Ten invited all-star teams congregated at the RAC Club in London to contest the 2024 Lederer Memorial Trophy. 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.

The previous article left things after three matches had been completed. These were the standings:

The top four had already opened a sizeable gap between them and the rest of the field.

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

What action, if any, do you take?

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

How high do you plan to bid?

While you consider those, we start in Round 4 with a match between IRELAND and HARRIS. Early in the encounter, both West players heard the auction shown in the first of the problems above.

Nick Fitzgibbon (left) is one of Ireland’s most experience international players, having made his debut in the national team more than 50 years ago, at the 1972 World Team Olympiad. Two years after that debut, he was a member of the Ireland team that won silver medals in the Junior Teams at the European Youth Championships. In the European Championships, he has collected a bronze medal in 1979 and a silver in 2006. Playing with his long-time partner, Adam Mesbur, he won gold in the 2013 European Senior Pairs.

On this deal, Fitzgibbon competed with 2♠, which had the effect of taking some steam out of Steve Root’s raise to 3♦. Root would have made an invitational raise had North passed, but now it just sounded competitive. Jonathan Harris saw no reason to hang his partner for competing, so he let matters rest. Declarer lost just two hearts and one spade: E/W +130.

After an identical auction, honorary Irishman and French star Frederick Volcker (right) decided that he had enough to take a shot at game. No doubt encouraged by his heart holding, sitting over dummy’s suit, Zia doubled on the way out, but declarer had nine top winners on any defence. E/W +750 and 12 IMPs to IRELAND.

Towards the end of the match, the South players had to judge how high to bid on the second of this week’s problems.

For the Irish, Adam Mesbur (left) decided that his hand was worth an invitational raise to 4NT. With little to spare for his opening bid, Fitzgibbon had an easy pass.

Root led a spade. Harris won with the ♠K and switched to a club. Capturing the ♣J with dummy’s queen, Fitzgibbon successfully played a spade to the nine. He now had seven tricks in the black suits, plus a pair of A-Ks in the reds, so it was a guess which red-suit finesse to take for the second overtrick. With no pressure, Fitzgibbon guessed diamonds: N/S +690.

After the same start, Zia moved forward with a game-forcing 2♦, checking on the possibility of a 4-4 spade fit. That failed to materialize, but he did find out that his partner held three-card heart support. Perhaps that tipped the balance in Zia’s decision to raise to slam on the South hand.

Here, too, East led a spade to his partner’s king. Volcker’s spade return gave Dennis Bilde (right) nothing. With only six tricks in the black suits, declarer needed quite a lot to go right. It appeared that declarer would need at least three heart tricks, so Bilde played a heart to the jack fairly early in proceedings. When that finesse failed, he was one down. N/S -100 and another 13 IMPs to IRELAND.

IRELAND dominated the IMPs aspect of the match 47-6, which resulted in a 44-6 VP win. With CROCKFORDS losing 23-27 against EDMONDS and DE BOTTON tying 25-25 with GILLIS, IRELAND moved into first place with a 19-VP advantage over second place.

On VuGraph for the last match of Saturday’s play it was the teams lying third and fourth facing off head-to-head, LONDON against DE BOTTON. Both needed a big win to keep in touch with the leaders. This deal looked like a potential banana skin, and it did not disappoint.

Sally Brock showed an invitational or better three-card heart raise with her 2♠ cue-bid. Barry Myers (left) chose to jump to game, ending the brief auction. South had three top winners to cash, but that was it for the defence. E/W +620.

After the same start, Janet de Botton (right) thought her hand was too good to just bid game, so she began with 3♦, which may have been only a game try. Artur Malinowski’s jump to game then encouraged De Botton to think there may be higher things available. Malinowski’s response to Blackwood disavowed that notion, but it was already too late.

Richard Fedrick was not hard-pressed to defeat 5♥. It was unlucky to find West with 11 HCPs, 8 of which were completely worthless: E/W -100 and 12 IMPs to LONDON.

Ambitious bidding cost a swing on that deal but, a few boards later, the same pair were at it again…

Barry Myers made a pre-emptive jump to the three-level after North’s double of his partner’s 1♥ opening. Sally Brock had no interest in game, and rightly so, it would appear. Nine tricks were made: E/W +140.

Artur Malinowski (left) tends to add a trick or two for his outstanding card play, often justifiably so. After the same start, Janet de Botton raised only to the two-level, but that didn’t mean Malinowski was ready to give up on the chance of a vulnerable game bonus.

David Burn started by cashing his side-suit ace-king and exiting safely with a third round of spades. When Malinowski advanced the ♥Q at trick four, Burn was well aware of the potential danger of being left with a singleton ace of trumps, particularly looking at minor-suit holdings that he would not want to be endplayed to lead away from. So, he rose with the ♥A and was no doubt dismayed to see his partner follow forlornly with the king. Burn exited safely with a second trump, but Malinowski had already been given all the help he needed.  He cashed two high clubs, noting the fall of North’s queen, and promptly led the ♣10 for a ruffing finesse against the jack. Away went declarer’s losing diamond, and the Polish wizard had produced another magical result for his team. E/W +620 and 10 IMPS to DE BOTTON.

DE BOTTON won the IMP aspect of the scoring 24-19, which translated to 32-18 in VPs. Elsewhere, CROCKFORDS defeated IRELAND 36-14, so they not only widened the gap to the chasing teams but edged in front of the Irish too.

With five matches played, these were the overnight standings:

We will be back soon with the best of the action from the second day’s play.