The 2024 calendar kicks off with the first weekend of the Camrose Trophy, an event contested annually by representatives of the home countries, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland. To make the field up to an even number of teams, the host country (England this year) is also allowed a second team. The format is a double round robin of 32-board matches played over two weekends.

As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are South holding:

What do you bid?

Next, with only your opponents vulnerable, you are sitting in the East with:

What action, if any, do you take?

We start our coverage in the Friday evening match between Wales and Ireland. Midway through the first half of the match, both South players were confronted by the first of the problems above.

One might foresee the auction developing this way, so perhaps there is a case to be made for opening 1♣ on this South hand. With such distribution, the chance of 1♣ ending the auction is small, and you would increase the chances of being able to bid out your shape.

Adam Dunn (left) first represented Wales at the 2004 World Team Olympiad. He has been a regular member of their Camrose team for more than two decades. Having opened 2♣, Dunn then had to decide what to do after Dafydd Jones’ 3♠ bid. He advanced with 3NT, heard his partner rebid his spades at the four-level, and opted to put down dummy.

Jones won the heart lead in dummy, cashed the ♦A and crossed to his hand with a diamond ruff. He then tabled the ♠K, which picked up West’s singleton jack. Winning with the ♠A, Ciaran Coyne forced declarer with a third round of diamonds, reducing him to the same trump length that East held. Coyne won the next round of trumps with the ♠Q and forced declarer again. Now declarer began cashing winners. East had no more diamonds, so he had to follow suit to two hearts and a club. East scored the long trump at trick 13, but that was only the third trick for the Irish pair. N/S +620.

After the same start to the auction, Conor Boland chose to bid his heart suit. Tom Hanlon might perhaps have passed on the North hand but, encouraged by four-card support, he decided that he owed his partner an invitational raise. Boland needed no further encouragement and awarded himself a sixth heart.

The defence began with ♠J, covered by king and ace, and ruffed by declarer. Things quickly went south for the Irishman when he tried to cash his two top clubs and East ruffed. A spade came back and declarer pitched a club, allowing West to score a small trump. A third club was then ruffed in dummy and overruffed with the ♥J. Declarer had the rest, but that was still two down: N/S -200 and 13 IMPs to WALES.

A very experienced international player, Tony Ratcliff (right) has been a member of the Welsh Camrose team his before the turn of the century. Following the split of Great Britain into its constituent countries in 2000, he has also represented the principality at a handful of European Championships since 2002.

I am completely mystified by Ratcliff’s bidding on this North hand, but I cannot dispute its effectiveness. The only explanation I can offer is that perhaps he missorted his hand and thought he had only four diamonds.

Julian Pottage won the spade opening in his hand, crossed to a high diamond, and took the heart finesse. Mark Moran took his king on the second round of hearts and cleared the spades. Pottage ended with four hearts, three diamonds and two tricks in each of the black suits: N/S +460.

Tom Hanlon (left) did manage to sort his hand, but the penalty for doing so was severe. The cards did not lie well for the Irish and, whilst their slam was a reasonable proposition, the losing heart finesse and the 4-1 trumps split gave declarer no chance.

John Salisbury led the ♠J, declarer winning with the ace, crossing to his hand with a high trump, and running the ♥10. Tim Rees won with the ♥K and exited with a second heart. Hanlon ruffed a spade to his hand and laid down the ♦A, but West’s discard confirmed the fate of the contract. A diamond to the king followed but that was the last entry to dummy. East ruffed the next heart and exited with a spade. Dummy was high, but declarer could not get there so he had to lose to more club tricks at the end. N/S -150 and another 12 IMPs to WALES, who won the match 94-63.

That left the Welsh in second place behind SCOTLAND, who hammered NORTHERN IRELAND 110-41 in their opening match. The EBU team defeated ENGLAND 95-75 in the other first round match.

