Adam 'Plum' Meredith was a British professional bridge player. His origin was in County Down

County Down

-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. He was a key member of the British team which won the Bermuda Bowl

Bermuda Bowl

The Bermuda Bowl is a trophy awarded to the winners of the Open series in the World Team Championship in contract bridge and is named for the site of the inaugural tournament held in 1950...

 in 1955. He won the European Championship in 1949 and 1954, and also played in 1955, 1957 and 1959. He won the Gold Cup five times, and the Master Pairs in 1960.

Life

Little is known of Plum's early life, except that he did have a good school education. As a man, he was fearlessly honest. Long before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 he was a convinced pacifist. Although unfit for military service

Military service

Military service, in its simplest sense, is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft . Some nations require a specific amount of military service from every citizen...

 in WWII, he declined to plead ill-health, and registered as a conscientious objector

Conscientious objector

A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....

: he felt it would not be honest to put secondary reasons forward. Instead, he was allocated work as an ambulance driver in London, and also an ARP

Air Raid Precautions

Air Raid Precautions was an organisation in the United Kingdom set up as an aid in the prelude to the Second World War dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air-raids. It was created in 1924 as a response to the fears about the growing threat from the development of bomber...

 warden during the blitz

The Blitz

The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...

. It did not last, because his ambulance section petitioned against the use of 'conchies' (conscientious objectors) and secured his dismissal to farm work: the worst possible outcome for an asthmatic.

The rest of his life is shrouded in some mystery, though one glimpse is given by his enthusiasm for ballet. When the Ballet Nègre

Katherine Dunham Company

The Katherine Dunham Company, a troupe of dancers, singers, actors and musicians, was the first African American modern dance company. It descended from Ballet Negre, a student troupe founded by Katherine Dunham, which later became the Negro Dance Troupe.The company had successful runs on Broadway...

 (a creation of Katherine Dunham

Katherine Dunham

Katherine Mary Dunham was an American dancer, choreographer, songwriter, author, educator, and activist...

) came to London he was one of its financial backers.

Unfortunately, the latter part of his life was limited by ill-health, some of which was self-inflicted. Plum was a severe and chronic asthmatic and also a diabetic. Whilst resident in Britain, he spent months each year in the south of France where the dry climate helped his lungs. Later resident in America, alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

 further reduced his vitality and shortened his life. He was always a charming man and a courteous opponent, and his death was widely mourned.

His bridge career

Meredith was a bridge professional: he played rubber bridge

Rubber bridge

Rubber bridge is a form of contract bridge and is played with four players. It is most often played for fun but is also played seriously for money...

 for a living. He was not a writer, journalist or teacher of bridge as so many other players were.

Plum was not only good-looking and intelligent, but had a highly original turn of mind. His personal honesty extended to his bridge career. He created a precedent when he withdrew from a British team on the grounds that a pair from a continental team were cheats. Others also thought so but had nevertheless played.

At bridge he liked to seize the initiative early in a match, some of his bidding manoevres (which often centred round the spade suit) became legendary. He was also a remarkable dummy player. He was a strong and regular rubber-bridge player, and when he could he used a bidding system called 'Baron', and co-authored its text-book The Baron System of Contract Bridge with Leo Baron.

Leo Baron brought new concepts to bidding, and was one of the first to apply the losing trick count

Losing-Trick Count

The Losing-Trick Count is an alternative, or supplement, in the card game contract bridge, to the high card point method of hand evaluation to be used in situations where shape and fit are of more significance than HCP in determining the optimum level of a suit contract - it should only be used...

, instead of honor tricks or the Milton Work

Milton Work

Milton Cooper Work was a noted American authority on whist, bridge whist, auction and contract bridge.- Work Point Count system :...

 point count. A 2S response to a 1NT opening asked for the shape of the hand. Baron extended the principles of the LTC by using the 2NT and 3NT bid to show a fit with a flat raise: 2NT = 6 losers or better, flat (typically a very good 14+); 3NT = 7 losers flat (typically an 11-16 HCP). The system put more emphasis on constructive bidding than did Acol

Acol

Acol is the bridge bidding system that, according to The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, is "standard in British tournament play and widely used in other parts of the world". It is named after the Acol Bridge Club, previously located on Acol Road in London NW6, where the system started to evolve...

, and extended the 'change of suit forcing' idea. This influenced the development of later versions of the Acol

Acol

Acol is the bridge bidding system that, according to The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, is "standard in British tournament play and widely used in other parts of the world". It is named after the Acol Bridge Club, previously located on Acol Road in London NW6, where the system started to evolve...

 system. Also, the system incorporated a one no-trump overcall as a weak distributional take-out bid.

Plum did not play the Baron system in the Bermuda Bowl victory. He was one of the four players who played CAB, the system favoured by Konstam

Kenneth Konstam

Kenneth W. Konstam , often known as 'Konnie', was an English international bridge player, and in 1955 was one of the only British team to win the Bermuda Bowl. He won more European Open teams championships than any other British player.Konstam, educated at Oundle School, was employed for a time in...

, Dodds

Leslie Dodds

Leslie William Dodds was an English international bridge player and, by profession, an import-export merchant. He was a member of the British team which won the Bermuda Bowl in 1955...

 and Pavlides

Jordanis Pavlides

Jordanis T. Pavlides was a British contract bridge player who won the British Bridge League Master Pairs in 1948, the Gold Cup in 1949, the European championship in 1954, and the Bermuda Bowl in 1955. He also represented Britain in the European championships of 1955...

. Meredith was also quite au fait with Acol

Acol

Acol is the bridge bidding system that, according to The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, is "standard in British tournament play and widely used in other parts of the world". It is named after the Acol Bridge Club, previously located on Acol Road in London NW6, where the system started to evolve...

.

Opinions of Reese and Schapiro

In 1951 Boris Schapiro

Boris Schapiro

Boris Schapiro was a British international bridge player. He was a Grandmaster of the World Bridge Federation, and the only player to have won both the Bermuda Bowl and the World Senior Pairs championship...

 gave his opinion of Plum in a bridge magazine article:

"At times rightly described as a genius, definitely the best player of difficult hands in the country, very good bidder (when not indulging in some particular idiocy), superb dummy player and defender. Concentration medium, easy to play against, mainly owing to slowness."

In his obituary of Plum, Terence Reese

Terence Reese

John Terence Reese was a British bridge player and writer, regarded as one of the finest of all time in both fields...

said

"When I first played at Lederer's in the mid-1930s, Meredith was a handsome youth of 22, though he looked about 17... He was a marvellous player and did as much as anyone else to win the 1955 world championship match... He spent his last fifteen years or so in America, having formed a friendship with Ruth Sherman, [who] left him well provided for... It was not, perhaps, a satisfactory life for so brilliant and charming a person; but certainly it possessed colour, warmth and humour"