The Ernie Owen Individual was held last Friday with a good turnout of 32 players and the winner, after sitting opposite 24 different partners for one hand each, was Richard Gray with 61 per cent. Not far behind was George Correia on 60.4 per cent followed closely in third by Marge Way on 59.52 per cent.

Judy King and Pat Hayward were tied for fourth on 57.74 per cent and Michael Antar in sixth on 57.14 per cent.

Individual tournaments are tough to win as you not only need to play well but also get the best out of your partner and that last bit is not always easy.

So, a big well done to Richard and to all the others in the frame for what was a really close contest!

Every year when this event is held it brings back sadness at the loss of Ernie at such a young age, but also allows us to remember him as a great friend and strong supporter of Bridge in Bermuda.

Before I get to the hand some news that The Bermuda Bowl World Championships just ended in Chennai, India and Poland emerged victorious over Sweden in the Bermuda Bowl Final and in the Ladies Event the Venice Cup went to France who finished ahead of USA2. The D’Orsi Senior Championships had some good friends on the winning team including Bob Hamman and Zia Mahmood — I watched a lot of their play on VuGraph on BBO and Zia and Michael Rosenberg were particularly impressive.

This hand came up in a teams game recently and declarer was good enough to see the right play and make a play that could fall in the category of a Morton’s Fork (the bridge version of Hobson’s Choice!).

Dealer West, E/W Vulnerable

North

S 76

H AQ74

D 98765

C J6

West

S K5

H J1063

D KQJ10

C A85

East

S 4

H K982

D 432

C K10942

South

S AQJ109832

H 5

D A

C Q73

West opened a Diamond, East bid a Heart and South ended the bidding by bidding four Spades.

West must have been tempted to double, but didn’t!

West led the King of Diamonds to declarer’s bare Ace. Declarer could count seven trumps and the two red Aces as certain tricks.

Unless the King of trumps was singleton, the tenth trick would have to come from the Club suit. A low Club from hand would succeed if West had the Ace and King of Clubs, which was unlikely. Declarer turned his attention to what would happen if West had two trumps, including the King, and only one of the Ace and King of Clubs. In that case, East would win the first Club and play a trump and if West could win the second round of Clubs cheaply he would cash the King of Spades and Ace of Clubs to defeat the contract. So, leading a low Club from hand was unlikely to work.

As a result of these ruminations, declarer crossed to dummy with the Ace of Hearts and led a low Club from the table, which fixed the defence.

If East had risen with the King of Clubs and played a trump, declarer would have been able to establish the Queen of Clubs for his tenth trick by winning with the Ace of trumps and leading a low Club towards dummy’s jack — hence the Morton’s Fork!

In practice, East played the eight of Clubs and declarer covered it with the Queen of Clubs. Now it was West who had no answer.

Clearly, if he had played a trump he would have lost his trump trick, so he tried to cash a Diamond. Declarer ruffed and led a low Club to dummy’s Jack and East’s King. East shifted to a trump, but declarer rose with the Ace of trumps and ruffed his third Club in dummy for the tenth trick. The defenders only made a trump and two Club tricks. Not that difficult — declarer realised that the danger hand in leading a trump was RHO so he gave him a couple of losing choices — really nice!