A few of the remaining spring tournaments have now been scheduled at Bermuda Bridge Club, in addition to the Mixed Pairs which will be held over two sessions, starting at 9.30am on Saturday, May 17.

I’m surprised this tournament survives given the dearth of male players at the club relative to the ladies – Bermuda may well be the last bastion in holding a Mixed Pairs event!

Also scheduled are the Novice Pairs and Junior Teams, as per the following message from tournament director Peter Donnellan.

“The Novice Pairs Championship will be held on Tuesday, June 3 at 7pm. All players must have less than 20 masterpoints (as at April 30) and previous winners may not take part. A sign-up sheet is on the noticeboard. We need at least six pairs for this event to take place.

“The Junior Teams Championship will be held on Tuesday, June 17 at 7pm, with a second session the following Tuesday, June 24, if there are more than six teams entered, to allow each team to play every other team. All players must have less than 100 masterpoints. A sign-up sheet is on the noticeboard. A minimum of four teams is needed for this event to take place.

“All players in these events must be club members.”

Today’s hand (see Figure 1) is about declarer play – and the need for patience and getting as much information as possible before committing to the key play. It is also about giving tricks to the defence early in order to get the maximum information.

This deal came up in a team game and both players reached the no-trump slam on identical auctions, where South opened 2NT and North made the practical raise to 6NT.

Both West players led an obvious ten of spades. At the first table, the declarer won the first trick in hand with the Queen of spades and immediately laid down the Ace of clubs. When West discarded a heart, the slam could no longer be made as declarer had to lose a trick in hearts and clubs for one down. This pedestrian play got the result it deserved!

At the other table, the declarer saw that the slam depended on making five tricks in clubs. He also saw that there was no hurry to play clubs. Instead, he sought to gather information about how the major suits lay before tackling the club suit.

The unfortunate mirror distribution in the two hands meant that even if the clubs came in the maximum on the hand was twelve tricks – recognising this, at trick two declarer played a low heart from both hands!

East won the trick with the ten of hearts and returned a spade to declarer’s Ace. Declarer now went exploring – he played the King of spades next, noting that the suit was originally 5-2. Next, he cashed the Ace and King of hearts noting that West began with five hearts in addition to her five spades.

There could be a temptation to play on clubs next. However, declarer resisted this and cashed the Ace of diamonds first.

West was now marked with ten cards in the majors and one diamond: so, he could not hold three clubs. Thus, declarer called for dummy’s King of clubs and claimed 12 tricks, once West discarded a spade.

Excellent play! There was some little risk for the second declarer to concede extra undertricks if the major suit plays were not as revealing as on this deal, but the reward far outweighed the risk.

This hand is a major learning tool – most declarers would do what the first declarer did and that is go after clubs at trick two, but that is clearly the wrong play.

Take another good look at the play, put it into the memory bank and execute it the next time a similar hand arrives! If you want to get better at declarer play, replay this hand a few times!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, April 18

North/South

1= Judy King/Martha Ferguson

1= Jane Smith/Margaret Way

East/West

1 Richard Hall/Molly Taussig

2 Stephanie Kyme/Diana Diel

Monday, April 21

North/South

1 Allyson Edie/Aida Bostelmann

2 Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

3 Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

East/West

1 Judith Bussell/Stephanie Kyme

2 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

3 Martha Ferguson/Judy King

Tuesday, April 22

North/South

1 Erika Jones/Jean Schilling

2 Ross Cooper/Keri McKittrick.

East/West

1 Julia Tadman/Joshimer Hussy

2 Veronica Boyce/Carol Eastham

Wednesday, April 23

1 Judith Bussell/Martha Ferguson

2 Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

3 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith