Officially the English Teams of Four Championship, Crockfords Cup is one of the oldest of all bridge competitions. The list of early winners reads like a Who’s Who of English bridge, with such luminaries as Maurice Harrison-Gray, S.J. ‘Skid’ Simon, Jack Marx, Nico Gardner, Adam ‘Plum Meredith, Alex Rose, Terrence Reese, Boris Shapiro, Victor Mollo and the Sharples brothers all winning the magnificent trophy in the 1940s.

The format of the event is a straight knockout that begins with around 100-120 teams in the winter months. After four rounds of knockout matches, eight teams survive to contest the final. The final, traditionally now played in Coventry in central England, is a complete round robin of seven 16-board matches, each divided into two 8-board sets.

The seeding committee seemed to have done a good job this year, with seven of the eight teams originally seeded making it to the final. The exception was my own team, so we travelled north aware of the possibility that we would get our butts kicked regualrly. Playing in an event on which I am reporting is a rarity for me but, as we shall see later, it does at least allow me to provide readers with a truly honest assessment of at least some of the quality of play on view.

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with both sides vulnerable, you are North holding:

What action, if any, do you take?

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

What action, if any, do you take?

Finally, with only your side vulnerable you hold as North:

What action, if any, do you take?

While you consider those, we start our coverage with the Round 1 meeting between two of the bookies’ favourites, MOSSOP and HINDEN. This early deal demonstrates that the sabre can be more effective than the epee.

Justin Hackett (left) advanced with a natural, forcing 2♦ after Frances Hinden’s 1♥ overcall. When his brother showed a heart stopper and a limited hand, Justin raised to game. Jason had no problem making ten tricks: N/S +630.

After the same start, John Atthey (right) showed his diamonds via a 2♣ transfer, and Neil Rosen showed his minimum opening by simply completing the transfer. Gunnar Hallberg doubled to get his spades into the auction and Atthey showed invitational values with a six-card diamond suit. Rosen had fitting diamond cards, but he needed the suit to be running for 3NT to be an attractive proposition. With no guarantee that was the case, Rosen passed and the good game was missed. N/S +130 and 11 IMPs to MOSSOP. 

A similar boot was on the other foot on this deal from the second half of the encounter.

Playing transfers, Graham Osbourne (left) responded 1♠ showing diamonds. Hinden’s 2NT rebid then showed 18-19 balanced and Osbourne raised to game.

Brazilian star Diego Brenner led the ♠6 around to declarer’s queen, so Hinden was soon claiming nine tricks. N/S +600.

In the replay, John Atthey’s featherweight 1♠ overcall completely changed the momentum of the auction. Rosen showed an invitational or better three-card spade raise with a 2♣ cue-bid, and Jason’s 3♣ bid then left Justin with the first of the problems posed above.

I don’t know if South had a Good/Bad 2NT available to differentiate between a competitive 3♣ rebid and this good hand. If not, then North seems to have a clear pass. Even if Justin can expect something like this South hand opposite, is that North hand good enough to justify bidding on? Justin decided not: N/S +130 and 10 IMPs to HINDEN.

HINDEN won the second stanza 13-0 and the match 35-15 for a 14-6 VP win. The Round 2 VuGraph match was DE BOTTON v WIGHTWICK. This match featured two players who are currently in the Top 20 of the BBO Bidding Challenge annual competition, Julian Wightwick and Jon Cooke.

DE BOTTON led 8-0 after a low-scoring first half. Both sides had chances to gain on this early deal from the second half.

After a natural start to the auction, Paul Barden intervened with a jump to 3♥ on the East cards. David Bakhshi judged to reopen with a double on the North hand and Tom Townsend had no reason to consider bidding anything other than 3♠.

The defenders can take two top hearts but, with the favourable position in both black suits, after that they can get no more than the ♠A. N/S +170. Could N/S reach the ultra-thin game at the other table?

Julian Wightwick started with a weak (12-14) 1NT on the South cards. After an ultra-aggressive, natural 2♦ overcall by Artur Malinowski, Ian Pagan settled for a non-invitational 2♠ on the North hand. When Janet de Botton joined in with 3♥, two passes then left Pagan with the second of this week’s problems.

Pass and Double both look like options, but Pagan decided to introduce his second suit, 4♣. With 3-3 in the black suits, Wightwick’s pass looks like a strange action. After all, if you are going to have to try to make ten tricks, it might as well be in game.

As we have seen already, the defence cannot defeat 4♠, so Malinowski’s double of 4♣ was certainly playing with fire with little upside (an extra 50?) He presumably intended to hit 4♠ too if the opponents ran. Wightwick decided to sit it out and produce dummy, which left Janet de Botton (right) to find the winning defence against 4♣-Doubled.

De Botton began with two top hearts and then accurately continued with a third round of the suit, giving declarer an unwanted ruff-and-discard. The effect of De Botton’s excellent defence was to promote a trump trick for her partner’s K-9-x. If declarer ruffed in dummy, West can discard. He will then have a trump winner by force by covering when declarer leads one of the remaining trump honours from dummy. When declarer instead discarded from dummy, West can simply ruff with the ♣9, forcing declarer to overruff with the ace, thus ensuring a trick for the ♣K.

Inexplicably, Malinowski discarded the ♠9 rather than ruffing, allowing declarer to win the trick with a low trump. Pagan was then able to force entry to dummy in spades, allowing him to pick up West’s trumps. When East’s ♠Q came down under the king, Pagan had ten tricks. A spectacular N/S +510 and 8 IMPs to WIGHTWICK.

As we have seen often enough before, it is rarely right for a team to declarer in the same suit at both tables. Our final deal for this visit to Coventry did not buck that trend.

Julian Wightwick (left) opened 1♥ and Malinowski’s 1♠ overcall left Ian Pagan with the last of this week’s problems. Of course, passing and playing for penalties is an option. However, if your side can make game, you will need to hold declarer to three tricks to show a profit defending. Would you choose to play game in a 5-1 spade fit knowing that one opponent held at least five trumps? Of course not, and yet that is effectively what you are doing if you choose to defend 1♠-Doubled.

Playing five-card majors, I think a 2♠ cue-bid is probably the right action on this North hand, which will lead you easily to the good 4♥. It is trickier playing four-card Majors, as Pagan was. At my table (also playing four-card majors), I bid 1NT after the 1♠ overcall, then jumped to 3♥ when my partner advanced with 2♦. Again, reaching 4♥ was easy.

Having played for penalties, the opponents managed to escape into a contract that neither player could double. That left Pagan with another problem after his partner’s 2♦. Surely, Wightwick had shown at least 5-4 in the red suits now, so does 3♥ not look like a reasonable option? Pagan’s 2♠ bid ended the auction.

After the opening club lead, declarer could have cashed the second club winner and forced entry to his hand in diamonds to score a club ruff, which would have given him ten tricks. Instead, he took a trump finesse at trick two, so the defenders managed to make four tricks. N/S +140.

Timing is everything, and I confess that I would probably have been caught as Jon Cooke was had I held the West cards on this board. There was never any question that David Bakhshi would do anything other than defend after Cooke’s 2♠ jump overcall.

A minor-suit lead would hold declarer to just three tricks for a four-figure penalty. However, Bakhshi had no reason not to lead his partner’s suit, so Cooke was able to escape ‘only’ four down. N/S +800 and 12 IMPs to DE BOTTON.

DE BOTTON just edged the second half 18-16 and thus won the match 26-16, 13-7 in VPs.

After two matches, these were the early standings:

The defending champions had edged into a narrow lead, but there was still plenty of bridge yet to be played. We will be back soon with the highlights from the remaining Saturday matches.