This is our second visit to the first weekend of the Camrose Trophy. This annual event is contested 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. 

These were the standings after the first three matches:

As usual, we start with some problems. Firstly, with neither side vulnerable, you are South holding this monster:

What action do you take?

Next, with only your side vulnerable, you are sitting in the West with:

What action do you take?

If you overcall 2♣, it goes 2♦-Pass-Pass back to you. Now what?

If you start with a double, it goes 1NT-4♠-Pass back to you. Now what?

Finally, with both sides vulnerable, you hold in the South seat:

What action do you take?

While you mull those over, we start our coverage of Sunday’s play with the always much anticipated meeting of “The Auld Enemy”, ENGLAND against SCOTLAND. We start with what looks like it should be a fairly easy grand slam for the N/S pairs. Both South players had to answer the first of the ‘problems’ posed above…

When this deal appeared on the screen, the most interesting question seemed to be how many of the E/W pairs would find the cheap (-500) save in 7♠. (The answer, BTW, was none, although more of that later.)

I will say that it was still very early on Sunday morning, and perhaps the boyos had partaken of a wee dram too much of the local produce after play finished the previous evening. Whatever the reason, auctions on this deal should carry an X-rated warning.

I hesitated to pose this as a problem, as it seems inconceivable to me that someone would start with anything but a double of East’s 1♠ opening. I’ve seen some bad bids in my time (and made plenty too), but the Scottish South’s effort on this deal is surely right up there. If you were just going to guess the contract, would you not at least try 6♥? 4♥ on this mountain seems feeble in the extreme (and he was not the only one to make that bid either).

Graham Osborne was perhaps still filled with seasonal good cheer to all men, and he offered the Scots a second chance by reopening when South’s 4♥ was passed around to him. Unbelievably, perhaps 4♥ is not even the worst bid in the auction – South’s pass when partner has freely competed to the five-level seems to me to be on a different planet. Anyone for backgammon? N/S +510.

In the replay the English pair also managed to get their knickers in a twist…

Derek Patterson did at least manage to start with the obvious double. Iain Sime advanced with a 2♣ transfer, showing diamonds, which was doubled by Chris Jagger. Derek Diamond jumped to 3♦ and Patterson still had no sensible way to describe his hand, so he continued with a cue-bid. Sime continued to 4♠ on the West cards, and two passes then left South with a very difficult problem. Patterson’s solution was a jump to 5NT (pick a slam), but did he really expect his partner to choose hearts? It is hard to imagine holding a two-loser hand with an eight-card suit and never bidding it.  When Patterson passed his partner’s 6♣, that is exactly what had happened. N/S +940 and a rather embarrassing 10 IMPs to ENGLAND.

Perhaps this combination is not as easy as it first looked, as only one of the six N/S pairs managed to get to the top spot, and even they only did so with considerable help from their friends…

For the EBU team, Tom Townsend had the chance to defend 5♥. Having saved at the five-level and at the six-level, should one of the Englishmen then save again after the Irish have stumbled into a grand slam? Very difficult, and perhaps a tad embarrassing too.

Another strange thing about this auction is a combination of decisions by Tom Hanlon. Is it consistent not to raise 6♥ but then to bid the grand slam after partner has made what is presumably a discouraging double of the opponents’ six-level sacrifice? I would certainly applaud the 7♥ bid if South had made an encouraging pass of 6♠ (as he presumably should with first round control of all four suits). Perhaps there is something about the Irish system that is not apparent to this lowly scribe, although perhaps if they had reached the top spot via any more confident sounding route, they would have pushed their opponents into the cheap sacrifice. You cannot argue with success: N/S +1510 and 14 IMPs to IRELAND when the EBU N/S pair played 4♥+3 at the other table.

We stay with the IRELAND v EBU match, which produced an action-packed second half.

Ben Handley-Pritchard (left) opened 1♦on the South hand, which set Mark Moran the second of this week’s problems. I confess that I am a disciple of the late Eric Kokish’s School of Overcalls, so I prefer to bid 2♣ with this West hand. Not that it is obvious what to do if North’s raise to 2♦ comes back around. (Should East bid 2♠ over 2♦ on that hand? Probably.)

Mark Moran preferred to start with a double. North advanced with 1NT and John Carroll’s jump to 4♠ then left Moran with his second problem on the deal. Moran decided to correct to clubs, which was the losing option opposite this dummy.

The defence began with a diamond to the queen and ace, so Moran cashed the ♠A and ruffed a diamond. He then ruffed a spade to hand, cashed the ♣A-K and exited with a heart. Had the defenders cashed their trump winner and two top hearts, then forced declarer with the ♠K, Moran would have ended up losing two diamonds at the end. The defence saved him that ignominy by playing a diamond, thus letting him out for two down. E/W -200 was good enough for the English.

