The Men’s and Ladies’ Championship Pairs concluded at the Bridge Club last Friday and when the smoke had cleared, Gertie Barker and Jane Smith had a steady second session which saw them narrowly hold on to their first session lead.

In the Men’s Pairs Alan Douglas and Eddie Kyme held on to enough of their wide lead after session one to make it three wins in a row in this event, quite a record.

The 14 pair ladies event was always going to be exciting after the close first session and with the leaders not able to replicate their excellent first session the doorway open for the chasing pack. Jean Johnson and Dorry Lusher had another solid session to finish a narrow three match points back in second and Diana Diel and Lynn O’Neill hauled themselves into third place a further two match points behind with a 62 per cent second session.

Finishing in fourth were Ruby Douglas and Marilynn Simmons.

In the seven pair Men’s event Douglas-Kyme had a healthy ten per cent lead after session one but it got quite interesting with Mike Viotti and George Correia having a 63 per cent game to win the second session and finish in joint second with David Sykes and Tony Saunders. This is an excellent showing by Viotti-Correia to be sandwiched between two such experienced pairs.

Congratulations to both sets of winners who between them have won many previous events at the club and at the Regional — the Ladies’ event was by far the more competitive but even in a small field in order to win you have to beat some other good pairs at the top, so well done to both pairs.

Next up is the Junior Open Pairs which will conclude next Tuesday so full results next week. Bridge can sometimes be a very cruel game and this hand from the European Championships is a perfect illustration.

North/South Vulnerable Dealer South

S KJ5

H A

D 754

C AQ8654

S A4

H Q64

D AQ6

C KJ1032

North South for the Netherlands bid and played the hand in picture-perfect fashion; South opened a Club, West pre-empted with 2 Hearts and N/S then bid perfectly to 6 Clubs.

West led a Heart, won in dummy and Simon de Wifs went about making the hand no matter how the cards lay — remember this was Teams so making the contract was paramount and overtricks were not important.

He drew trumps, ruffed a Heart, played Ace-King and ruffed a Spade and came down to this position.

S NONE

H NONE

D 754

C Q86

S NONE

H Q

D AQ6

C JI0

He now played the Heart Queen and when West played the King he didn’t ruff but discarded a Diamond. West was now end played into leading a Diamond or playing another Heart and providing a ruff and discard — brilliant stuff.

Alas, the story did not have a happy ending.

In the other room after the Israeli N/S also got to 6 Clubs the Dutch East decided to sacrifice in six Hearts — this went round to North who decided to take the plunge and bid an undisciplined 7 Clubs !

The full deal

NORTH

S KJ5

H A

D 754

C AQ8654

EAST

S 109876

H 1075

D K1079

C 97

SOUTH

S A4

H Q64

D AQ6

C KH1032

WEST

Q 32

H KJ9832

D J832

C NONE

This spelt disaster for the Dutch — with both the Diamond and Spade finesses working the grand slam rolled in for a big gain to Israel — a cruel game indeed.