Covid-19 has thrown a lot of us off our stride and what I missed earlier was the departure from the island of Mike Viotti, who was so instrumental in the development of youth bridge in Bermuda in combination with John Burville, who himself has worked tirelessly on this initiative.

On his leaving, John wrote a brief tribute note which I reproduce below.

“Mike Viotti has been a valuable member of the Bridge Club. He embraced the youth bridge at Saltus, and ensured that we had a steady flow of students into the club.

“It was four of his students that took the first youth trip to Chicago YNABC in 2015, and he was also instrumental in getting those students to be the first Bermuda youth team in a WBF world teams event. It is thanks to Mike that the youth bridge has been able to grow so strongly in Bermuda.

“As a bridge player, Mike started learning at the same time as the youths at Saltus. However, he rapidly developed his bridge skills and can now teach bridge very effectively.

“His personal development has been spectacular. In a few years, he has won several club events including the Non-Life Masters twice with Kathy Keane.

“My partnership with him has been very enjoyable, as he is willing and capable to learn and understand new conventions very quickly. His bidding and card play are at a very high level. I know many other players and members of the bridge club will attest to his enthusiasm, skill, and being a very amenable partner.

“He will be missed by many.”

Now to the hand which I need you to think about and learn the declarer play for the diamond suit combination, as it will come up a thousand times in your bridge future.

The hand itself, once you sort out the diamond suit, is remarkably simple which is why I really like it (see Figure 1).

South opened 1NT and North had an easy raise to 3NT – West led the spade King.

Declarer did the right thing by holding up for two rounds of spades and winning the third throwing a club from dummy - East had played up the line so it looked as if spades were 5-3 and that West was the danger hand.

Declarer does not have a lot of tricks – one spade, three hearts and two clubs, so three tricks are needed from the diamond suit.

If you look at the diamond suit carefully you will realise that there is only one card combination that will allow you to make three tricks. One opponent must have exactly Ax of diamonds and you must guess which defender has that holding.

On this hand, however, there is no guess! If West has the Ace you are likely going down, so you have to hope that it is East with the Ax. Once this is decided the play is simple and standard – go to dummy with a heart and play a low diamond to your King – when this holds, lead another diamond and when West plays the 10, DUCK in dummy.

The Ace comes down and East can’t hurt you - if he has a fourth spade, spades are 4-4 and you only lose three spades and a diamond - on this hand nine tricks are now available.

The hand is nice because it requires clear thinking in defining the danger hand, but the correct play of the diamond suit is what I want you to study, as it will occur time and time again and you can make many hopeless looking contracts if you manage this combination well.

Before I close I have to congratulate the remarkable Diana Diel in reaching another age milestone and still being among the top strata of the local game - Diana has always been a tough competitor going back to the days when she dominated women’s golf in Bermuda, and none of that seems to have changed since she switched to the bridge table.

Diana was always a pleasure to play against at either game and is a testament to “age just being a number”, and I think both her golf and bridge background play a big part in that.

Congratulations Diana!

Bridge Club results

Friday, October 30

1.John Hodge - Sue Hodge

2.Kevin O'Brien - Gerald Cherry

3.Margaret Way - Miodrag Novakovic

Monday, November 2

NS

1.Peter Donnellan - Charles Hall

2.Richard Gray - Wendy Gray

3.3= William Pollett - Molly Taussig

3= Tony Saunders - Joseph Wakefield

EW

1.Judith Bussell - Dorry Lusher

2.Jane Clipper - Caroline Svensen

3.Martha Ferguson - Judy King

Tuesday 3rd November <149

NS

1.Malcolm Moseley - Mark Stevens

2.Duncan Silver - Marion Silver

3.Heidi Dyson - Amanda Ingham

EW

1.Jean Schilling - Tim Mardon

2.Nikki Boyce - Carol Eastham

3.Wenda Krupp - Jane Gregory

Wednesday, November 4

NS

1.William Pollett - Linda Pollett

2.Sheena Rayner - Magda Farag

3.Richard Gray - Wendy Gray

EW

1.Judith Bussell - Joseph Wakefield

2.Peter Donnellan - Lynanne Bolton

3.Caroline Svensen - Dianna Kempe

Thursday, November 5

1.Claude Guay - Sharon Shanahan

2.Gertrude Barker - John Glynn

3.Mike Dawson - Rachael Gosling