th to 18th July. The following pairs have been nominated to take part in these championships:

Under 21
Liam Jones & David Faria
James Thrower & Shivam Shah
Robert Myers & Ben Paske
James Paul & Graeme Robertson
Thomas Rainforth & Philip Railing

Under 26
Ed Jones & Tom Paske
Ian Angus & Joe Clacey

Girls
Susan Stockdale & Fiona Brown
Sinead Bird & Jennifer Marvin

This represents a considerable increase in English participation in this tournament and we are extremely grateful to the Educational Trust for British Bridge who have helped seven of these pairs, two from Wales and one from Scotland with considerable financial support. Good luck to all our pairs. Updates on their progress as the tournament progresses.

A weekend in Yorkshire

I recently spent a very interesting weekend in Yorkshire. As a devout Southerner I used to think that the North began at Watford Gap if not Watford, but I am more educated these days and went off to see some Junior Bridge in one of the centres that seems to have been successful in encouraging young players to take up the game. Bright and early we set off from the Welsh Borders to travel to Harrogate to visit Harrogate Bridge Club and Cedric Cockcroft.

Cedric at last year's JTI

Cedric has a great history in developing bridge players and nearly all our recent Junior competitions have involved players like the Dessain brothers and Rob Myers that started playing with Cedric. Each week Cedric visits five schools to run lunch-time and after school clubs, mostly with Primary School age children. I cannot begin to calculate the hours he has spent in the last ten years or so, not just teaching bridge but preparing hands and teaching aids. Cedric is very modest about his work, but the deep affection of his protégées speaks volumes. Students who have left the town to go to University or employment elsewhere often come to the club on Saturday morning when they are visiting to lend a hand and join in.

Trying to solve one of Cedric's tricky problems

The central cog in this work is the Saturday morning club in Harrogate Bridge Club. For two hours every week, young players can drop in, play a few hands, receive some teaching and advice and tackle some of the fiendish bidding or playing challenges that Cedric has prepared. The Saturday morning we arrived numbers were somewhat depleted because of other events going on, but two tables were already underway. Sarah and I joined in with some trepidation; it’s always easy to look stupid in these situations. Cedric receives lots of support and he told me that if he ever needs help he can always find volunteers. Yorkshire CBA supports Cedric's work financially paying for refreshments on Saturday mornings and helping with petrol money. Almost any Bridge Club could do something along these lines.

Saturday morning in Harrogate

As the morning comes to the close, more young players arrive from all over the country. Harrogate BC is acting as the host for a training weekend for the U20 Squad. Entry to the squad is open to any youngster who wants to come and the squad is run extremely effectively by the Squad Manager, Michael Byrne. Every six or eight weeks, depending on other events, up to thirty or so young players turn up and undergo a weekend of vigorous training, tuition and card play. The level of commitment is high. This time the Harrogate players can have a lie-in, because the weekend is based in their home town. Others have travelled from the South, from Manchester and even Edinburgh. Michael tends to arrange the weekends where the majority of players live so that accommodation is no problem. Players turn up with sleeping bags expecting to sleep on the floor at the home of one of the other squad members. It's a glamorous life being a junior international player or a wannabe.

There's lots of noise and laughter, even argument sometimes, but it's all very serious. There's quite a lot of variation in the experience and skill of the squad from relatively new players to seasoned internationals. At the moment there is a big prize at stake. The U20 team came fourth in the European Championships in 2007 and as a result have been invited to the Mind Sports Olympiad in Beijing in October. University commitments will mean that not all the leading contenders can play and junior partnerships tend to change on what sometimes seems to be a three monthly cycle so the team is by no means settled yet and Michael and his assistants, Alan Shillitoe and Duncan Happer are assiduously grooming and assessing the young hopefuls.

John Armstrong

This weekend the extremely experienced international player, John Armstrong has agreed to come along and lead the training. Everyone knows that John is one of the nicest people in bridge. (As a TD I must have been present at hundreds of events where John has played and the only time he ever called me, except to ask for a board to play, was because he had made a poor claim) John had prepared hands he himself had played over the last few months, mostly on the theme of competitive bidding, although there were sure to be some tricky play and defensive problems as well.