For the Irish, David Walsh opened with a weak no-trump. Michael Byrne (right) doubled for penalties and Ciaran Coyne redoubled as the start of some sort of rescue manoeuvre. When Kieran Dyke jumped to 4♠ in this auction, it was not with any expectation of trump support opposite, so Byrne had a much easier pass at this table.

There was no defence to 4♠, declarer losing just two hearts and the ♠K. E/W +620 and 13 IMPs to EBU, who just eked out a 4-IMP win from a exciting shootout that finished 87-83.

In the other two matches in this round, ENGLAND defeated SCOTLAND 87-57 and WALES won 84-69 against NORTHERN IRELAND. After four matches, these were the standings:

The final match of this first weekend pitted together the two teams who have dominated this event over the past two decades, ENGLAND and IRELAND. The Irish were looking for a big win to close the gap and drag themselves back into serious contention. After two boards, England had jumped into a 20-0 lead, but the Irish dominated the scoring on the remaining 30 deals.

The English pre-emptive bidding cramped Conor Boland (left) for space and left him with little option other than 3NT. That was good news for the Irish as 3NT was an excellent spot. John Atthey cashed a high spade and then switched to his club. Neil Rosen won with the ♣A and switched back to spades, but declarer had just enough to stop the suit. Atthey could take two more spade winners before he had to surrender the lead. Declarer had plenty of winners: N/S +600.

By contrast to the other table, the Irish E/W had bid only to 1♠ when Derek Patterson (right) got to bid for a second time, in the position posed in the last of this week’s problems. Of course, he might have simply jumped to 3NT at this point which, as it happens, would have been a winning action. However, Patterson settled for showing a good hand with a double of 1♠. When Chris Jagger then jumped to 3♦ at his third turn, Patterson knew his partner was very short in spades, so he effectively headed for the minor-suit game.

Ciaran Coyne led the ♦6 and, whilst the minor-suit game can be made on this deal, the play is much trickier than it is in 3NT. Patterson won the opening lead in dummy with the ♦A and led a club towards his king. David Walsh rose with the ♣A and continued with a second round of trumps.

There are two ways to make the contract from here. The most straightforward option is to ruff a spade, return to the ♥K, draw the last trump, and pitch two spades on dummy’s heart winners. Declarer then loses one spade at the end. Patterson took the alternative line of playing the ♣K at trick four. If West ruffs that, then declarer can subsequently use a spade ruff and two heart entries to dummy to establish two club winners for spade discards. At the table, West did not ruff. Now declarer has to ruff a spade. When Patterson instead cashed his heart winners, he effectively set up a trump promotion for West’s ♦J and thus he finished one down. N/S -100 and 12 IMPs to IRELAND.

This was the final deal of the first half of the match.

Atthey showed three-card heart support and a maximum with his Drury 2♣ response. Can you blame Neil Rosen (left) for not showing any interest in game facing a passed hand?

Conor Boland found the excellent opening of the ♠6. Rosen rose with the ♠A and immediately took a diamond finesse. Two rounds of trumps now left declarer scrambling for tricks. A club to the ace, a diamond to the ace and a club ruff, brought Rosen’s tally to eight. E/W +110.

The stakes in the play were much higher at the other table.

Ciaran Coyne started with a wafer-thin 1♠ opening on the West hand and, apparently still having values to spare, he then jumped to game at his second turn.

Patterson had no reason not to lead his partner’s suit. Winning with the ♣A, David Walsh (right) can make the contract by playing a trump at trick two. If South wins with the ♥A and plays a second trump, declarer sets spades up for two minor-suit discards. If South does anything else, declarer has the entries to take two club ruffs in dummy and he can then guess the trumps to lose just one heart, one spade and one diamond. When, instead, Walsh took a losing diamond finesse at trick two, the defenders were in with a chance.

If Patterson can find a spade switch after winning with the ♦K, declarer has no winning option. If he rises with the ♠A, he will have two spade losers to go with one in each red suit. If he plays low on the first spade, North wins with the ♠K and returns a spade. When South regains the lead with the ♥A, he can then give his partner a spade ruff.

Patterson won with the ♦K and played the ♥A and a second trump. Now declarer had the time and entries to make four spade tricks to go with four trumps and two aces. A superb E/W +620 and 11 IMPs to IRELAND.

The Irish finished on a high, winning the match 102-42 to haul themselves right back into contention. In the other matches in this round, WALES defeated SCOTLAND 89-55 and EBU saw off NORTHERN IRELAND 83-46 to give them a healthy lead at the midway point of the event.

These are the standings at the end of the first weekend:

ENGLAND have plenty of work to do if they are to retain the trophy. Not only do they have a 10-VP deficit to close on the second English team, but they also have the Irish breathing down their necks.

With the holiday season over, we are now heading off to the Australian Summer Festival in Canberra. On the way, we will stop in Jabalpur in central India to bring you the best of the action from the Gold Teams at the National Winter Championships.