The Bermuda Bridge Club Open Pairs Championship will be held today at the Bridge Club, with morning and afternoon sessions to determine the winner. We expect a good field in what will be a very competitive event and I will bring you full results in next week’s column.

I am often preaching patience in defence, as I see time and time again how defenders try and beat a contract in the first few tricks and usually end up giving a trick or two away. This week’s hand, however, is about patience in declarer play – South showed that patience, and was rewarded when the cards sat in the only way to let him make the hand.

See the hand and the bidding in Figure 1.

South had an awkward first bid. In the end he compromised by doubling two hearts and rebidding three spades to show a serious hand with long spades. North was good enough to recognise strong bidding and raised the contract to the game level with her flat six points.

West led the Queen of hearts, marking East with the King. Declarer saw that it would be a bad move to take the first trick, for that would allow East to gain the lead with the King and lead through the King of diamonds.

So, declarer played low from dummy, and when East followed with a low heart he allowed West’s Queen of hearts to win the first trick. This prevented West from crossing to East’s hand with the King later in the play.

Declarer won the next round of hearts with the Ace, and drew two rounds of trumps with the Ace and Queen. The bidding and the play at trick one suggested that West held both of the minor suit aces.

Declarer’s only hope for a tenth trick was to make three tricks in clubs. Declarer saw that the danger of drawing trumps immediately was that West would hold up his Ace of clubs until the third round, and there would be no way to make a third club trick. As a consequence of this, dummy’s King of trumps needed to be preserved as an entry.

So, knowing what he needed, declarer turned to the club suit, even though there was still a trump outstanding.

West had no good answer: holding up the Ace of clubs was pointless now, because declarer could use the trump king as an entry to cash dummy’s final club winner.

Just like last week’s hand, declarer figured out exactly what he needed for the contract to make, and took the line of play to make the most of a fortunate lie of the cards.

Great planning and execution!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, March 21

1 Tony Saunders/Patricia Siddle

2 Peter Donnellan/Judith Bussell

3 Jane Smith/Margaret Way

Monday, March 24

1 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2 Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

3 Caroline Svensen/Jane Clipper

Tuesday, March 25

1 Veronica Boyce/Carol Eastham

2 Barbara Harrington/Eldon Lewis

3= C Wendell Emery/Linda Manders

3= Rachael Gosling/Ian Boatman

Wednesday, March 26

North/South

1 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2 Desmond Nash/Tracey Nash

East/West

1 Geoff Bell/Molly Taussig

2 Elizabeth McKee/Rachael Gosling

Thursday, March 27

1 John F W Glynn/Rachael Gosling

2 Elizabeth McKee/Margaret Way

3 Judith Bussell/Stephanie Kyme

Granaway Bridge Club

March 26

North/South

1 Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

2 Lisa Rhind/Marion Silver

East/West

1 Stephanie Kyme/Diana Diel

2 Elizabeth McKee/Rachael Gosling