After an eventful second session of the Open Pairs, Marge Way and Misha Novakovic came from a long way back to grab the title.

During the week before the second session Rachael Gosling had to fly out due to a family bereavement so all of the sudden the second placed pair, Rachael and Simon Giffen, were out of the event and first session leaders Jean Johnson and Charles Hall had a lot of daylight between them and second place.

But as I said last week, a two-board lead is nice but still vulnerable when there are 26 boards left to play — and so it proved.

A lacklustre second session by the leaders saw Way and Novakovic finish as winners by just over half a board with a 60.5 per cent second session – many congratulations to the winners for two solid sessions!

Finishing in third were Eddie and Stephanie Kyme followed by Jane Smith and Gertie Barker in fourth, while Heather Woolf and George Correia did really well to hold on to fifth.

Well done to all these pairs and to Johnson-Hall who finished second but will no doubt have found the loss hard to take.

Anyone who played in the Wednesday morning game on the 23rd must have had a great time.

I have never seen a hand record with so many interesting hands and hands that were super powerful. Falling into that group was this ridiculously strong North hand, by some distance the best hand I have ever seen in terms of high card points.

Board 26. Both Vul, Dealer East

North

S AQ

H AKQJ6

D AKQ

C AKJ

West

S 9642

H 753

D 762

C Q102

East

S 1053

H 1092

D 10543

C 854

South

S KJ87

H 84

D J98

C 9763

So how does one bid a hand like this playing 2 over 1? North starts with 2 Clubs, strong and artificial, and South will bid 2 Diamonds which most play as a weak hand but not a bust – with a bust South would respond 2 Hearts over the two Clubs.

Now North bids 2 Hearts and South should probably bid 2NT at which stage North, in my opinion, has only one bid – 7 No Trump.

There are only 7 points missing and South must almost certainly have the Spade King as part of his 2NT bid plus either the Club Queen or the Spade Jack, all of which makes 7 No Trump odds on to make.

Those who play Power Precision have an easier time … after 1C by North showing 16+, 1D by South showing 0-7, 1H by North showing ANY hand with 19+ now South bids 1NT showing 5-7 HCP.

North now has an easier 7NT bid as the King of Spades has to be with South to make up the 5-7 HCP.

Do you see something else interesting about this hand?

Every Grand Slam makes 7NT and 7 Hearts are obvious, 7 Clubs and 7 Spades a little less so, but even 7 Diamonds makes on a 3-3 fit — try it!

Win any lead, play three Spades pitching a Club, cash the two Clubs, cash three Hearts and simply cross-ruff the rest.

Quite an amazing hand to come up at the table.