Ben Paske and Rob Myers take on James Paul and Graeme Robertson

The six tables play eight boards — I wouldn’t say in anything approaching silence, but there is a definite air of concentration, punctuated by the occasional outburst of hysteria. After 50 minutes or so (most juniors don’t hang about), the serious work begins. Each table in turn is asked to reveal the outcome of the board and explain the thought- (or lack of thought-) processes that lead to the contract and tricks won or lost. This is a very daunting procedure, we all know as bridge players how absurdly badly we can play at times, so having to confess all to your peers and friends is not easy. John is a wizard at explaining how he dealt with problems at the table and especially how he tries to understand the way that opponents are thinking and playing. A masterclass in every sense of the word. I especially liked this hand.

Perhaps we should think of it as a declarer problem first.

A 9 7 6 K Q J 10 9 7 — A J 4		J 10 5 4 A 8 4 2 10 6 K 8 7

You are West. There are plenty of different auctions but say South opens 3NT — showing solid(ish) minor. You bid 4. North joins in with 4NT and partner, East, bids 5. This "floats" (Junior Bridgespeak for everyone passes) and you are left to play at a slightly uncomfortable level. The trickiest lead is probably a trump. What's your plan?

How good are you at finessing? You've got to do better than that as North has all three of the missing Black cards and all three finesses will lose. How unlucky is that? Junior Bridge players will tell you that three losing finesses only happens 12.5% of the time, but here that's not right. South's 3NT told you that he only had high cards in a minor suit so it's 100% certain that North will hold the cards he does. The general idea on this sort of hand is that we need to get rid of the non-crucial suits (elimination) and force North to do our dirty work for us and make him lead the crucial suits (end-play). There are several ways of achieving this on this hand but the simplest is something like this. Win the trump lead in dummy, with the Ace, trump a diamond high and draw the last trump with the eight in dummy (note that important part of the plan — you need the 8 to get to dummy, so you cannot now ruff the second diamond). Now North's safe diamond exits are eliminated and if he ever plays that suit we can ruff in one hand and discard our Club loser in the other. Nothing can save North now. Take the spade finesse, North wins and has to lead a black suit. A club or diamond concedes defeat immediately so a spade comes back. Now declarer can win a cheap trick and play the Ace and exit with the fourth spade. North is cooked now and has to concede defeat as he only has the minor suits to lead.

The full hand was:-

	K Q 3 2 6 J 5 3 2 Q 9 6 3
A 9 7 6 K Q J 10 9 7 — A J 4		J 10 5 4 A 8 4 2 10 6 K 8 4
	8 5 3 A K Q 9 8 7 4 10 5 2

If you got this hand right perhaps you should think of joining the U20 Squad (if that is that you were born after 1988). I only just miss out by forty years.

On Sunday we went to the Railway Museum in York. If you haven't ever been there it's a great place, like a giant's toy railway set, wonderful ancient engines like tamed beasts surrounded by all sorts of railway ephemera and bits of railway station signals, royal coaches and the like. The idea was to promote bridge and mini-bridge to visitors to the museum as part of a mind-sports awareness day. The visit was arranged by Matt Betts the EBU's Communications Officer and supported by EBU staff and volunteers from Yorkshire Bridge. Over 100 people young and old sat at a bridge table and had their first "Taste-Bridge" session. We all thought it was a great day. The England Junior Squad took part in an Exhibition match with players from York Bridge Club. Thanks to all of them too. Lots of photographs which really seem to have captured the occasion can be found here.

One interesting feature of the day was that many of the chess-players were quite young, probably as young as six or seven. This led me to think about the best age to teach young people to play bridge. There are very different opinions and I'd be very pleased to hear from you with your opinions either as a player or as a teacher. Email me at mamos@ebu.co.uk.

I had a very interesting conversation recently with Chris Dixon, another extremely experienced international player and the Junior Team NPC, who has been recently appointed as County Youth Officer by Wiltshire. Chris believes strongly that we should target older children around sixteen or so and has ambitious plans for a Summer School in Bath where he aims to teach bridge from scratch in one day. I asked Chris what he thought the differences between bridge and chess were that lead to child prodigies in chess much more commonly than in bridge. Chris said that he thought chess was a purer game, at most levels it is just the player and the board that are involved. Bridge is much more psychological. We need to learn to handle partners and opponents. Chris intends to demonstrate that bridge is a challenging and absorbing competitive activity for young people. Looking back on that Saturday afternoon in Harrogate, I think he may have a point. He's promised to send me details so I’ll let you know how he gets on and how his days go.