Marc Smith visits the first weekend of the Camrose Trophy

The Camrose Trophy is contested annually between teams representing England, Scotland, Wales, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. To even up the numbers, the nation hosting the second weekend (Northern Ireland this year) also fields a second team. 

Since 2000, Ireland have recorded seven wins (including four in a row between 2005 and 2008), Wales one (in 2011), and England have won on the remaining occasions. After the first weekend, of the 2020 Camrosein Edinburgh,England had built a substantial lead. Readers will, perhaps, have seen enough of English players in these pages of late, so we are going to focus on the performance of the two primary contenders, Ireland this week and Scotland in the next issue. 

The 2020 Irish team contained plenty of familiar faces: Tom Hanlon & Hugh McGann, Gráinne Barton& John Carroll and Adam Mesbur & Nick Fitzgibbon, with David Walsh as npc. With Mesbur/Fitzgibbon returning after a number of years concentrating on Seniors events, Ireland was perhaps only Tom Garvey short of their maximum-strength lineup.

As usual, we begin with some problems for you to consider. We will find out later how your choices would have turned out.

With just your side vulnerable, you hold as North:

What do you bid now? What is your plan if either opponent bids a sixth heart?

Next, with only the opponents vulnerable, your hand as East is:

What do you bid?

If you bid Four Hearts, South doubles and North removes to Four Spades. What then?

Finally, a lead problem. Vulnerable against not, you are East with:

You may not approve of your own bidding. In that case, imagine that you were detained and someone filled in for you, but you arrived just in time to make the opening lead.

While you mull those over, take a look at the second board from the opening match of the weekend, against England. The key message from this spectacular deal was perhaps that the boys in green had forgotten to pack the famed “Luck of the Irish” for the trip to the home of their Gaelic cousins.

N/S Vulnerable - Dealer East

Both North players were faced with the first of the bidding problems presented above. Artur Malinowski’s rather eccentric Six Club bid landed the English pair in the only slam that could survive the unfriendly distribution. Adam Mesbur was having none of it, though, and when he bid a sixth heart on the West cards par on the deal had been reached. The auction was still far from over, though.

Clearly, Malinowski had always planned this two bid strategy to get both of his suits in. When Bakhshi gave preference at the seven-level is was difficult for Nick Fitzgibbon to tell that the opponents had overreached. Of course, he knew that the spades were breaking badly, but would that be enough to defeat the grand slam in clubs? He decided that the risk was too great and settled for what he hoped was a relatively cheap save.

There were only three top tricks to be lost, but declarer has one too many side suit losers to ruff them all in dummy, so the defenders scored one more winner at the end. E/W -800, Either side could potentially gain a big swing on the deal. 

West - Hydes North - Hanlon East - Townsend South - McGann

Tom Hanlon’s 5NT looks like a much more sensible choice. When West saved in Six Hearts, Hanlon took the push and bid the grand. On many days, he would have been right: spades would behave and there would be thirteen easy tricks. Not today, though: fate had decreed that spades should break 5-0 today. Tom Townsend made a Lightner double and there was nowhere for the Irish to go. Alex Hydes produced the ♠4 and Townsend duly ruffed: E/W +200 and 14 IMPs to England to open the scoring. 

England led 42-24 at the midway point and then picked up 20 IMPs on the final two deals of a dull second half to win 71-27, which translated to just 2.99 Victory Points from a possible 20 for the Irish. Not the ideal start, to be sure, but the Camrose is a marathon, not a sprint. Up next for the Republic were their Northern Irish compatriots. This time, the first deal of the match produced a significant swing:

None Vulnerable - Dealer North

Tom Hanlon opened a two-way One Club, which was either 11-13 balanced or any 17+, and Paul Tranmer overcalled a natural 1NT. Hugh McGann’s strange-looking Two Clubs now showed at least 5-4 in any two suits but with a minimum of four hearts. Wayne Somerville’s competitive Two Diamond bid looks eminently reasonable, but landed his partnership is a far from comfortable spot.

Hanlon led the ♣7, taken in dummy with the ace and declarer got off to a good start by playing a heart to his jack and North’s ace, thus establishing a trick with the ♥K. When Hanlon now continued with the ♣2, though, declarer put up the king and McGann ruffed. When Hanlon subsequently regained the lead with the ♦A, he forced declarer with a high club which allowed South to pitch a spade. Declarer could scramble seven tricks from here, which meant a plus score for the Republic: N/S +50.

