The day is almost nigh – my eldest grandson Woody’s first birthday on the 25th! Oh yes, and it’s Christmas Day!

Happy Holidays to all of you, and even if some of the club games are cancelled I’m sure you can squeeze one or two online games in between the festivities. The Christmas period is a good time to evaluate your progress over the last year and to set yourself some improvement targets for 2024 and beyond.

Next on the bridge calendar is the Regional at the Hamilton Princess between January 27 and February 2. It is exciting that this is back on the calendar and kudos to Rachael Gosling and her committee for having the persistence, drive and energy to get it going again. The early numbers are most encouraging given that we had a late kick-off, and that bodes well for the years ahead.

This hand came up during practice between two teams heading for their national tournament. I’m not mentioning the country as I’m not too complimentary about the performance of one of them! See Figure 1.

West’s three club bid showed a non-opening hand with at least six clubs.

West lead the Ace-King of clubs and when West played high-low showing a doubleton, continued with a third club. Declarer in the Open Room discarded a heart and East ruffed and played the heart King. Declarer won this and cashed King-Jack of diamonds and then took the spade finesse – this lost and the contract went down two!

This was a pretty pedestrian performance at this level by South, as declarer in the other room showed – the bidding and first three tricks were the same, but here the declarer did some thinking.

West’s weak jump overcall almost certainly placed East with the spade King, so things did not look good. Declarer, however, found an elegant solution. He ruffed the third club with the spade Ace!

Now declarer cashed two diamonds and played the spade Queen – there was now no way the defence could stop declarer getting to dummy to discard his losing hearts on the Ace-King of diamonds!

Well planned, well played!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, December 15

1. Tony Saunders-Patricia Siddle

2. Stephanie Kyme-Diana Diel

3= Elysa Burland-Magda Farag

3= Lorna Anderson-Joyce Pearson

Monday, December 18

1= Rachael Gosling-Margaret Way

1= Judith Bussell-Diana Diel

3. Elysa Burland-Molly Taussig

Tuesday, December 19

Novice Pairs Championship

1. Erika Jones-Caitlin Conyers

2. Benjamin Stone-John Thorne

3. Sharon Andrews-Vivian Pereira

Wednesday, December 20

1. Patricia Siddle-Diana Diel

2. Gertrude Barker-Jane Smith

3. Tracy Nash-Desmond Nash

Thursday, December 21

1. Miodrag Novakovic-Margaret Way

2= Elizabeth McKee-Molly Taussig

2= Stephanie Kyme-Charles Hall

Non-Bridge Club Online Results for Bridge Club Members

December 17: Marge Way and Stephanie Kyme – ninth out of 176 pairs