Tollemache Final 2026

Last November Dorset did exceptionally well to win their group and qualify for the Tollemache final, no doubt helped by the fact that Ann and I were not playing. We were added to the team for the final to make up a team of 10. It was a nice change to play in a high level face-to-face event, but results were rather disappointing and we finished 7th out of 8. Ann and I held our own on the first day, but were out of form and luck on Sunday. This hand was a typical example.

Ann won the spade lead in dummy and ran the eight of clubs to West's ten. West defended accurately by returning a trump. After drawing trumps, West won the first round of diamonds and when both defenders kept their clubs there was no way home. 

The hand record showed that ten tricks could always be made, but we had to put the deal into Deep Finesse to find the winning line. The key play, not at all obvious, is to ruff a spade at trick two, and eventually West can be endplayed to concede a second club trick. You can follow the play by clicking Next on the diagram. Four hearts was the contract at 11 of the 16 tables, but was only defeated twice. I would be willing to bet that the other declarers succeeded due to a friendly defence rather than finding the double dummy line.

Violating Burn's Law

I expect that you have heard of Burn’s Law of Total Trumps: When you are declarer, the total number of trumps held by your side should be greater than the total number of trumps held by your opponents.

But in bridge, there are exceptions to most rules. Take this spectacular deal from the 2025 Bermuda Bowl final between USA and Denmark.

South's 2♣ rebid was Gazilli, showing various hands and not promising anything in clubs, 2♦ just showed a game force and I believe that 3♠ promised a very strong red 2-suiter. So the Danes played a grand slam in a 5-1 fit in a suit that was bid for the first time at the 7 level. So much for Burn's Law.

Schaltz did remarkably well to pass 7♣ and after a trump lead, he brought home the slam by squeezing West in diamonds and spades. That was worth 17 imp when the Americans were two down in 7♦. 

A few weeks later, this hand came up in the rather more mundane surroundings of a club duplicate at Poundbury.

We were playing 2-over-1 so my 2♥ was forcing to game and I had a problem over 3♦. I was reluctant to bid 3NT with such a feeble stop and I thought that partner would expect three trumps if I bid 3♠, so I tried 3♥ and ended up in another contract that Mr Burn would not approve of. 

I won the spade lead in hand and played a top trump to East's ace. A low club switch would have given me a tricky guess but he returned another trump. I played the other top trumps, cashed the ace and queen of spades (throwing a club) and ruffed a spade. Now a diamond finesse and the last spade meant that East could only make his master trump.

On reflection I think that 3♠ is probably the best bid over 3♥, and in this specific sequence does not have to have three trumps. 4♠ would also have made but I was right to avoid 3NT as it goes down on a club lead.

 

Gold turns to Lead

Having made it to the last 16 of the Gold Cup (for only the second time in about 40 attempts) we were drawn against the number one seeds and holders, Janet de Botton with Thor Erik Hoftaniska, Artur Malinowski, David Bakhshi, Thomas Charlsen and Tony Forrester. Unfortunately we could not find a suitable date to play face-to-face, and the oppo were not keen on RealBridge, so we ended up playing on BBO.

I don't really like playing matches on BBO. Unable to see or hear anyone else, I find it hard to concentrate and it feels too much like playing against the robots on the computer. Except that on this occasion the robots were of rather higher standard...

We began with three flat boards before things started to go rapidly downhill.

Forrester and Malinowski bid to an optimistic game, which rolled in when I failed to find an unlikely diamond lead. In the other room North chose a cautious pass over 1♣, so East-West were allowed to make 1NT. Next came 

 

In our room the strong NT opener made life easy, I overcalled 2♣ to show the majors, South bid a forcing 3♣ and North settled for 3NT, making 11 tricks on a spade lead.

It's not so easy playing a weak NT. I think North should pass at his second turn as if you discount the king of spades his hand is only a minimum for a possible club contract. Then South could double to show extras and North could bid 3NT. 

Against 4♥ East started with the ace of spades and West played the queen - showing the jack but denying the king. Hoftaniska switched to a diamond. If you win in hand, cash two top hearts and play on clubs all is well but declarer erred by winning the diamond in dummy and went off when hearts did not break.

We then lost two part-score swings and the final board of the set gave this bidding decision

What should West bid now? We passed it out, they doubled and ended in 4♦. Both contracts made - partner had ♦Kxx and little else - and we lost another 7 imp.

43 imps down after boards, we were hoping for some respite but things went from bad to worse. This was the next board

You can follow the play by clicking on 'Next'.  After the spade ruff, declarer can still get home by playing North for a doubleton trump, discarding a spade on a top club and eventually ruffing a spade in dummy. Not easy, though South might have been more likely to cover the queen of hearts with Kx.

In the other room North opened 3♣ and the opponents bid double - 4♣ - 4♠. This was also a tricky contract to play although the 3♣ opener gave a useful clue. The defence started with two rounds of clubs. Declarer won in dummy and played a top spade. Cashing the other top spade will lead to defeat when the trumps are 4-1, but Hoftaniska found the great play of ducking a spade, keeping trump control and making game. 

 

The points continued to build up in the Out column, with this being a hand where I might have done better.

I was East and chose to bid 2♠ rather than double; on reflection I think that is a bit pessimistic. That was passed out and I made ten tricks on a diamond lead. At the other table the defence was under more pressure when East chose to double and ended in 4♠. South gave us a chance by finding the heart lead which declarer won and played four rounds of trumps. The defence need to cash out now but when they continued with two rounds of hearts declarer was home. How could the defence have got this right? South is known to have five minor suit cards and might have led a singleton club. That suggests that declarer has four diamonds and so the defence need to cash their club winners. But South might have helped his partner by discarding a discouraging diamond on the run of trumps. 

 

With a score of almost 100 imp after 16 boards, everyone knew that the match was over. We played on for three more sets and managed to pull back 20 imps, although no one was concentrating too hard.