In one of the most remarkable upsets in Bermuda tournament history, the team of Claude Guay, Sharon Shanahan, Delton Outerbridge and Betsy Baillie won the Bermuda Open Teams Championship with a total of 77 Victory Points, 15 vps ahead of the team of Judy King, Martha Ferguson, Wendy Gray and Richard Gray.

Many, many congratulations to the winners and the runners-up, and it needs some explanation to understand the true scale of this victory and the second-place finish. The closest result I can think of to match this was Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City winning the English Premier League at crazy odds in 2015-16!

Six teams entered the two-session event last Saturday – three A teams, whose players had an average masterpoint holding of 1250, one B team, whose average was between 500 and 1250, and two C teams, whose average was below 500.

Well, the winning Guay team were one of the Cs and the second-placed King team was the B! Absolutely remarkable! And that this happened in a full two-session event makes it even more special.

What makes it even more noteworthy is that teams bridge is considered the “purest” form of bridge, and at the expert level very few low-ranked teams reach the podium, whereas the pairs game is much more prone to the surprise result.

Especially interesting for me is that, when I look at each of the players comprising the first two teams, I know that every one of these eight players have clearly dedicated themselves to getting better at this amazing game of ours, and have reaped the rewards of their hard work.

I know they will realise that replicating this any time soon will be tough, but they should use this result to grab the much needed self-belief that they have, somewhere in there, the ability to excel when things go their way, even against strong competition.

That can only serve as a platform for further improvement for this entire group, even if some of them are in the later stages of their bridge compared to the others.

And a nice postscript – I hear that the A team players in the event did not just take the result on the chin, but were the first to congratulate the Magnificent 8 on their achievement. The performance of the King team in finishing second would already have been a story, but the winning Guay team have written themselves into the local history books and they certainly deserve their moment in the sun.

Well done all!

Now to this week’s hand.

As I’ve written many times before, it is important to keep a clear head at the table, especially when you are a declarer in a contract – one declarer did that on today’s hand (see Figure 1) and reaped the rewards when declarer at the other table made a reflex play which turned out to be costly.

This deal came up in a team game. Three diamonds was bid at both tables and it promised a limit raise or better of hearts. Both South players signed off in three hearts, but each North pressed on to the heart game at their next turn, which makes you wonder why they did not just bid four hearts the first time round!

At both tables, the defence began with Ace, King and another diamond. The East players continued the unanimity to this point when they ruffed the third diamond with the Queen of trumps.

The declarer at the first table overruffed the Queen with the King and then led a low trump towards the table. The contract became precarious when West discarded a diamond as declarer now had a trump loser and would have to play the spade suit for three tricks to make his contract.

So, after winning the trick with dummy’s Ace of trumps, declarer cashed the King of spades and then led a low spade to his Jack. Alas for declarer, West produced the Queen of spades and the contract had to fail by one trick.

At the second table, declarer was about to follow the same path as his counterpart when the thought, “Would I do something different if the Jack of spades was a small card?” came to mind.

After giving this some thought, declarer threw his low spade under the Queen of trumps! Now the only risk to his contract was an almost impossible defensive ruff in one of the black suits (and declarer was sure the auction would have been different if such an outcome was possible).

After winning the third trick for the defence, East exited with a club. Declarer rose with the Ace of clubs and drew trumps with his King and dummy’s Ace before claiming the rest of the tricks and the contract.

Really not that difficult – it just needed avoiding the reflex play of the overruff.

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, November 22

1. Peter Donnellan/Charles Hall

2. Judith Bussell/Lisa Rhind

3. Judy King/Martha Ferguson

Saturday, November 23

Open Teams Championship

1. Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan/Delton Outerbridge/Betsy Baillie

2. Judy King/Martha Ferguson/Wendy Gray/Richard Gray

Monday, November 25

North/South

1. Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2. Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

3. Peter Donnellan/Lyanna Bolton

East/West

1. Colin Moran/Micheline Kennedy

2. Martha Ferguson/Judy King

3. Louise Rodger/Molly Taussig

Tuesday, November 26

North/South

1. Wendell Emery/Linda Manders

2. Amanda Ingham/Heidi Dyson

East/West

1. Scott Gilbertson/Ross Cooper

2. Jaime Ferrari-McComb/Edward Ferrari-Willis

Wednesday, November 27

1= Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

1= Stephanie Kyme/Charles Hall

3. Linda Pollett/William Pollett

Thursday, November 28

1. Delton Outerbridge/Erika Jones

2. William Pollett/Linda Pollett (Tied 2nd)

3. Gertrude Barker/ John F.W. Glynn (Tied 2nd)

Granaway Bridge Club

Wednesday, November 27

North/South

1. Wendy Gray – Richard Gray

2= Peter Donnellan/Catherin Kennedy

2= Stephan Cosham/Katrina Van Pelt

East/West

1. Stephanie Kyme/Aida Bostelmann

2. Betsy Baillie/Delton Outerbridge

3. Molly Taussig/Martha Ferguson