I want to start by thanking my guest columnists during the summer months John Burville , Bill Tucker, Joe Wakefield and Alan Douglas. Not only did they agree to help, but each clearly put a ton of thought into the columns they wrote and it showed in the quality they were all interesting and informative, and I liked the fact that all four chose an instructional theme. So again, thanks guys!Tournament season is upon us again and by the time this column appears, the Open Pairs winners will have been declared as the two sessions were on the 24th and 28th. There appears to be a bit of a summer hangover as the field was missing a lot of regular names and the eight table count was smaller than usual. After the first session it is all very tight with no pair approaching 60 percent leading are Gertie Barker-Jane Smith with 57.14% , followed by John Glynn- Elizabeth McKee on 55.71%, Marilynn and Delmont Simmons 54.76%, Lyn O’Neill-John Hoskins 54.29% and Julia Lunn -David Cordon on 53.81%. Remarkably tight scoring and with the next three pairs all above 50%, the title is still wide open. Full results next week .Next up is the ACBL Instant Matchpoint game on Thursday October 4 … this is a fun event and a really interesting format. With the holding of this game there will be no regular 0-300 game on that night.This hand was given to me by a friend last week as a declarer play problem :Board 7. Game All. Dealer South.S-K32H-A632D-63C-6532S-9 S-J108H-K104 H-QJ985D-QJ942 D-108C-QJ107 C-984S-AQ7654H-7D-AK75C-AKWEST NORTH EAST SOUTH2CPass 2D Pass 2SPass 3S Pass 6SNorth’s 3 spade bid is a good one on the principle of slow arrival showing a good hand and fast arrival a 4S bid showing a bad one. This allowed South to jump to the slam.West led the club queen and declarer took the king and tried to draw trumps with the king and the Ace … when West discarded a diamond declarer tried Ace-king and a diamond ruff. This, however was overruffed and with another diamond loser the slam went down one … bad luck! Well, maybe …The hand can be made by careful play, though it is almost a counter-intuitive line of play in that one gives up a certain trump trick but gets back two! Declarer should win the club, cash the trump Ace, cash a diamond, go to the heart Ace and lead another diamond to the king. Now a diamond ruff with the King of spades, ruff a heart and ruff the last diamond East can overruff, but declarer wins any return, draws the last trump and claims the contract!So declarer created a trump loser where there was none, but was repaid handsomely by being able to make the contract … interesting!