Last night saw the conclusion of another Bermuda Bridge Regional and it turned out to be a stellar success – getting back on track after a three-year hiatus was always going to be a challenge, but Rachael Gosling and her committee handled it perfectly.

Rachael took the brave first steps to get the event back on the calendar and deserves plaudits not for just getting it done, but for getting it done in style.

I keep talking about the committee and I think we should find out who they are: Sharon Shanahan, Tracy Nash, Lorna Anderson, Stephanie Kyme, Lisa Rhind, Gertie Barker, John Glynn, Judith King, Judy Bussell and Janet Evans – well done all. And I’d be remiss in not also mentioning Steve Cosham for the myriad things he handles at the event, and Des Nash who is often pulled in to fill the gaps that always appear.

Attendance at the tournament was excellent, given the short lead time after the three-year break and the locals made their mark in a number of events.

At the time of writing, I’m able to report local overall winners up to Thursday night – I’ll bring you the Friday winners and the various Masterpoint Trophy winners in next week’s column.

• Saturday night – Charity pairs Flight C – Lynanne Bolton and Peter Donnellan

• Sunday Swiss Teams – Bracket 2 – Richard and Wendy Gray, Lynanne Bolton, Peter Donnellan

• Bracket 3 – Des Nash, Nick Kempe, Sharon Shanahan, Claude Guay

• Monday – Alan Douglas Memorial Pairs – Stephanie Kyme, Charles Hall

• Thursday – Joe Wakefield Memorial Pairs – Bracket X – Sheena Rayner and Bill Souster

Added to these were literally dozens of section tops by our locals who really put their best foot forward at this event. Well done to all the players – it is always satisfying to score a win outside the comfortable confines of the Bridge Club!

As I say so often, this game of ours has so many layers that there is always something around the corner to delight the connoisseurs and get the rest thinking!

This hand (see Figure 1) was played 13 times and every South was declarer in four spades – but only one of them went down!

After North opened one diamond, South continued bidding spades and all declarers were in four Spades and received the lead of the heart Queen.

The play went the same way at every table – South ruffed the third heart, went to dummy with a club, and led the five of spades to the ten, Queen and Ace. Declarer ruffed the heart return and plonked down the Queen of spades and was delighted to see the Jack come down – ten tricks!

That was the play at 12 tables – what happened at the thirteenth? See if you can spot it before reading on.

At the 13th table, at trick four when declarer led a spade to the Queen, West did not take the Ace and played smoothly low!

Declarer now had a problem – if East started with AJ10 there was no hope anyway, but with the smooth duck by West it looked as if East had started with A10, so declarer now played a low spade hoping it would draw the Ace – it did not and the contract failed by one trick.

Brilliant play by West – it forced declarer into a choice that he was probably always going to get wrong given the choices available.

This is very much like this situation that turns up so often at the table (see Figure 2).

When South goes to dummy and leads a low card to the King, if West wins the Ace declarer now has no choice but to finesses the Jack next time round and that succeeds.

But if, on the first round of the suit, West plays smoothly low declarer will place East with the Ace and will go back to the board and will lead towards the Queen and will lose two tricks!

I never said the game was simple – but it is always fascinating!

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