We are in the UK again for the Junior Camrose Trophy, an annual competition for the Under-26 teams from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland. One country fields a second team on a rotating basis to even up the numbers, and this year it is the turn of the Scots.

Over the course of the three-day weekend, each team will play two 16-board matches against each of the other teams. We left things with the first round robin completed. These were the standings at the midway point:

ENGLAND                            78.07 VPs

SCOTLAND                          69.52

IRELAND                              55.78

SBU                                        37.75

WALES                                  33.72

NORTHERN IRELAND        20.96

As usual, we begin with some problems. Firstly, with only your side vulnerable, you are East holding:

What do you bid?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with neither side vulnerable, you hold in the East seat:

What action do you take?

While you mull those over, we start in the final Saturday match, with ENGLAND-v-WALES. The English picked up a number of small gains throughout the match, to build a sizeable lead. On the final deal, both East players had to answer the first of the problems above.

Jack Ronayne (left) made his international debut as a member of England’s Under-16 team at the 2015 European Championships.

For the English, Andy Cope began with a 1♠ response, which silenced Joseph Bentley (more on that later). Ronayne’s 2♦ rebid looks rather strange, but perhaps 2♣ would have been some Gazzilli variation, showing a strong hand. Cope’s conservative-looking decision not to raise pre-emptively should surely have invited Bentley back into the auction, but he rather timidly went quietly.

Indeed, if you cannot bid a natural 2♠ on the South hand on the first round of the auction, you should consider changing your methods. (Indeed, both 2♦ and 2♠ should be natural after 1♦-Pass-1♠-? There are plenty of ways to show hands with one or both of the unbid suits, but only one way to show a long, strong holding in one of the suits already bid.)

James Brindle led a spade against 2♦. Declarer won with the ♠A, pitching a club from his hand. When he then led the heart from dummy, South rose with the ace. Ronayne now had two discards for dummy’s club losers, so he claimed eleven tricks. E/W +150.

Liam Sanderson (right) also began his international career in the England Schools team in 2015. He was later a member of the Under-21 teams that collected bronze medals from the European Youth Teams in both 2017 and 2019.

For the Welsh, Iwan Williams opted for pre-emption on the East hand, jumping immediately to the four-level. That did not deter Sanderson, who waded in with 4♠ on the South cards. Had Sophie Akers made a takeout double of 4♠ on the West hand, it would probably have ended the auction. Careful defence will defeat the contract by a trick, whichever red suit West leads. When Akers instead carried on to 5♦, Sanderson closed the brief auction with a red card.

Now it was up to Daniel Winter to find the winning lead, and he unerringly selected the ♣K. Declarer could have saved a trick by ducking at trick one, accepting one down. Instead, Akers won with the ♣A and played a trump. Sanderson took the ♦A and returned a club. Winter won with the ♣Q and delivered his partner’s club ruff. The ♥ was the fourth defensive trick. E/W -500 and 12 IMPs to ENGLAND, who won the match 62-7.

SCOTLAND had defeated the SBU team 20-0 in the opening match of this event, but things turned out much differently in the Round 6 rematch, with SBU upsetting the senior SCOTLAND team 49-34. While the Scots remain in second place, they now trail ENGLAND by more than 22 VPs. IRELAND defeated NORTHERN IRELAND 53-21 in the other match, so they are now less than 3 VPs behind the Scots. Of course, ENGLAND still have to play against both of the chasing teams, but they have now established themselves as heavy favorites going into the last day’s play.

ENGLAND and IRELAND met in Round 8. When our next deal appeared on the VuGraph screen, the discussion revolved around whether E/W could make 4♠. Curiously, though, that suit was not bid at either table…

Leah Finnegan (left) made her international debut in Ireland’s Under-16 team at the 2015 European Championships.

Daniel Winter was allowed to open 1♣ in third seat. Whilst the popular choices on the West hand might have been either a 1♠ overcall or a Michaels 2♣, Finnegan chose to start with 1♥. Liam Sanderson showed a constructive club raise with a 2♥ cue-bid, and Winter retreated to 3♣. Finnegan got back into the auction with a takeout double, but Denise Walsh’s 3♦ then ended the auction.

The defence began with a club, ruffed in dummy. Walsh played a spade to the king and ace, and Winter exited with a low trump. Walsh won in dummy with the king, ruffed a heart, ruffed a club with dummy’s last trump, cashed the ♥A pitching a club, and then ruffed a second heart, bringing down South’s king. When declarer now played a trump, the defence could win with the ♦A and cash a club winner, but that was it. E/W +130.

The action at the other table was fast and furious.

A completely different scenario unfolded when Andy Cope (right) opened a natural weak 2♦ on the East cards. Matthew O’Farrell doubled and Jack Ronayne leaped adventurously to 5♦, leaving Luca Crone with the second of this week’s problems. Crone’s decision to take a two-way shot at 5♥ does not seem unreasonable. Ronayne must have thought Christmas had arrived particularly early this year, and it did not take long for the Irish roof to fall in.

The English dropped a trick in defence, allowing Crone to scramble eight tricks. If 4♠ was making, that would have been a cheap save, but we’ll never know. As it was, E/W +500 meant 9 IMPs to ENGLAND.

However, the good news for Celtic counties was that IRELAND won the match 46-37. With SCOTLAND defeating NORTHERN IRELAND 53-20 in this round, the two chasing teams closed the gap on the leaders. The Scots now trailed ‘The Auld Enemy’ by less than 18 VPs, and the two teams would meet head on in Round 9. The second deal of the match had plenty of potential for a swing and did not disappoint.

