Sorry about the missing column last week – I’m going to blame it on the demands of the new grandson in the faint hope you will believe that .…..

Every year the Bridge Club keeps a tally of the masterpoints earned in the Open and Junior games in order to determine the Player of The Year titles.

Congratulations to Jane Smith who took the 2022 Club Player of the Year title and to Heidi Dyson, who won 2022 Junior Player of the Year.

The Club POTY competition was based on points earned during the 173 open games held since 7 February 7, 2022, and Jane earned 88.02 masterpoints, a healthy eight masterpoints ahead of Gertie Barker (80.71) with Margie Way (76.13) in third place. That is an excellent rate of scoring by all these players over that many games.

The Junior award was limited to points earned at Tuesday evening games and Junior/Novice Championships, and remained close right up to the last game held just before Christmas. When the smoke had cleared Heidi had earned 6.11 masterpoints, just ahead of Neil Gilbertson (5.84) in second and Ben Stone (5.64) in third.

Many congratulations to the winners and the podium pairs!

Now that we are back to live games there is a lot happening at the Club.

The first Junior Senior night of 2023 will be held at 7.15pm on Thursday, February 2. Sign up as individuals on the notice board.

For those of you who have not attended these games before, this is a social bridge game held to enable members who do not normally play at the same sessions to get to know each other at the bridge table.

Each “junior” player will be paired with a more “senior” player (classification based on MP not age!!). While the first priority is to have an enjoyable evening, it is an opportunity for junior players to pick up a few tips from their partners, and for the senior players, the chance to help their partners grow in confidence and feel comfortable playing in a game where there is a wide variety of experience around the room.

Not long after this, the 2023 Non Life Masters Championship will be held on Saturday, February 18, with two sessions starting at 9.30am.

This Championship is open to all members who have less than 500 masterpoints on the day and who are not already Life Masters. If you need to check your current masterpoint holding ahead of signing up, ask the director when you are at the club.

Tuesday players who feel they have now got the basics of the game under their belts are very welcome to take part – it is a good competitive experience, not as tough as the Open Championships, and if you want to have your name on the board as the winner some time in the future you need to put yourself in the line of fire as early as possible!

The sign-up sheet will be posted at the club on Monday. The list will close on Wednesday, February 16.

Also, a reminder here that for a trial period the Tuesday game will start at 7pm – keep an eye on the club website for any changes.

This hand (see Figure 1) came up on BBO last week and I loved it, as it contained one of my favourite suit combinations which required some technique. Declarer against us didn’t handle it too well, but very few declarers would.

South opened a 15/17 NT and North bid two diamonds as a transfer to hearts – South bid two hearts and North now made the good bid of 3NT showing five hearts in a 5-3-3-2 hand and offering South the choice to play there or go back to four hearts – South, for some reason chose to bid four hearts.

Strange decision, with no ruffing values and no doubletons 3NT would usually be a better choice, but the contract was four hearts and South now had to make it!

East lead a passive club and South took stock – with two certain diamond losers, declarer had to avoid losing two hearts and it seemed that West had to have the heart King in order for declarer to lose only one heart. There is, of course, no way to avoid at least one heart loser with this holding.

Declarer won the club in hand and immediately led a low heart to the Queen – when this lost to the King there was still another heart to lose and the contract went down on.

Bad luck? Yes, probably for an intermediate to good player, but not for someone who fancies themselves as an advanced or expert player. The correct play in the heart suit may surprise you, but try and follow it.

Since there is always at least one loser in the suit it doesn’t harm to cash the Ace first to see what happens – the Ace draws the 10 from RHO and the seven from LHO.

Now come back to hand and lead a heart towards the Q763 – if LHO plays the King and RHO follows low your troubles are over. But what if:

LHO plays smoothly low, or LHO hesitates slightly and then plays low?

Well, now you might decide that RHO started with K10, and so you don’t play the Queen but just play low from dummy and RHO has to win the King perforce and the contract is made.

The full hand is in Figure 2.

Notice that cashing the heart Ace first can never lose. Once in a while it will even catch the singleton King behind the AQ and turn three losers into two.

This is a tough suit combination to figure out, but there is another similar one that isn’t, and turns up way more often. For years, and every year, I bang away at the most misplayed suit combination in bridge which is Axxx opposite QJxx. Players usually cannot wait to lead the Queen in order to ‘trap’ the King, but trust me that this play can never win and can only lose. The correct play is to cash the Ace and then lead towards the Queen-Jack.

The way to get this play in your arsenal is to prove it to yourself – try distributing the five missing opposing cards (KJ1092) in all combinations (about 32 of them I think) between the opposing hands and then try the two plays, the finesse or the Ace first.

You will see that the finesse never gains, and that the Ace first gains in about half a dozen combinations, the remainder being neutral. Remember that if the King is in the ‘sandwich’ position it will cover the Queen when it is played.

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, January 6

1. Marge Way – Tony Saunders

2. Peter Donnellan – Bill Pollett

3. Caroline Svensen – Rachael Gosling

Monday, January 9

North/South

1. Sheena Rayner – Magda Farag

2. Diana Diel – Pat Siddle

3. Martha Ferguson – Marge Way

East/West

1. Joe Wakefield – Ed Betteto

2. Lorna Anderson – Heather Woolf

3. Charles Hall – Bill Pollett

Tuesday, January 10

North/South

1. Wilena White – Delton Outerbridge

2. Wenda Krupp – Sally Irvine

3. Marion Silver – Duncan Silver

East/West

1. Malcolm Moseley – Mark Stevens

2. Benjamin Stone – John Thorne

3. Nikki Boyce – Carol Eastham

Wednesday, January 11

North/South

1. Wendy Gray – Richard Gray

2. Kathy Keane – Donna Leitch

3. Gertie Barker – Jane Smith

East/West

1. Tracy Nash – Des Nash

2. Betsy Baillie – Martha Ferguson

3. Pat Siddle – Diana Diel

Thursday, January 12

1. Elizabeth McKee – Linda Pollett

2. Bill Pollett – John Rayner

3. Charles Hall – John Glynn

Friday, January 13

North/South

1. Pat Siddle – Tony Saunders

2. Wendy Gray – Richard Gray

3. Judy Bussell – Pat Colmet

East/West

1. Marge Way – Jane Smith

2. Ed Betteto – Rachael Gosling

3. Linda Pollett – Bill Pollett

Monday, January 16

North/South

1. Linda Pollett – Peter Donnellan

2. Gertie Barker – Jane Smith

3. Betsy Baillie – Joyce Pearson

East/West

1. Rachael Gosling – Molly Taussig

2. Joe Wakefield – Julia Patton

3. Marge Way – Martha Ferguson

Tuesday, January 17

North/South

1. Louise Payne – Katyna Rabain

2. Carol Jones – Frances McManus

3. Felicity Lunn – Marion Silver

East/West

1/2.Malcolm Moseley – Mark Stevens

1/2.James Fielding – Ben Stone

3. Richard Hall – Tim Mardon

Wednesday, January 18

1. Linda Pollett – Bill Pollett

2. Gertie Barker – Jane Smith

3/4.Joe Wakefield – Magda Farag

3/4.Betsy Baillie – Charles Hall

Thursday, January 19

1. Gertie Barker – John Glynn

2. John Rayner – Bill Pollett

3. Elizabeth McKee – Linda Pollett

Non-Bridge Club Online Results for Bridge Club Members

January 7 – Stephanie Kyme and Jean Johnson – 10th out of 282 Pairs

January 8 – Marge Way and Diana Diel – 1st out of 188 pairs