Today will see the last major event of the year with the staging of the two-session Open Teams event at the Bridge Club.

I expect to see a strong turnout and will have the results for you next week as both sessions will be held on Saturday.

Tomorrow, members will turn up at the club to help decorate it in time for the Christmas Party on December 1.

If you can help contact the club and get down there.

The Christmas Party is where all the winners of the Club Championships will be recognised and details will be in next week’s column.

What is left after the party is the Ernie Owen Individual competition which will be held on December 13.

The event commemorates one of the best players to have played the game locally.

I know this first hand, as Ernie and I were partners for many years and he was an avid and expert bidding theorist and we had many happy hours discussing bidding systems and sequences.

Before I get to the hand, more good news on the youth development side as John Burville informs me that we have a new school getting ready to enter the local youth development programme.

The new school is TN Tatem Middle School in Warwick, and the initiative is being energised by none other than the principal, Garita Coddington.

There have already been three sessions at the school involving more than 20 students and teachers.

There are high hopes that Tatem will be a big contributor to the development programme going forward.

As always, none of this would be possible without the willing help of volunteers from the Bridge Club.

I hear that the support has been tremendous, so hats off to all that have stepped forward.

I really enjoyed today’s hand which I would like to entitle Just a little extra care.

With that in mind, plan the play.

Dealer West, Both Vul

The bidding was over quickly and I loved the sequence as the “implied fit cue-bid” is something I play with all my partners.

The bidding:

West North East South

Pass Pass Pass 2C

Pass 2NT Pass 3H

Pass 3S Pass 6H

South decided the hand was worth a strong two Club opening and when partner bid 2NT he bid three Hearts to set the suit — North now made the great bid of three Spades which, after he bid 2NT on the first round, I play that it cannot be a suit, and it has to be a cue bid agreeing Hearts.

South loved hearing that and went straight to the slam.

West led a low Diamond and declarer won East’s Jack with the Ace.

Declarer in the closed room now played a Heart to the King and a Heart to the Ace, discovering the 3-1 break.

He now cashed the Diamond King intending to ruff a Diamond, but to his horror East ruffed and returned a Club.

Declarer could now ruff one Diamond with dummy’s last trump but still had a Diamond loser — down one!

Declarer in the closed room was a bit more careful.

After winning the Diamond, he cashed the Ace of Hearts and then decided to protect himself against a bad Diamond break by crossing to the Ace of Spades and leading a Diamond.

If East ruffs, he ruffs a loser and Declarer can eventually ruff the last Diamond in dummy, so East discarded a Spade.

Declarer was now ahead.

He now ruffed a Diamond with the Heart King, came to hand with a Club and ruffed his last Diamond.

East could overruff but that would be the only trick for the defence.

Simple rule — when everything looks easy, look for what could go wrong and try and protect against it.