Prajjwal Mayur (left) made his international debut in the India Under-16 team at the 2019 World Championships. He was a member of the Indian Under-26 team that reached the quarter-final stage at the 2022 World Youth Games.

The auction began with three natural bids. Mayur’s jump to 3♦ at his second turn looks a little strange. (For most pairs, it would be a splinter agreeing clubs, but the Scottish pair seemed to be on the same wavelength.) Would 2♦ not have been forcing in their methods, perhaps? Whether you really want to force to game with this hand after partner’s club bid is another question.

Anyway, Antone Huang gave preference to hearts and Mayur decided his hand merited a club cue-bid, which tempted Jack Ronayne into a double. When the Scottish auction ran out of steam at the four-level, Andy Cope looked at his five-card trump holding and sensed blood in the water, so he closed the auction with a double. Unfortunately, for the Sassenachs, it turned out to be English blood. The defence could make no more than the ♠A and two trump tricks. E/W +590.

The auction began the same way here, except that Imogen La Chapelle (right) was forced to bid her diamonds at the three-level by Jamie Day’s raise to 2♠. Liz Gahan did not give preference to hearts on her two low, but instead advanced with a 3♠ cue-bid. Perhaps La Chapelle might have slowed the auction down by bidding 3NT, but that is hardly obvious with only a moderate spade stopper and a void. When La Chapelle instead rebid her diamonds, Gahan took a gamble and punted slam in her eight-card suit.

With partner having shown ten red cards and the opponents competing only to the two-level in spades (perhaps suggesting that East would hold two or three cards in that suit), perhaps Gahan’s optimism was misguided. Such things happen in junior bridge, where everyone loves to bid slams. What was perhaps more unusual was South’s final Pass. Juniors also love to double (and generally do so too often). Maybe Granops will be henceforth known as ‘Grandpa’ by his teammates after his failure to hit 6♣. 

The contract duly drifted three down. E/W -150 and 12 IMPs to SCOTLAND.

The match was tight and surprisingly low-scoring, and ENGLAND finished with a narrow win, 38-34. That result just about guaranteed the title to England, which meant that IRELAND and SCOTLAND were battling it out for second place when they met head-on in Round 10.

If you are going to have a disaster at each table, the contraction of the IMP scale means it is best if it happens on the same deal. The Scots used this strategy to save a few IMPs on the opening deal of the match, where both East players had to answer the last of this week’s problems.

If you gave the East bidding problem to an expert panel, you might find a couple who had a bid such as 3♣ available to show both black suits, but I suspect the rest would opt for a simple 1♠ overcall. I somehow doubt that there would be much support for the Double employed by Jamie Day. When Luca Crone then rebid an 18-19 2NT, Day jumped to 5♣. Can you blame Matthew O’Farrell (left) for thinking the contract would go down?

O’Farrell led a diamond, declarer winning with the ace. In dummy for what looks like the only time, you would perhaps expect declarer to use that entry to take a finesse in one of the black suits. Indeed, with North holding most of the outstanding high cards, a spade towards the king looks marked. Instead, O’Farrell played a club and declined the finesse in that suit, putting up the ace. When he then cashed the ♣K, down came South’s queen. Having successfully divined the trump position, declarer now just needed to avoid losing three spade tricks. He led a low spade from his hand and, “Voila”, North won with the ace. After ruffing the heart return, declarer appears to now have eleven tricks. Indeed, he would have if he had remembered to draw the last trumps before playing the ♠K. When he played th ♠K without doing so, North was able to ruff. There was still a spade to lose, so that was one down. A rather sad E/W -100.

Sheila Walsh (right) made her debut in Ireland’s Schools team at the 2013 European Championships. At the 2022 European Youth Championships she was a member of the Irish Under-26 team.

Leah Finnegan began, quite sensibly, with a 1♠ overcall of North’s 1♦ opening. South bid his hearts and Walsh competed to 2♠. Antone Huang raised hearts via a 3♠ cue-bid and Finnegan bid game. Huang was thus left with the decision to play or defend. With 4♠ making easily, the real question was whether a five-level save would be economical. Huang bid on, and Walsh had an easy double. Curiously, this was the third time in four boards we have seen from this round robin when a player got to double a high-level heart contract holding five trumps (although one of the games was still cold).

Walsh led a spade to dummy’s ace, and declarer cashed the ♥A, East discarding a club to reveal the bad news. Walsh won the next trick with the ♦A and switched to clubs, East playing three rounds. To legitimately hold declarer to seven tricks, West needs to discard a diamond when declarer ruffs the third club, but Walsh overruffed. However, when declarer then embarked on a crossruff that meant ruffing with the ♥Q, he was four down anyway. E/W +800 and 14 IMPs to IRELAND to open the scoring.

Whilst the Scots may have saved a few IMPs by compacting two bad results onto one board here, they failed to staunch the flow of poor results through the rest of the match. IRELAND won the match by a resounding 90-36, and thus it was they who claimed second place behind the runaway leaders.

The final standings were:

ENGLAND                            157.74 VPs

IRELAND                              139.03

SCOTLAND                          115.91

SBU                                        78.37

WALES                                  61.50

NORTHERN IRELAND        43.25

We will be jumping around a lot over the next couple of weeks, bringing you the best of the action from a number of upcoming events including the final of the Dutch Premier League, the English Grand Masters Pairs, the Lederer Trophy from London, and the Open Teams final from the Gold Coast in Australia.