There were two matches scheduled for Saturday. Let’s take a look at the early morning action from the meetings of IRELAND and SCOTLAND. Both East players had to answer the second of this week’s problems…

Ciaran Coyne passed on the East hand, which allowed Stephen Peterkin (right) into the auction with a balancing 1NT. Sam Punch did not mess around with her decent 12-count, and simply raised to game.

David Walsh opened a low club, which went to the ten and queen. Regaining the lead with the ♦A, Walsh tried a second low club, but Peterkin rose with dummy’s king. Three winners in each red suit reduced everyone to three cards. Now Peterkin exited with his remaining club, endplaying West to lead away from the ♠K at trick twelve. N/S +660.

Derek Diamond (left) perhaps looks exactly what you would expect central casting to send if you asked them for ‘A Scotsman’. He made his debut for Scotland at the 2001 European Championships, remarkably in the Senior Teams (the age requirement was obviously much lower then.) He has represented his country regularly in the Senior, Open and Mixed teams over the past 20 years.

In the replay here, Diamond responded 1NT on the East hand. Mark Moran, for whom a double would have been a takeout of spades, now had no sensible way into the auction on the South hand. Iain Sime rebid his second suit and, when Diamonds suggested 2♥ as a contract, he had no reason to disagree. The result was that the Irish passed throughout on their combined 26-count, but who is supposed to bid at any point in this auction?

Diamond drifted a couple down in 2♥. N/S +100 and 11 IMPs to SCOTLAND. IRELAND had the last laugh, though, as they won the match 60-31.

These same two auctions contributed also 11 IMPs to the English cause as the EBU team hammered WALES 101-41. In the third match of this round, ENGLAND defeated NORTHERN IRELAND 92-30.

The two English teams led the way after two matches, with SCOTLAND less than 1VP behind in third place.

The final Saturday match saw ENGLAND take on WALES. Bridge can be a cruel game and, when you are not doing well, you rarely seem to get the rub of the green. On the final deal of the first half, one team bid to a game which was significantly worse that 50% whilst the other reached a slam that was appreciably better than a finesse. Let’s see how it all played out…

Derek Patterson opened with a strong/artificial 2♣ and then showed 24+ balanced via a Kokish relay. Chris Jagger (right) moved forward with Puppet Stayman in case his partner held five hearts. When that possibility did not materialize but Patterson showed at least one four-card major, Jagger had to guess which game to bid. Nine tricks are surely easier than eleven, so 3NT looks like the obvious choice. Not on this layout!

South led a spade and declarer held up his ace until the third round. Patterson had no real choice other than to set up diamond tricks, so he played the ♦A and the ♦J (overtaking with dummy’s queen). If the defenders’ spades are splitting 5-4, declarer has no chance, whoever holds the ♦K. Good news for the English – North held the ♦K and he had started with only three spades. E/W +630.

I love to pre-empt at any excuse but, vulnerable against not, even I would not open this West hand. The lads from the mining villages of Wales are obviously made of sterner stuff than I, and Adam Dunn was in there with a natural weak 2♦ opening. The 2♥ and 2NT bid were both alerted, so presumably some sort of inquiry and a response showing a minimum. However, Dafydd Jones (left) still fancied his chances in slam even opposite a minimum.

Indeed, we have all been in much worse making slams than this one. Declarer will have 12 tricks any time the heart finesse works. There is also the additional chance of finding the ♦K either singleton or doubleton onside, pushing the odds up close to 60%.

Dunn won the opening spade lead and ruffed a spade in his hand to take the trump finesse. The ♦J won but South’s discard on the second round of trumps meant that declarer still had to loser a trump. Declarer crossed back to the ♣J and drove out the ♦K. When North then switched to a heart, declarer had little choice but to finesse. South won with the ♥K and added insult to injury by delivering his partner’s club ruff for two down. E/W -200 and 13 IMPs to ENGLAND, who won the match 84-26.

With three of the five matches on this first weekend completed, the overnight leader-board looked like this:

We will be back soon with the highlights from the remaining two matches from the opening weekend of this year’s Camrose Trophy.