Many congratulations to Malcolm Moseley/Mark Stevens and James Fielding/ Benjamin Stone for pulling off a remarkable result by finishing joint first with a score of 87.5 match points in the two-session Junior Bridge Championship at the Bermuda Bridge Club.

The “Junior” has nothing to do with age, but allows anyone with 100 or fewer master points to enter the event. Finishing third were first-round leaders Barbara Elkin and Neil Gilbertson.

After the morning session Barbara and Neil led with a score of 43, closely followed by James/Benjamin on 41.5 and Malcom/Mark on 41 – also well in touch were Jamie Sapsford/Jane Downing on 39.5 and Amanda Ingham/Heidi Dyson on 39 – so all to play for!

There wasn’t a ton of movement in the second session but what there was resulted in Malcolm/Mark picking up the vital half-point they needed to get them the winning tie, with Barbara/Neil just slipping back into third – a remarkable finish which comes on the heels of the knife-edge finish in the Open Pairs last week!

It is great to see five tables at this event in this post-Covid period and hopefully a number of these players/pairs will work hard at breaking into Open competition. Well done to all who participated in this finish, but particularly the joint winners. I can’t recall a dead-heat in a championship but I think it may have happened once before.

Hopefully these pairs also read a bit about bridge, and if they do they will have read about one of the greatest ever pairings in the history of bridge, the famous “Meckwell” – Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell. Both hugely talented, and playing a flawless system with real aggression and rarely ever putting a foot wrong in declarer play. A deadly combination!

The pair broke up shortly after Covid and recently in a podcast Meckstroth declared the partnership “over” – reason not fully known, but there was speculation that one player refused to get vaccinated and that spelt the end. A real loss to bridge.

Rodwell has been to Bermuda Regional and was once on my panel show and was just superb.

Here is Meckstroth in action in the USBC Open Championship in 2021 – he was on the Levine team playing against the Henner team. The deal was covered by Andrew Robson in The Times in London (see the hand and bidding in Figures 1 and 2).

In the Open Room the contract was just four hearts. Over there East led the Ace of clubs and continued with the eight. Declarer won with dummy’s king and lazily and erroneously ruffed a club with the seven of hearts, East’s overruff holding her to 11 tricks, plus 450 North/South.

In the Closed Room the bidding made it clear to East that her diamonds were useless, so against Meckstroth rising-star Anam Tebha found the devilish lead of the eight of clubs!

This is what Robson wrote in The Times: “Meckstroth will have reasoned as follows: ‘For my play to matter, East has to have led from the Queen or Ace of clubs. Would East really lead away from the Queen, which is much more likely to cost than gain?’ Jeff will also have reflected that if East had not led a club, he would have had to play East for the Ace of clubs anyway and lead towards the King. Based on all of this, Meckstroth went up with dummy’s King and returned a club. East won and exited with the two of hearts and declarer won in dummy, cashed another heart, and claimed, plus 980 and 11 IMPs.”

Levine won the match by a single IMP, 16-15, and secured the last of the eight qualifying places in the knockout phase. If the contract had failed, Henner would have been the team to advance, so the Meckstroth play was huge!

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, November 18

North/South

1. Rachael Gosling – Willi Christensen

2. Pat Siddle – Tony Saunders

3. Jack Rhind – Peter Donnellan

East/West

1. Aida Bostelmann – Heather Woolf

2. Diana Diel – Stephanie Kyme

3. JaneSmith – Sancia Garrison

Monday, November 21

North/South

1. Sheena Rayner – Magda Farag

2. Ed Betteto – Joe Wakefield

3. Jane Clipper – Caroline Svensen

East/West

1. Diana Diel – Dorry Lusher

2. Diana Downs – Gloria Rego

3. Gertie Barker – Jane Smith

Tuesday, November 22

North/South

1. Katyna Rabain – Louise Payne

2. Malcolm Moseley – Mark Stevens

3. Rosemary Smith – Felicity Lunn

East/West

1. Jo-Ann Dawson – Julia Cook

2. Nikki Boyce – Carol Eastham

3. Vivian Pereira – Wilena White

Wednesday, November 23

North/South

1. Linda Pollett – Bill Pollett