Many congratulations to Erika Jones and Richard Keane who won the Non-Life Masters Club Championship held at the Bridge Club last Saturday with a score of 104.5 matchpoints.

Finishing second in the ten-pair field were Des and Tracy Nash with 98, with Delton Outerbridge and Lisa Ferrari a whisker behind in third with 97.5.

Erika and Richard were in the lead after the first session with a 58.9 per cent score closely followed by Lisa and Delton on 56.94 per cent and Barbara and Pat Cerra on 56 per cent.

The leaders had a good second session, which was enough to hold off Des and Tracy who had an excellent 61 per cent session to pull themselves into second place from the middle of the pack with Delton and Lisa dropping to third.

Also with a strong second session, which was equal to that of Des and Tracy, were Rosie Smith and Diana Downs, but they had left themselves too much to do after the morning session.

This is an excellent win for Erika and Richard, who clearly put some work into their game and are reaping the benefits. It also means that there will be a winner named Keane for this event for the fifth time — except the previous four were won by Richard’s wife Kathleen, three times with Mike Vioti and once with Joyce Pearson, so Richard has some way to go!

Well done to the winners and to Des/Tracy and Delton/Lisa who joined them on the podium. We will hopefully see all these pairs continue to work on their game and eventually make their way into Open competition where some younger blood is needed.

I took a look through some of the hands and this one (Board 2 from the morning session, see Figure 1) caught my eye.

After South opened one heart, three of the North-South pairs played in four hearts and two pairs played in four spades – with the Ace of diamonds well placed either six hearts or six spades makes.

This was a pairs competition, however, and overtricks count, and the hand a is a beautiful illustration of how a 4-4 fit plays so much better than the 6-3 fit.

In six hearts no matter what the opponents lead the maximum number of tricks available is 12 – try it.

In spades , however, unless the opponents cash the diamond Ace at trick one, declarer can make 13 tricks, as demonstrated by Des, who was declarer in four spades with the North hand.

East led her singleton heart – Des won this with the King, drew three rounds of trumps, and played out the remaining hearts, discarding all three diamonds from his hand – now a diamond ruff provides the 13th trick. Four spades , six hearts, two clubs and the diamond ruff.

Rosie and Diana also got to six spades played by South, but either Jean Schilling or Catherine Kennedy, whoever was sitting West, led a diamond to avoid the overtrick.

The hand shows clearly why the 4-4 trump fit is called the “Golden Fit”!

• David Ezekiel can be reached at davidezekiel999@gmail.com

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, March 1

North/South

1. Lorna Anderson-Joyce Pearson

2. Inger Mensa-Wanda Krupp

East/West

1. John Glynn-Molly Taussig

2. Sancia Garrison-Jane Smith

Saturday, March 2

Non-Life Masters Championship

1. Richard Keane Erika Jones

2. Desmond Nash-Tracy Nash

Monday, March 4

1. Charles Hall-Harry Kast (Tied 1st)

2. Peter Donnellan-Lynanne Bolton (Tied 1st)

3. Lorna Anderson Heather Woolf

Tuesday, March 5

1. Jean Schilling-John Thorne

2.Joanne Edwards-Marion Ezedinma

3. Malcolm Moseley-Mark Stevens

Wednesday, March 6

1. Charles Hall-Harry Kast

2. Rachael Gosling-Stephanie Kyme

3= Joyce Person-Wendy Gray

3= Margaret Way-Martha Ferguson

Thursday, March 7

1. Elizabeth McKee-Makiko Rogers

2= Tracy Nash-Desmond Nash

2= Inger Mensa-Wenda Krupp