After a five-year hiatus the Bermuda Sectional Tournament returned with a bang, in the capable hands of Peter Donnellan, tournament chairman and Jack Rhind, chief director.

The total table count over the six events (five single sessions and one double session) was 52 which is a great re-entry point for the event.

A lot of the events were really close and here is a summary of what took place.

Friday, single-session pairs – 23 pairs

1 Molly Taussig and John Burville, 61.61 per cent

2 Lorna Anderson and Joyce Pearson, 60.71 per cent (also 1st in B)

3 Diana Diel and Stephanie Kyme, 59.23 per cent

1st in C – Betsy Baillie and Sharon Shanahan

Great performance here from Lorna and Joyce to push a really good senior pair so close and in winning the B.

Saturday 99ers – six pairs

Robert and James Mulderig, 70 per cent

Amanda Ingham and Heidi Dyson, 52 per cent

A dominant win here for the father-son pair who are getting to the Open competition level, and have enough game to do so.

Saturday morning pairs – 12 pairs

Malcolm Moseley and Mark Stevens 55.42 per cent

Des and Tracy Nash, 55 per cent

Pat Siddle – Diana Diel, 55 per cent

What a remarkably tight event! rare that you see 55.42 per cent as a winning score – fourth and fifth had 54.58 per cent and eighth place had 50 per cent! Super performances from Mark-Malcolm and Tracy-Des who are both C Pairs and swept first and second places in A, B and C!

Saturday afternoon pairs – 14 pairs

1 Stephanie Kyme and Charles Hall 63.19 per cent

2 Elysa Burland and Molly Taussig 62.85 per cent (1st in B)

3 John Burville and Elizabeth McKee 59.72 per cent

Sharon Shanahan and Delton Outerbridge (1st C, 2nd B)

Betsy Baillie and Lisa Ferrari (2nd C)

Another laser thin win and a great effort from Elysa and Molly to push Steph and Charles in the A game and also win the B.

Sunday teams – two sessions – six teams

Peter Donnellan – Lynanne Bolton- Richard and Wendy Gray – 82vp

Misha Novakovic- Marge Way – Bill and Linda Pollett – 57vp

Tracey and Des Nash – Peter and Susan Adhemar – 56vp

A dominant win by the Donnellan team who won all their five matches – three of them by the maximum margin which followed a narrow 1 Imp win over the Novakovic team in the first round

Monday pairs – 22 pairs

Tracy and Des Nash, 64.55 per cent (and 1st in B and C)

John Burville and David Cordon, 63.41 per cent

Diana Diel and Pat Siddle, 63.1 per cent

Kathleen Keane and Lisa Ferrari – 2nd in B and C

Another close finish with just 1.5 per cent separating the top three pairs

Congratulations to all those who made the overalls – also further congratulations to John Burville who won the Adventures In Bridge Trophy for the player with the most master points over the four days. John finished with 11.13 master points, just edging out Des and Tracy Nash who racked up ten master points.

This is a deserved award for John who has always, sometimes under the radar, been among the top local players in the game – he has a great understanding of bidding structure and technical ability on the play of the hand.

The feedback from the tournament was excellent and with 50 tables in play over the four days the numbers support the popularity of the event.

Today’s hand (see Figure 1) is a declarer play problem given to me by a friend – South is declarer in 3NT in a Teams event (where making the contract is all that matters) on the lead of the three of clubs – quite how South became declarer in NT is not something I have figured out, but all you need to know is that the opponents were silent throughout and West has led the club three!

To give you a hint on how to play the hand I am going to describe the hand as “A slight Embarrassment of Riches” – in other words, if one of the cards in dummy or South was a slightly lower card, the hand would be easier to make.

Most declarers ran the club round to their Ace and played the spade Jack, hoping to trap the Queen on the left – when West played low so did declarer. And bingo, the Ace won on the right. Success! Well, maybe not …..

East continued with a club and declarer started to feel uncomfortable.

He won the club in dummy and cashed the spade King, and when the Queen did not fall he now needed two entries to his hand – one to set up the spades by knocking out the Queen, and the other to cash the good spades. Knowing that the only hope was in the diamond suit he took the finesse – this lost to the King and East cashed two clubs and a spade for down one!

Declarer went wrong at trick one – before I tell you where, try the hand if the North holding was Q5 of spades and not K5!

Knowing that entries were needed to the South hand, and knowing that clubs were 4-3 as West had led the three and the two was in dummy, declarer would win the club in dummy with the King and play the spade Queen – the defence is now helpless as declarer still has two entries to his hand to set up and cash the spades.

So, on the real hand declarer should do the same – win the club in dummy and play the spade King at trick two – once again the defence is helpless and the contract makes.

Notice though, that if East switches to a diamond after winning the spade Ace, declarer must play the Ace – if he doesn’t West will win the King and clear clubs and the contract is again defeated by one trick.

Point and counterpoint – lovely game isn’t it?

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, October 25

Bermuda Sectional Open Pairs 1

North/South

1. Lorna Anderson/Joyce Pearson

2. Stephanie Kyme/Diana Diel

3= Charles Hall /Tony Saunders

3= James Mulderig/Robert Mulderig

East/West

1. Molly Taussig/John Burville

2. Linda Pollett/William Pollett

3. Betsy Baillie/Sharon Shanahan

Saturday, October 26

Bermuda Sectional Open Pairs 2

1. Stephanie Kyme/Charles Hall

2. Elysa Burland/Molly Taussig

3. John Burville/Elizabeth McKee

Bermuda Sectional Open Pairs 3

North/South

1. Malcolm Moseley/Mark Stevens

2. Desmond Nash/Tracy Nash

East/West

1. Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2. Sancia Garrison/Charles Hall

Bermuda Sectional 99er game

1. James Mulderig/Robert Mulderig 70%

2. Amanda Ingham/Heidi Dyson

Sunday October 27

Bermuda Sectional Open Teams

1. Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton/Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2. Miodrag Novakovic/Margaret Way/William Pollett/Linda Pollett

Monday, October 28

Bermuda Sectional Open Pairs 4

North/South

1. Diana Diel/Patricia Siddle

2. Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

3. Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

East/West

1. Tracy Nash/Desmond Nash

2. John Burville/David Cordon

3. Kathleen Keane/Lisa Ferrari

Tuesday, October 29

North/South

1. Malcolm Moseley/Mark Stevens

2. Caitlin Conyers/Kim Simmons

East/West

1. Veronica Boyce/Carol Eastham

2. Sarah Jane Varley/Barbara Elkin

Wednesday, October 30

North/South

1. William Pollett/Linda Pollett

2. Jane Smith/Stephanie Kyme (Tied 2nd)

3. Betsy Baillie/Sharon Shanahan (Tied 2nd)

East/West

1. Carol Svensen/Dianna Kempe

2. Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

Granaway Bridge Club

October 23

North/South

1.Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

2.Wendy Gray/Richard Gray

East/West

1. Charles Hall/Margaret Way

2. David Cordon/Julie Lunn