The fall tournament season gets under way today with the Open Championship taking place this morning and afternoon at the Bermuda Bridge Club – players are starting to return to the live games and hopefully the turnout will signal that things are on the upswing. Expect a full report in next week’s column.

A second Championship event takes place next week with the Mixed Pairs Championship first session being held on Thursday, November 17 at 7.30pm and the second session at the same time two weeks later on December 1.

Many, probably most, of the players in these events will be Life Masters, the attaining of which is usually the primary goal of those entering the world of competitive bridge.

Once one becomes a Life Master there are various milestones within that category for players to aim for, starting at bronze and working up via silver, ruby, gold, sapphire, diamond, emerald, platinum and then the pinnacle of Grand Life Master. The top category requires 25,000 master points and silver requires 1,000.

These levels often take years to achieve and so far in 2022 the records we have show that the following Bridge Club members have achieved new levels:

• Donna Leitch and Martha Ferguson reaching bronze Life Master

• Heather Woolf reaching silver Life Master

• Pat Siddle and John Glynn reaching ruby Life Master.

This is not a definitive list as one does not exist, and Wendy Gray kindly put this together for me after researching some bulletins – so if you have made a milestone, please let me know at davidezekiel999@gmail.com and I’ll give you the well-deserved honourable mention!

This week’s hand is about two things – planning and experience (‘been here before’). See Figures 1 and 2 for the hand and the bidding.

North’s cue-bid of two spades promised a limit-raise or better in hearts. South now really loved his hand if partner held the spade Ace – he checked for key-cards with four no-trump and, when North admitted to two of them (Ace of spades and King of trumps) he bid the slam. West led the King of spades.

Declarer, who was an experienced player, saw that he had 12 sure tricks if trumps were three-one or two-two and so he did what all good declarers do, he looked for a plan B in case trumps broke 4-0.

He saw that there was still a chance if they were 4-0, with East holding the four, and that would entail making all the low trumps in hand by ruffing spades – but he had to get the timing right.

Since entries were short, declarer won the first trick with the Ace of spades and ruffed a spade. Next, declarer cashed the Ace of trumps, noting that the suit was indeed 4-0. After cashing his Queen of trumps, declarer took his non-trump winners to reduce the chance of their being ruffed if East had only two spades, finishing with a club to the King. When East followed to the next spade, declarer ruffed it to leave this position (see Figure 3).

It looks as if declarer still has to lose a diamond and a trump, but all is not what it seems. Declarer now led a trump to dummy’s King for his eleventh trick – he now remained with the seven of trumps and a diamond while East had the jack of hearts and a diamond. Declarer led dummy’s nine of spades and East was fixed! If he discarded his diamond, declarer would make the seven of trumps for his twelfth trick. In practice, East ruffed the spade and declarer threw his diamond loser, making his remaining card, a trump, for his contract.

Note how far ahead declarer was thinking at trick two – on the above layout, if declarer fails to ruff a spade at trick two there would be no way to avoid losing two tricks, a trump and a diamond – brilliant planning and brilliant play!

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, November 4

1. Elizabeth McKee – Ed Betteto

2. Marge Way – Jane Smith

3. Aida Bostelmann – Heather Woolf

Monday, November 7

North/South

1. Sheena Rayner – Magda Farag

2. Ed Betteto – Joe Wakefield

3. Wendy Gray – Richard Gray

East/West

1. Martha Ferguson – Marge Way

2. Diana Downs – Gloria Rego

3. Betsy Baillie – Joyce Pearson

Tuesday, November 8

North/South

1. Katyna Rabain – Louise Payne

2. Malcolm Moseley – Mark Stevens

3. Jane Downing – Jamie Sapsford

East/West

1. Tim Mardon – Richard Hall

2. Wenda Krupp – Jane Gregory

3. Jean Schilling – John Thorne

Wednesday, November 9

North/South

1. Lynanne Bolton – Greta Marshall

2. Gertie Barker – Jane Smith

3. Wendy Gray – Richard Gray

East/West

1. Marge Way – Rachael Gosling

2. Pat Siddle – Diana Diel

3. Judy Bussell – Martha Ferguson

Non-Bridge Club online results for Club members

November 6: Marge Way and Stephanie Kyme, 8th out of 108 pairs