Another fantastic Bermuda Regional came to a close on Friday night and I am running out of superlatives to describe just how this tournament gets better each year. We had a terrific turnout with 376 visitors from overseas (up from 295 last year), who were joined by 158 local players (exactly the same as last year), giving us a total player count of 534. Despite the fabulous weather, which reduces the numbers for the morning and afternoon games, the table count was up from 966 tables to 1,120 tables, an increase of 154 tables which is really good news. Big groups from New Jersey and Halifax added a ton to the count and the atmosphere and those players end up being our best ambassadors, so the future is bright!

Many congratulations to all concerned! Tournament Chairperson Katrina Van Pelt built on her great achievements in 2013 and was the driving force behind a superb Committee and Director group that ran the tournament. The Fairmont Southampton put their best foot forward and the staff certainly went out of their way to let our visitors know why this island is just so special. There are too many people to name here, but I have to mention Chief Tournament Director Sol Weinstein and his team who seem to find the right touch in keeping with the way we run our tournament, and Janet Evans who produced a really great bulletin. It is going to be tough to build on this, but whoever takes over from Katrina will have something very strong to build upon.

The locals continue to do terrifically well in all the events and now that we have many flights and brackets in each event, more and more locals figure in the overall standings as you can see from the list below — very soon this list may get too long for the body of this column!

Saturday Charity Game

Section A: 3rd David Ezekiel, Jean Johnson

Section B: Winners — Charles Hall, Marv Norden

3rd – John Hoskins, Diana Diel

Section C: Winners — Simon and Freya Giffen

Newcomer Event: 2nd George Correia and Mary Leigh Burnett

Sunday Teams

Bracket 2: Winners – David and Sally Sykes

Charles Hall – Tony Saunders

2nd – Marge Way – Misha Novakovic

Diana Diel – Brenda Fortunate

Bracket 3: Winners – Rachael Gosling – John Glynn

Simon Giffen – Elizabeth McKee

2nd – Eddie and Stephanie Kym, Lynanne Bolton – Judy Bussell

Bracket 4: 3rd – Russell and Dee Craft, John and Sue Hodge

Bracket 6: Winners – Michael Tait, Jane Clipper

Donna Leitch – Katrina Van Pelt

Monday-Tuesday Championship Pairs

Flight A: Winners – Allan Graves – Joe Wakefield

Flight B: 2nd – Simon Giffen – Rachael Gosling

Monday-Tuesday Gold Pairs

Bracket 1 and 2: Winners – Katrina Van Pelt – Donna Leitch

Bracket 2: 3rd – Peter Donnellan – Paul Thompson

Wednesday-Thursday Open Pairs

Flight A: Winners – John Glynn and Robert Todd

Flight B: Winners – Elizabeth McKee – Rachael Gosling

2nd – Gertie Barker – Magda Farag

3rd – Freya Giffen – Greta Marshall

Wednesday-Thursday Gold Pairs

Flight A: 2nd – Danielle Cloutier – Noella Cloutier

Friday Swiss

Flight A: Winners – Misha Novakovic - Marge Way – Tony Saunders – Harry Kast

Flight B: Winners – Judy Bussell – Stephanie Kyme

Nan Massie – Robert La Tourette

3rd – Rachael Gosling – John Glynn

Elizabeth McKee – Simon Giffen

Flight C: 2nd – Paul Thompson – Peter Donnellan

John and Sue Hodge

Flight D: Winners – Michael Tait – Jane Clipper,Lorna Anderson – Charles Pearman

Championship Knockouts

Bracket 2: Winners – Pat Riding – Kerry Hicks

Brian Meyer – Tiger Lili Williams

Bracket 3: 3rd – Sylvie Labelle, Noella Cloutier

Danielle Cloutier – Martha Ferguson

Norman Bach Trophy

Winner: Misha Novakovic 35.97

2nd John Glynn 35.07

3rd Tony Saunders 34.98

Bermuda Bridge Club Trophy (0-50mp)

Winner Johnny Darrell 5.69

2nd Elizabeth Baillie 3.76

3rd Veronica Boyce 3.50

Many congratulations to all concerned, especially the Winners with special mention to the winners of the top flights in each event, certainly not an easy task in a pretty strong field.

Congratulations also to Misha Novakovic and Johnny Darrell for winning the local Masters Point races — an excellent achievement by both. The Norman Bach race was as tight as I’ve ever seen it with John Glynn and Tony Saunders less than one masterpoint behind!

And last, but certainly not least, a huge well done to Pat Riding who was part of the winning team in the Bracket 2 knockouts — that is a tough event and it was marvellous to see Pat come up for her prize at the Banquet. Well done Pat!

Not a lot of space for a hand this week but this one from the Regional has lessons for both declarer and defence.

? Q106

? KJ65

• AK62

? 63

? J95 ? K843

? A2 ? 3

• QJ104 • 9873

? Q854 ? 10972

? A72

? Q109874

• 5

? AKJ

South opened One Heart and after North temporised with 2 Diamonds rebid the six card heart suit. All this got to North’s head and in no time at all South was dragged into playing a heart slam!

West led the queen of diamonds and it all looked pretty bleak as a spade loser looked inevitable in addition to the trump Ace. Declarer won and led the heart 10 and after a brief flicker West played low ... declarer now saw a chance! He played the heart jack which held ... now king of diamonds throwing a spade, diamond ruff, Ace-King of clubs, club ruff and another diamond ruff left this position:

? Q106

? K5

• None

? None

? J95 ? K843

? A ? None

• None • None

? Q ? 10

? A7

? Q98

• None

? None

Declarer now exited with a trump and West was on lead ... a club was clearly fatal so he led a low spade and declarer had to guess — play the queen or the ten? Having done well so far Declarer continued that by putting in the 10 and the slam rolled home!

The lessons? For declarer, never give up, stay focused and play for the best lie of the cards. For the defence? Stay awake! It is difficult, but West was lazy in playing low on the heart ... declarer has shown six hearts so the only reason for playing low is in case partner has the stiff queen and declarer is about to misguess ... not a high probability. If West wins the Ace and exits with a red card declarer must go down ... easy with all four hands on view but not impossible to see at the table.