West - Barton North - Hall East - Carroll South - Campbell

Sam Hall opened a weak 1NT for the Northern Irish and John Carroll made a penalty double. Hastings Campbell’s Two Diamonds showed diamonds and a major (at least 4-4), and opener not unreasonably opted to play in his partner’s major. Gráinne Barton produced a red card on the way out and the provincial team was in trouble. It did not take the defense long to get a crossruff in the minors going, and declarer managed to scramble just four tricks. N/S -800 and 13 IMPs to Ireland.

The Republic added a further 13 IMPs to their lead on the third board of the match and seemed to be well on their way to correcting their poor start. Alas, things went downhill for them from there and they found themselves down 51-38 at the midway point of the match, and they lost another 15 IMPs in the second half. The 60-92 loss translated into 5.04 Victory Points and a poor start had become a bad one, with only the Welsh keeping them out of the cellar after two matches. The good news for one of those two teams, though, is that they were scheduled to play each other next.

Both Vulnerable - Dealer North

Do you open One Club or One Spade? Martin Jones opted for his longer suit and Jake Dunn responded with a weak jump in diamonds. Jones introduced his second suit after Nick Fitzgibbon’s Two Heart overcall, but Dunn did not feel he had enough to compete to the three-level.

Two aces, a diamond and a club ruff held declarer to nine tricks: E/W +140.

West - Pottage North - Hanlon East - Ratcliff South - McGann

Tom Hanlon opened One Spade and caught a raise. Despite his limited high cards, he was never now going to stay out of game on this shape. 

It looks like declarer is always booked to fail by a trick, in which case the Welsh would gain a couple of IMPs. However, as things turned out this deal would have fit nicely into one of Julian Pottage’s books, as it became “The Story of the Queen of Spades”. (Julian wrote a modernized version of the wonderful “Right Through the Pack”: if you haven’t read the original, you should hunt the Internet for a second-hand copy today.)

Tony Ratcliff led the ♥Q to declarer’s ace and to get out for one down declarer must start clubs right away. When, Hanlon played the ♦Q at trick two, the defense was in a position to beat the contract by two. Winning with the ♦A, Pottage needs to switch to the ♠Q at trick three to collect +500 on the deal.

When Pottage tried to cash the ♥K, declarer could ruff and once again had time to start ruffing clubs. Hanlon needed no second invitation: the ♣A was followed by a club ruff and the ♦K. When declarer then played a third round of diamonds, though, Pottage made the fatal error of ruffing in with the ♠Q. (Declarer has only nine tricks if West plays any other card on his trick.) Hanlon overruffed with the ♠K and now had a high crossruff for ten tricks. N/S a spectacular +790 and 14 IMPs to Ireland.

Ireland led 59-14 at the midway point of the match, and won the second half 62-38. Their 83-IMP win translated into 19.9 Victory Points for the Irish, on the comeback trail at last, and left the team from the Principality rooted firmly to the foot of the table.

Sunday began with a match against the high-flying Scots, who had started the tournament with three big wins, against Wales and both Northern Irish teams. 

N/S Vulnerable - Dealer West

This is the second of the bidding problems presented at the top of this article. Jun Nakamaru-Pinder’s decision to bid Four Hearts was committal and, on this combination, seemed destined to produce a substantial minus score, whether in Four Hearts Doubled or at the five-level in diamonds, However, Nick Fitzgibbon chose not to heed his partner’s warning and his Four Spade bid seemed to rescue the Scots. East, however, insisted that his head (or, in this instance, his partner’s) should be served on a platter and the Irish did not decline a second time. The defense had four obvious tricks: N/S +300.

West - Barton North - Ash East - Carroll South - Ferrari

John Carroll was more circumspect, offering 3NT over North’s Three Spade overcall. I suspect he intended to retreat to Four Diamonds if doubled, but was unwilling to venture higher than that. Bob Ferrari was not particularly interested in defending diamonds at the four-level, so he introduced his clubs, hopeful that his side might have a fit there. Mike Ash simply rebid his spades, and no one felt inclined to double.

The defense always has three aces and a heart ruff. Carroll led the ♦2, and Barton won and returned a suit-preference queen, just in case her partner’s lead was a singleton. Winning with the ♦K, Ash tried to cash three rounds of clubs, pitching a heart, but Carroll ruffed with the ♠7 and cashed his ♥A. Down to only trumps now, Ash might have guessed right, but when he started by leading the king to the East’s now-bare ace, West had to make a further trick with his ♠J. N/S -200 and 11 IMPs to Ireland, who led 34-27 at the midway point of the match. 

