Ten invited all-star teams congregated at the RAC Club in London to contest the 2024 Lederer Memorial Trophy. This prestigious event was first played in 1945 as a tribute to Richard Lederer, an important writer, teacher and international player in the formative years of the game in England. The current format was adopted in 1978, with an eight-team field and the Young Chelsea Bridge Club hosting the event. It expanded from eight teams to ten when it relocated to the RAC Club in 2013.

Scotland’s Victor Silverstone holds the record for appearances in the Lederer, having played in the event an incredible 31 times. Both Andrew Robson and Zia Mahmood are playing in the event for the 25^th time this year. Those two are currently tied for the most wins in the event, each with nine. Silverstone is third on that list with seven victories.

The Lederer has been shown live on BBO VuGraph for more than a decade. This year, there was one table shown from each of the first seven rounds, and then two tables from the final two matches of the event. We will take a look at the best of the action from those matches.

The format is a complete round-robin of nine 10-board matches with a scoring method that is an unusual hybrid of Board-a-Match and IMPs. Each board is scored BAM style, with 2VPs for a win and 1 for a tie, giving a possible total of 20 VPs from each match. The IMP difference is then also converted to VPs on a 15-15 scale and each team’s two VP tallies are added together to produce an overall score for the match, with a maximum win of 50-0.

As usual, we start with a couple of problems. Firstly, an opening lead. With only your side vulnerable, you are West holding:

What do you lead?

Next, with neither side vulnerable, you are sitting in the West seat with:

What, if anything, do you open?

While you think about those, we start in Round 2, with a match between CROCKFORDS and KNOTTENBELT. Do you bid game? If you do bid it, can you make it

What is your plan?

While you consider those, we start early in the opening round with the meeting of ENGLAND and WALES.

Ben Norton dredged up a 1NT response to his partner’s 1♠ opening, so Ben Handley-Pritchard (left) got into the auction with a 2♥ overcall. Stefano Tommasini introduced his second suit at the three-level, and Tom Townsend joined in with a competitive 3♥. That wasn’t enough encouragement for H-Pritchard to bid game.

Declarer won the ♦Q opening in his hand, cashed the ace and king of hearts, and then unblocked the ♦J. He now led his low club towards dummy. Tommasini rose with the ♣A and exited with a low club. Declarer had a fair idea where the ♣Q was but, playing in 3♥, he only needed one club trick, so he won with the ♣K. Declarer drew the last trump and cashed the ♦A for his ninth trick. N/S +140.

Mike Bell (right) made his international debut as a member of England’s Junior team at the 2009 European Youth Championships. He has represented England a number of times at the European Champions Cup, finishing second in that event in 2019. He was a member of the England Open team for the 2021 online European qualifying event, and at the 2022 European Championships in Madeira. He is here, along with his wife Sarah, as part of the team that won the 2023 Crockfords Trophy.

Maggie Knottenbelt passed the 1♠ opening, and Bell balanced with 2♥. Michael Byrne did his best by bidding his clubs, but Natalie Hoff advanced with 3♦. She then corrected to 4♥ when Bell tried his luck with 3NT.

Here, too, West led the ♦Q. The play was slightly different, as Bell cashed three rounds of trumps before unblocking the ♦J. Let’s first see what happened at the table before considering what anyone might have done differently. Bell now led the ♣J, and ran it when Byrne did not cover. He then played a second club, Byrne going up with the ace. When Byrne now exited with a club, declarer scored the ♣K and the ♦A, and that was ten tricks. N/S +620 and 10 IMPs to CROCKFORDS.

Did you notice the error made in the end position? When Byrne won the second round of clubs, declarer had no way to reach the two winners in dummy. By exiting with a third round of clubs, Byrne allowed declarer to score both the ♣K and the ♦A. Had he exited with a low spade, declarer would make the ♠K, but he would then be left with three spade losers in his hand.

So, could declarer have made the contract legitimately. After cashing the ♦J, and before playing even the first round of clubs, he must cash his last two trumps, forcing discards out of West. If West discards a spade, then declarer can play as he did. It would not then help West to exit with a spade around to declarer’s king, as he would have only two spade winners to take before then having to give dummy the ♣K. So, West has to pitch two clubs, coming down to ♠AQ9x and ♣A-Q. When declarer then leads the ♣J, what can North do? If he takes the ace, declarer will eventually score the ♣K-10 and ♦A in dummy. If he covers with the ♣Q, declarer cashes the ♦A and then exits with a club to the now-bare ace, forcing West to concede the tenth trick to the ♠K.

Mike Bell did not consider the South hand worthy of an upgrade, so he opened 1♦ and rebid an 11-14 1NT. Natalie Hoff understandably raised only to game. Bell won the spade lead in his hand and ran the ♦Q to East’s king. He won the spade continuation and, although he appears to have the rest once the diamonds break, he claimed 11 tricks. N/S +460, and a lost overtrick that could potential be costly in the BAM part of the scoring.

Ben Handley-Pritchard started with 1NT on the South cards. Tom Townsend asked for five-card Majors and, when there wasn’t one, he showed four hearts but not four spades. H-Pritchard had no fit, so he retreated to 3NT and Townsend raised to slam. That left Stefano Tommasini (left) with the opening lead problem posed at the top of this article.

With the diamond finesse losing for declarer, the defenders need to establish their second trick immediately. Tommasini’s opening lead of the ♣J did exactly that. Winning with the ♣A, H-Pritchard crossed to his hand in spades and ran the ♦J. Ben Norton won with the ♦K and cashed the ♣K for one down. N/S -50 and 11 IMPs to CROCKFORDS.

CROCKFORDS won the match 25-5 in IMPs and 36-14 in VPs. Two sizeable wins left CROCKFORDS with 78 VPs after two matches, which put them in second place behind DE BOTTON, who had amassed 84/100 from their opening encounters. Just behind, were IRELAND (73) and LONDON (71).

The VuGraph match from Round 3 was GILLIS v BLACK ADDERS. The West players had to decide whether to open on this deal…

Simon Gillis (right) chose not to open the West hand. He then found himself with five-card support for his partner’s suit, so he jumped to 4♣, showing shortage. When Erik Saelensminde could not cue-bid a spade control, Gillis knew there was no slam, so he gave up at the five-level.

There were two spade losers, but that was all. E/W +400.

Swedish star Peter Bertheau (left) opened 1♦ on the West cards. Rather than simply agreeing diamonds, Simon Hult allowed himself to be influenced by the BAM element in the scoring, so he started with a negative double of North’s 2♣ overcall in order to keep hearts alive. When Bertheau then freely volunteered hearts at the four-level, Hult had a decision to make. One option, and the obvious one IMHO), is to advance with a 5♣ cue-bid, which would presumably deny a spade control. When Hult chose Blackwood instead, the Swedes were in trouble. Bertheau admitted to two key cards, so Hult inevitably raised to the hopeless slam. E/W -50 and 10 IMPs to GILLIS.

A couple of boards later, South declared 4♠ on the same opening lead at both tables. The fate of the contract depended on the respective West players’ ability to solve a difficult defensive dilemma.

Simon Cope’s redouble was described as “a good hand, usually without three spades”. When Peter Crouch (right) rebid his spades, Cope was able to raise on his doubleton, and Crouch duly accepted the game invitation.

Bertheau led a club, East winning with the king and returning a club to declarer’s queen and dummy’s ace. The ♠10 was then run around to the king. How should West defend?

You can be fairly sure that your partner does not hold a singleton heart, or he would have switched to it at trick two. Opening the diamond suit is hardly attractive, and a club is known to be a ruff-and-discard. Bertheau not unreasonably cashed the ♥A and exited with a second heart to dummy’s king. Crouch pitched a diamond of the ♥K and then picked up East’s trumps via the maked finesse against the ♠J. He then cashed his remaining trumps. Left with both the high heart and the diamond length in front of dummy, the final trump squeezed the West hand into submission. N/S +620.

So, there is no winning defence… or, is there?

Andrew Black (left) declared 4♠ in the replay, and the first three tricks were identical. In with the ♠K, Simon Gillis answered the bell by playing a third round of clubs at trick four. This allowed Black to ruff in dummy and dispose of the losing heart from his hand. However, the defence had only swapped one winner for another – rather than making the ♥A, they were now sure to make a trick with the ♠J. Worse for declarer, he could no longer make his ninth trick with the ♥K. With only eight tricks, the count was not rectified, so there was no squeeze, and no way for declarer to get home. N/S -100 and 12 IMPs to GILLIS.

GILLIS won the match 30-13 in IMPs, and 35-15 in VPs.

With three matches played, there was already a considerable gap between the top four teams and the rest of the field. These were the scores:

We will be back soon with the best of the action from the next round of matches.