Author: lederertrophy

Periculo take an early lead after a good win over Dyson. De Botton second, Gillis third.

Match 1 scores in detail

Play has started at this year’s competition! On BBO currently Ireland (Holders) v Black Adders and de Botton v Intercontinentals.

It couldn’t have been much closer but in the end de Botton’s great last set left them 1VP behind Ireland. Well done to them and thanks for giving us such an exciting finish to the event.

Team de Botton’s Nicolai Heiberg-Evenstad (the youngest player in the tournament) and Thor-Erik Hoftaniska came top of the Butlers. Very well done. (See the cumulative Butlers)

Team de Botton needed a big win on the last match against Ireland and they came out swinging on the first board of the set.

South (Team de Botton’s Nicolai Heiberg-Evenstad) didn’t open his hand. Instead North (Thor-Erik Hoftaniska) started with 1C. East (Adam Mesbur) bid 2D which showed both majors and the auction continued as shown below to 6C.

At the other table the Ireland South opened a weak 2D and they stopped in 5C for a swing to de Botton.

2 other pairs reached 6C on this hand: Patrick & Oliver Lawrence and Dennis Bilde & Zia. Well done to them.

Team Ireland did lots of great stuff or they wouldn’t have won! Here’s an example from board 23 in match 8 against Black Adders. Ireland pair Tom Hanlon and Frederic Volcker were the only ones in the field to reach the good 6C despite the opponents’ (David Gold and Andrew Black) good efforts to keep them out.

A big bridge event takes a fair bit of organising and a lot of people worked hard to make things run smoothly. Here are some of the helpers from 2024. Thanks also to Paul Barden (Vugraph room commentary and BBO), Richard Creamer (BBO) and Gitte Hecht-Johansen (BBO). And to the wonderful staff at the RAC.

The team led the field from the third match onward. There was a very exciting last set where de Botton came back to within 1VP of the leaders but in the end Ireland prevailed to win the 2024 title. The Irish team are great supporters of the Lederer and have four previous wins, most recently in 2009. This is the fourth time John Carroll has won the event – the most victories of any of the Irish team. Congratulations to you all.

Team de Botton had a great last match against the leaders but in the end Ireland hung on for the win. More anon but well done all.

Match 9 scores in detail

Ireland versus de Botton will decide the tournament. They’re on BBO now!

Did you know that an 8410 hand is called an albatross? I didn’t until Paul Barden, commentating in the Vugraph room, used the name for just such a hand on board 8 of match 6. (It’s a coining of Jeremy Flint’s from Back In The Day it seems – see this NYT article for details.)

At the table we were watching Mike Scoltock (London) opened 4 clubs with his albatross. North (Nick Fitzgibbon) doubled and south (Adam Mesbur) bid 4 hearts to end the auction. Ace of clubs led and club follow-up. Declarer ruffs, plays two rounds of trumps and tries the queen of spades. It’s very hard but E needs to hop up immediately with the ace of spades. Sadly for the defence, East ducked the ace of spades which went away and the contract is now cold. At the other table EW took the insurance and played in 5CX-1 for a swing to Ireland.