Many congratulations to Martha Ferguson and Judy King, who lifted the Bermuda Bridge Club Ladies Championship after a second-session charge that is surely unprecedented in local championships.

In joint second place were Lorna Anderson and Heather Woolf, who had a comeback of their own, together with Marge Way and Jane Smith.

After a remarkably even first session where the leaders, Jane Smith/Marge Way and Lynanne Bolton/Greta Marshall were on 54 per cent, Martha and Judy were propping up the nine-pair field with a score of 44.44 per cent and Lorna/Heather were three places higher in sixth place with 48.61 per cent, just ahead of Magda Farag/Sheena Rayner in seventh place with 46.53 per cent.

All that changed in the afternoon session with almost a complete reversal of performances, with Martha/Judy putting together a stunning 72 per cent game to sweep into first place and Lorna/Heather taking joint second with a 62.5 per cent game alongside Margie/Jane, who had two 54% sessions.

The winning margin over second was just 1.5 match points and finishing fourth, just one match point further back, with an excellent 63.54 per cent second session were Magda and Sheena.

The winning pair are a great example of two really good players who still thirst to get better and understand that in the game of bridge, whether you are beginner, intermediate, advanced or expert, there is something to learn every week and every year. That alone is a powerful ingredient of a well-deserved success and those that don’t have that realisation simply won’t progress.

It’s good to see hard work rewarded, and also to a pair who are and have been so deeply involved with the club – a big well done to Martha and Judy and all the podium pairs for providing such a stunning finish.

Today’s hand arose in an online game and saw declarer thinking at trick one and then playing the hand in solid fashion to land the contract. See Figure 1 and the bidding in Figure 2.

West led the Queen of clubs and declarer resisted the temptation to relax when dummy appeared. Declarer counted nine winners and saw that a tenth could only come from the diamond suit. He realised that if diamonds were 4-3 and trumps 2-1 he would have three entries (the King of clubs and the ten-nine of trumps) to ruff the diamonds and another one (the four of trumps) to enjoy the set-up diamond winner.

So, he took the first trick in hand with the Ace of clubs and advanced the ten of diamonds. West followed with a low diamond and East took the trick with his King.

He continued with Ace and another heart, taken by West with his Queen. West then switched to the Jack of clubs. Declarer took this in dummy with the King, then ruffed a diamond with his Ace of trumps.

Next he crossed to dummy by leading his eight of trumps to dummy’s nine so that he could ruff a second diamond with his King of trumps, noting that the diamonds had broken 4-3.

Declarer now led his five of trumps to dummy’s ten and ruffed a third diamond with his Queen of trumps, thereby establishing the Queen of diamonds as a winner. All that remained was for declarer to cross back to dummy by leading his two of trumps to dummy’s four.

Then, after discarding his remaining club on the Queen of diamonds, declarer claimed ten tricks: seven trumps, a diamond and two clubs.

Super play and a wonderful use of entries in the trump suit – so often in the play of the hand the trump suit can provide entries to both hands in order to maximise the chances of success.

• Some sad news to close – we learnt of the passing of Randy Vaucrosson of Bermuda and just this week of Eric Kokish of Canada.

Randy was a super young man and was part of the Vaucrosson bridge-playing family who were such a big part of the Bridge Club in the 1970s and 1980s – father Charles was a top bridge player and mother Marge was a regular fixture at the club games.

The brilliant Eric Kokish finally succumbed after a long fight and leaves behind a great legacy in bridge – his partnership with Peter Nagy, along with Graves and Mittelmann, formed the core of a solid Canadian team right through the 1980s and 1990s. Eric was also a fixture at our Regional for many years, where he edited an amazing daily bulletin and was on all my panel shows, where his expertise and humour were on full display.

They will both be missed, and our thoughts go out to their families and friends.

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, June 9

North/South

1. Frank Starzomski-Jane MacDonald

2. Peter Donnellan-Magda Farag

3. Geoff Bell-Kathleen Bell

East/West

1. Diana Diel-Stephanie Kyme

2. Martha Ferguson-Judy King

3. Lisa Rhind-Donna Leitch

Saturday June 13

2023 Ladies Pairs Club Championship

Winners: Martha Ferguson-Judy King

Monday June 12

North/South

1. Judy King-Janes Smith

2. Jack Rhind-Margaret Way

3. Elysa Burland-Greta Marshall

East/West

1. Lorna Anderson-Heather Woolf

2. Judith Bussell-Stephanie Kyme

3. Patricia Siddle-Diana Diel

Tuesday, June 13

North/South

1. Stuart Clare-Sarah Bowers

2. Duncan Silver-Marion Silver

3. Ahzjanai Smith-Daque Davis

East/West

1. Malcolm Moseley-Mark Stevens

2. Jean Schilling-John Thorne

3. Nikki Boyce-Carol Eastham

Wednesday, June 14

North/South

1. Judith Bussell-Tony Saunders

2. Joseph Wakefield-Magda Farag

3. Diana Diel-Patricia Siddle

East/West

1. Margaret Way-William Pollett

2. Elysa Burland-Molly Taussig

3. Gertrude Barker-Jane smith

Thursday, June 15

No Game