The Bermuda Bridge Club Player of the Year winners for 2024 have just been announced by tournament director Peter Donnellan and his report follows.

• Club Player of the Year: Gertie Barker

• Intermediate Player of the Year: Betsy Baillie

• Junior Player of the Year: Ben Stone

Gertie had a good lead in the club competition going into the autumn. A late run by Charles Hall opened up the race, but was not enough in the end to deny Gertie the title a few masterpoints clear of Charles who finished second, with Molly Taussig in third.

In the intermediate category, Betsy Baillie repeated her performance of 2023, with a comfortable margin over Sancia Garrison and Sharon Shanahan, who were just a fraction apart in second and third place respectively.

The Junior Competition could not have been closer – the title came right down to the wire, with Ben winning out over Heidi Dyson by just 0.05 masterpoints with Desiree Woods in third place.

Many congratulations to all the winners – the player of the year races need consistent play over the whole year, which is what all players should be aiming for.

With not a lot happening at the Bridge Club ahead of the Regional, I’ll spend the next three weeks on certain areas of bidding and defence to help you prepare for the big event.

One area that causes players of all standards some problems is opening leads.

Opening leads are problematical – you are usually, unless partner has bid, making a choice based on scanty information from the bidding and the best you can do is follow some rules that will help you get the lead right more than 50 per cent of the time.

Leads against no-trump contracts are often particularly tough as you are trying to establish a suit and at the same time trying not to give too much away.

So here is the extract on opening leads from my lecture in April 2023 on “How to win at bridge”.

• Be consistent in your leading style.

• Lead partner’s bid suit unless you know another suit is better, not if you hope it is better.

• Against a suit contract – never lead away from an Ace at trick one. Knowing that, if partner leads a middle card against a suit contract, dummy has xxx and you have KJx, you know declarer has the Ace so you can play the Jack to find out who has the Queen to help you when you next get in.

• A lead of a low card generally promises an honour in that suit – lead of a high card usually denies an honour.

• Use MUD leads (middle-up-down) against suit contracts when leading from three small – with 973, lead the seven and then next play the nine.

• Leads from AKxx, lead the Ace. From AK doubleton, lead the King then the Ace.

• Leads against NT – fourth best usually works.

• Learn how to defend against the Bath Coup – this is important as it comes up so often against NT contracts. Short version – when partner leads the King against NT they promise at least KQJx or KQ10x – if they have KQxx the lead is a low one. So, knowing that, if partner leads the King and you have the Jack, you have to throw it under the King to let partner know it is safe to continue – and if you have the Ace you must overtake and lead one back. If you don’t do this and partner is allowed to hold the trick, she will think declarer started with AJx and will not continue the suit.

• If the opponents get to 3NT without using Stayman, a major suit lead suggests itself if you have a choice between two suits.

• Against a small slam in a suit, listen to the bidding – generally attacking leads, where you have an honour, gain against small slams.

• In a small slam against NT, fourth best rarely works – I would usually look for a passive lead and let declarer look for the 12 tricks.

• Against a grand-slam, 100 per cent a passive lead, often a trump lead. Do not lead away from honours or tens.

• Trump leads – I quite like them – often important in stopping declarer using ruffs.

• Leading against a sacrifice – generally a trump.

• If partner passes a takeout double (converting it to penalties), lead that suit.

• Avoid leading away from unsupported Jacks and tens, if possible.

Another thing to keep in mind is that when you are having a decent game, “go with the field” on the opening lead. The other day it went 1NT on my right, 3NT on my left and I was on lead with J107 KJ865 863 98.

I badly wanted to lead the spade jack but we were having a great game and I decided to lead what everyone else would, as an “average” board would not be a disaster. So I led the six of hearts which let declarer make ten tricks for which we got 43 per cent, whereas the spade lead would have beaten the contract for 93 per cent!

But my mind was at peace, as I’d taken the right route based on the game we were having, and we did actually squeak the win.

The good thing about you and your partner agreeing on some general guidelines for leads is that you won’t beat up on yourself, or your partner, when the lead turns out to be less than optimal. Use some of the above and you will definitely see your results improve.

Today’s hand (see Figure 1) can fall into the category of an “old chestnut”, meaning that this sort of hand has been around for ages and no matter how many times players see the right play in print, the chances are that they will go wrong at the table!

One of the prime areas where non-expert players go wrong is in trump management – they usually draw trumps too early for fear of an opposing ruff and then realise their mistake when the hand is over.

One usually plays in a suit because there is a need for some ruffs – if you are able to draw all trumps, leaving dummy with none, and are still able to make the contract then perhaps you should have been in No Trump.

This deal came up in a team game and the contract was four hearts at both tables. Each West began by leading the King of spades. When that held, both West players continued with the Queen of spades, also winning the trick – the third round of spades was ruffed by both declarers.

At the first table, the declarer decided that he probably needed a 3-3 club break to make his contract (there is a potential squeeze play available in clubs-diamonds but that gets complicated.

So this declarer ruffed the third spade, drew trumps, played the last trump hoping for a favourable discard from an opponent, and then played on clubs. When clubs were not 3-3 he last played a club and a diamond for down one.

At the other table, declarer cashed the Jack and King of trumps at tricks four and five. Then, leaving the last defensive trump outstanding, he cashed the Ace, King and Queen of clubs. If the suit had been 3-3, declarer would have drawn the last trump and claimed ten tricks (five trumps, four clubs and a diamond).

However, declarer had picked up an extra chance – the defender with four clubs had three trumps. So, declarer ruffed his remaining club in dummy, and cashed the Ace of diamonds for his eighth trick, with two high trumps in hand to come to make his contract.

Excellent technical play by this declarer.

And what would happen if one of the opponents ruffed the third round of clubs? You will still have a trump in dummy to ruff the fourth club, and you will go the same down one had you played for 3-3 clubs …. but here declarer created an extra chance which worked!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, January 3

1= Delton Outerbridge/Betsy Baillie

1= Wenda Krupp/Jane Gregory

3. Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

Monday, January 6

North/South

1. Charles Hall/Tony Saunders

2. Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

3. Geoff Bell/Kathleen Bell

East/West

1. Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2. Louise Rodger/Molly Taussig

3. Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

Tuesday January 7

North/South

1. John Thorne/Vivien Pereira

2. Sheena Trott/Devina Dickenson

3. Tracey Pitt/Desiree Woods

East/West

1. Ben Stone/James Fielding

2. Jean Schilling/Catherine Kennedy

3. Carol Eastham/Veronica Boyce

Wednesday, January 8

1. Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2. Louise Rodger/Margaret Way

3. Tracy Nash/Desmond Nash

Thursday, January 9

1. Stephanie Kyme/Charles Hall

2. John F.W. Glynn/Rachael Gosling

East/West

1. Betsy Baillie/Lisa Ferrari

2. Gertrude Barker/Elizabeth McKee