Camrose Trophy

The Camrose Trophy or "The Camrose" is an annual bridge competition among open teams representing the home nations of Great Britain and Ireland: England (EBU), Northern Ireland (NIBU), Republic of Ireland (CBAI), Scotland (SBU) and Wales (WBU). As such it is the open teams-of-four component of the "Home Internationals" organised by Bridge Great Britain.

Lord Camrose, owner of The Daily Telegraph, donated the trophy in 1936 and it was first contested in 1937. The original trophy has been lost and replaced. Because of World War II the series was interrupted mid-way in 1939 and not resumed until 1946, yet the Camrose is the world's most-played international bridge series.

Beside "The Camrose" (Open flight), the Home Bridge Internationals include annual series for Women from 1950, Juniors from 1971, Under-19 from 1990, and Seniors from 2008.

Since 2007 there have been six rather than five teams in the competition, to avoid having one team sit out each round. From 2007 to 2009 the sixth team was the defending champion, so there were two teams from the previous year's winning nation. England's second team won in 2009, when it was the final-round host by coincidence. Since then by design the sixth team is a second team from the final-round host nation, which follows a five-year cycle from Northern Ireland in 2010 to England in 2014. That second representative is named for the national bridge federation; thus "Wales" and "Welsh Bridge Union" both entered in 2011.

Since 2005 a double round-robin is scheduled on two weekends. With six teams, each weekend comprises five rounds of three head-to-head matches, a single round-robin. A match is now 32 deals scored at IMPs and converted to victory points (VP). So every team plays 320 deals in the entire event, 64 against each of its rivals. Before 2005, the teams played head-to-head matches over five weekends.

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