David Ezekiel, Bridge

The Bridge Club Christmas party was held last week and from all accounts was a resounding success with some 81 members attending. The pictures on the Bridge Club website (www.bermudabridge.com) tell their own story — the club transformed into a nightclub setting, all the men looking great and mostly in black tie, and the ladies as always stealing the show with an array of great-looking party dresses.

I am told that Food4Thought excelled themselves with the fare available on the night and that most members thought that this was one of the best-organised and enjoyable parties in the long list of some very good ones.

None of this happens without the volunteers at the club who put it all together and the main organisers Judy King, Martha Ferguson and Elizabeth Mckee deserve a ton of credit, along with the large number of helpers on the Saturday and Sunday who have been separately thanked. Well done to Joyce Pearson who beat out some big guns in the fun bridge event on the night.

The end of year prizes were handed out at the event and big congratulations to president Ed Betteto who took the Player of the Year prize for the player with the best performance over the Club Championships. Congratulations also to Club Player of the Year Diana Diel, Intermediate Player of the Year Bill Pollett and Junior Player of the Year Katyna Rabian — more on these awards in next week’s column.

This coming Thursday, December 12, sees the staging of the Ernie Owen Individual Championship, an event I helped get started many years ago after the tragic death of my long time friend and bridge partner.

The event is proving popular with 44 players already signed up and the final table count will probably close at 56 or 14 tables which will allow for two sections of 7.

Ernie was a great friend and we had a lot of fun and success at the table — we travelled to a number of events on the Bermuda team including a few Teams and Pairs World Championships and were able to hold our own against the best.

Ernie was a superb player and perhaps his major strength, and weakness, was his love of bidding theory and structure, as a result of which he was for ever tinkering with our system which changed on a weekly basis!

One week we played in a 3NT contract with 29 points between us, but had xx opposite Qx in the Heart suit and the opponents ran six Hearts for down 2 — the result was replicated pretty much at every table, but that wasn’t enough for Ernie who went home to think about it.

The next day our system changed! Over a 1NT opening a bid of two Spades was now asking the opener for a useless doubleton or tripleton — opener was asked to either bid this suit or bid 3NT if he had all suits covered. If he bid a suit, the responder either bid 3NT or bid a three card major (his lack of using stayman denied holding four of a major) and the idea was to find a suitable 4-3 major suit game.

No amount of explaining to Ernie that the information given to opponents made this a dangerous gadget had any effect — so we decided to play this.

The next week was the Open pairs and lo and behold this hand turned up!

I opened a 13/15 NT with the South hand and Ernie trotted out our new convention with a bid of two Spades — I now showed my useless doubleton by bidding three Diamonds, which clearly meant we couldn’t play, after which Ernie bid three Hearts — I now showed my Spade suit and Ernie raised to game by bidding four Spades.

This was a resounding success — not only did we stay out of the doomed 3NT but when West led his singleton Club against four Spades we wrapped up an easy 12 tricks for a massive top which, in fact, won us the event!

Needless to say we kept this in our system — but only for a while until the next good use for the two Spade bid came along!

Ernie will be remembered by all who knew him with good thoughts — he was a tough player with an acerbic sense of humour and he loved a good laugh — Suzie and Ernie were a big part of the Club and the game is a fitting memorial for someone who added so much to the Club. • Bridge results - Week of November 25Monday afternoon

North/South

1, Gertrude Barker/Edward Betteto

2, Harry Kast/Michael Bickley

3, William Pollett/Molly Taussig

East/West

1, Elizabeth McKee/Stephanie Kyme

2, Linda Pollett/Diana Diel

3, Martha Ferguson/Judy King

Tuesday evening junior game

North/South

1, Marion Silver/Duncan Silver

2, Katyna Rabain/Louise Payne

East/West

1, Malcolm Moseley/Finn Moseley

2, Sandra Ogden/George Ogden

Wednesday morning

North/East

1, Edward Betteto/Margaret Way

2, Diana Diel/Patricia Siddle

3, Geoff Bell/Kathleen Bell

East/West

1, Lynanne Bolton/Allyson Eadie

2, Michael Bickley/Dorry Lusher

3, Elizabeth McKee/Joseph Wakefield

Thursday evening

North/South

1, Judith Bussell/Diana Diel

2, Betsy Baillie/Lisa Ferrari

East/West

1, Edward Betteto/Fabian Hupe

2, Elizabeth McKee/Linda Pollett

Friday afternoon

North/South

1, William Pollett/Linda Pollett

2, Judith Bussell/Stephanie Kyme

3, Edward Betteto/Margaret Way

East/West

1, Martha Ferguson/Judy King

2, Patricia Siddle/Tony Saunders

3, Desmond Nash/George Correia