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.