The second half of the match was all Ireland, the Republic winning the stanza 52-4 and the match 86-30, which was worth 18.21 VPs. Back above average now, the Irish completed the first weekend with their match against the Northern Ireland Bridge Union team, theoretically the weakest of their opponents. The Republic led by 35 IMPs (68-33) at halftime and the second half was all one-way traffic. This deal was typical:

E/W Vulnerable - Dealer East

Adam Mesbur opened with a natural, limited, Precision-style Two Clubs. When Michael Coffey balanced with Two Diamonds, Mesbur introduced his spade suit, but he gave up when Fergal O’Shea’s diamond raise came back to him. Declarer has three losing spades and two losing hearts in addition to the ♣A. He can ruff two spades in dummy and discard another loser on the ♣Q but that is still only ten tricks. Well-judged by the NIBU pair, it seems: N/S +130.

West - Bradley North - Hanlon East - Dukelow South - McGann

I’m not at all sure that I agree with William Dukelow’s decision to open One Spade on this 5-7 shape, but the effect was to propel the Republic pair into a game that appears to have too many losers. You’ll recognize this as the final problem from the top of this article as, unfortunately for the NIBU team, you still have to find the right opening lead in order to go plus.

If you led either major, you will get to record +100 in the plus column of your scorecard as declarer has just too much to do and you can remove entries from dummy prematurely with repeated spade plays. Dukelow, though, started with the ♣A and continued the suit at trick two. Tom Hanlon won with dummy’s ♣Q, pitching a heart from his hand. He then crossed to hand with a trump and led a heart to the king and ace. After two more rounds of trumps, Hanlon ran the ♥9 to West’s ten. With two spades ruffs still available as entries to dummy, now declarer has enough time to ruff out West’s ♥Q, establishing a discard for his last spade loser. An impressive eleven tricks: N/S +550 and 11 IMPs to Ireland.

We finish with the most spectacular firecracker of the weekend:

None Vulnerable - Dealer East

As regular readers of this column will be aware, I am all in favor of pre-empting at any excuse in first seat non-vulnerable. Indeed, I would consider it automatic to open this East hand with a weak two. Note, though, how much easier it is for North/South to penalize when you have to start with a Multi, rather than a natural weak two. Holding that South hand, would you be willing to risk passing a natural Two Heart opening in the vague hope that partner might reopen with a double? Sure, you might do so, but it is risky. 

Hugh McGann doubled the Two Diamond opening, showing either a weak notrump type or various very strong hands. West bid a pass/correct Two Hearts and Tom Hanlon’s double was either penalties or takeout. (The assumption is that when opener reveals his suit, partner will know which hand type you hold.) McGann had no trouble converting partner’s double on this hand.

When you live by the sword, you will sometimes die by the sword, but it is perhaps surprising how rare such huge penalties are, even when opener holds only a five-card suit for his weak two. Declarer had to make two trump tricks, but that was all: six-down and N/S +1400. Surprisingly, all was not lost for the NIBU team, and there was a chance for them to actually gain an IMP on this deal. All their North/South pair had to do was to bid and make +1440 in Seven Clubs. They got halfway there:

West - Fitzgibbon North - Coffey East - Mesbur South - O’Shea

O’Shea opened a Strong Club and heard a natural positive, promising 8+ HCP and at least five clubs. Two Diamonds then asked for controls, 2NT showing four (ace=2, king=1). O’ Shea now agreed clubs and wasted a bit of time while his partner told him which controls he held (although, of course, he already knew that). He then jumped to the grand slam. What, of course, he had not considered, was that his partner might not hold the ♣Q.

Of course, declarer can make Seven Clubs as the cards lie. With the opponents silent in the auction, though, O’Shea had no reason to make an anti-percentage play in trumps, so he laid down the ace and king. When West discarded, he was one down. N/S -50 and 17 IMPs to Ireland.

Ireland won the second half of their final match 82-14 and the match 150-47, which earned them a maximum 20 VPs. After a terrible start, they had produced three big wins to climb into second place behind England. With England scoring 90.5 out of a possible 100 VPs over the weekend, though, they are still a fair ways behind at the midway point of the event. 

In third place, 14 VPs behind Ireland with a score of 52.37 VPs from their five matches, is Scotland. Next week, we will look at some of the action enjoyed by the vocal home supporters from their matches during the Edinburgh leg of this year’s Camrose Trophy.