The Junior Open Pairs ended with a bang last Tuesday, with David Pickering and Richard Keane putting together a storming 75 per cent second session to grab the top spot by just four match points from runaway first round leaders Delton Outerbridge and Mary-Leigh Burnett.

In third place were Mike Viotti and Kathy Keane, who put together two solid sessions.

The Pickering-Keane second session was exactly the same score that Outerbridge-Burnett had in their first session and was needed as the narrow winning margin showed.

The winners also won Flight B in the event and Flight C was won by Jean Wolosiuk and Nick Jones.

This is an excellent result for the winners and the second-placed pair also deserve plaudits for a two-session total that would win four times out of five — just not this time.

Viotti-Keane also had a good two-session total and Wolosiuk-Jones won their section pretty handily — well done to all of these pairs.

Before I get to the hand, some news. Thursday’s game will be a team event and if there are enough teams there will be an Open event and a 300 and under event — the sign-up sheet is at the bridge club and players are asked to sign up as a team of four no later than Wednesday lunchtime.

Now to the hand. It is one that you may have seen a variation of before and is again a play that some will spot, but will still have difficulty in executing at the table.

NORTH

S 653

H 874

D AJ1096

C 54

EAST

S J1098

H 963

D K87

C 873

SOUTH

S AK4

H AKJ5

D 53

C AK62

WEST

S Q72

H Q102

D Q42

C QJ109

South opened his powerhouse hand 2 Clubs, North bid a waiting 2 Diamonds and when South bid 2NT showing 22-24 HCP North was happy to raise to 3NT.

It turned out to be a flat board — almost! At 11 of the 12 tables the contract and the play was exactly the same.

West led a Club which declarer won to lead a low Diamond to the 10 and King.

East returned a Club which declarer won and took another Diamond finesse and very soon declarer had ten tricks with 4 Diamonds and two tricks in each of the other suits.

Easy, and everyone happily moved on to the next board.

So what happened at the twelfth table?

West at this table was a very experienced player and visualised just what declarer’s hand actually looked like, so when declarer led a low diamond at trick two, West played the Queen — second hand high.

Take a look at what this does to declarer, who realised that he could not win the trick as dummy would be cut off once the next Diamond trick was lost.

So declarer decides that West must have KQx or KQxx and ducks the Diamond, intending to finesse next time round.

East continued with a Club and declarer won to lead another Diamond to the 10 — shock, horror!

East won, declarer did not make one Diamond trick and eventually went an inglorious 2 down.

Brilliant defence from East — first that he saw it and second that he had the guts to execute!

Don’t you wish it was you making that play?