Camrose Trophy – 1st Weekend, 6th – 8th January 2017
Source: Planet Bridge By Paul Gibson
This weekend was the first of the Camrose Trophy and saw an intense competition between the open teams of England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. As host of the second weekend in March, Scotland sent two teams to Coventry, the second being known as the SBU team, and everyone played a 32-board match against the others.
England have dominated the Camrose Trophy recently, winning four of the last five.
England was represented by: Alexander Allfrey & Andrew Robson; Tony Forrester & David Bakhshi; Mike Bell & David Gold; with NPC: Martin Jones.
The Scotland team was Alex Adamson & Mike McGinley, Paul Barton & Jun Nakamaru-Pinder, and Sandy Duncan & Jim Hay with Mike Ash as NPC.
The SBU team was Sam Punch & Stephen Peterkin, Iain Sime & John Matheson, and Frazer Morgan & Phil Stephens with Anne Symons as NPC.
All the matches were covered on BBO Vugraph.
January 08, 2017
I suspect most Scottish supporters spent the weekend watching BBO vugraph in ‘Doctor Who mode’ as the horror show unveiled. Realistically it was not much better for the English supporters, who expected their team to run riot and finish the weekend with an unassailable lead. The final table reads:
| Rank | Team | VP |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ireland | 76.52 |
| 2 | England | 73.80 |
| 3 | Wales | 53.48 |
| 4 | SBU | 40.98 |
| 5 | Northern Ireland | 32.95 |
| 6 | Scotland | 20.27 |
Scotland started well by beating the SBU team, but then disintegrated for the rest of the weekend. The SBU team were demolished by England but then had an excellent win against Ireland and should have beaten Wales in the final match to finish above them.
I’m glad I’m not a Scottish selector because it seems clear that changes are needed but it is not as if there are plenty of alternatives ready and waiting to come in. Only Ash-Bayer, who were unavailable this weekend, look certain to come into the Scotland team and arguments could made to drop all three pairs! Typically the selectors do not make such wholesale changes, mainly due to lack of options, so perhaps just a single change.
For the SBU team, I expect they’ll keep the two most experienced partnerships. Although they both had their ups and downs, at least they looked competitive most of the time. The third pair looked under-prepared and did not fill viewers with confidence; I suspect this will be more fatal to their chances of playing the next weekend than their butler score.
The England team had two poor matches, failing to comprehensively beat Northern Ireland and then losing the decisive final match to Ireland. They’ve left the Hinden team much to do in Edinburgh in March.
The full results are available on the EBU website.
Hopefully the SBU will put on a better vugraph show in Edinburgh. Only four tables were available most of this weekend and, occasionally, just three. I suspect this was a new venue and the internet coverage poorly understood; and I was told that they did not have enough operators on the Friday evening. The Edinburgh venue has been used often and there is already a standby list of operators.
Paul Gibson
This is what you can read in the EBU webpage:
England 2nd after first weekend of Camrose Trophy
England are in second place after the first weekend of the Camrose Trophy. As host for the weekend, England put homefield advantage to good effect, picking up big wins in the first three matches. A come from behind victory in the fourth match set up a match versus Ireland with top spot at stake. The Irish got off to a strong start, but England kept the deficit small, so Ireland will travel to Scotland in March for second weekend with a narrow lead. Wales are in third, just over 20 VPs back.
England were represented by: Alexander Allfrey & Andrew Robson; Tony Forrester & David Bakhshi; Mike Bell & David Gold; NPC: Martin Jones
Martin contributed a few small articles to our blog, which is available here.
The competition concludes in Scotland on 3rd – 5th March. The team for the second weekend is:Frances Hinden & Graham Osborne, Jeffrey Allerton & Chris Jagger, Neil Rosen & Martin Jones, NPC: David Burn; and they will be seeking to retain the trophy which England won emphatically in 2016.