The Open Pairs concluded at the Bridge Club last Friday and the 2014 Champions are Diana Diel and Lyn O’Neill.

In second place were Gertie Barker and Jane Smith, with Judy Bussell and Stephanie Kyme in third and Sheena Rayner and Charles Hall in fourth.

Sixteen pairs turned out for the event and Diana and Lyn had a good first session and took a five-point lead into the second session ahead of Gertie and Jane who had an excellent second session with a 63.61 percent game, but came up an agonising one match point short of the winners who recorded a 60.20 percent game which was enough to hold on.

All the top four pairs are experienced players and would have been in the five pairs in this field that would have been fancied to win.

Many congratulations to Lyn and Diana — they have both won numerous events at the Club over the years and are clearly as competitive as ever.

Commiserations to Gertie and Jane for losing by such a narrow margin but they clearly gave it a great try in the second session.

Now that the Open Pairs is completed there are still a number of events coming up at the Club in October.

Junior Teams, Tuesday evenings, October 7 and 14 — players with fewer than 100 MPs.

Sign up sheet is on the noticeboard. Deadline for entries is Monday, October 6.

ACBL wide Instant Matchpoint, Thursday afternoon, October 16 — game time will be 12.30pm.

Ernie Owen Individual, Friday evening, October 17 — sign up sheet will be up shortly.

STaC week — all regular games during the week of October 27.

Also, don’t forget the new Friday afternoon game!

This week’s hand is a variation on one I saw posted on Bridge Base Online where a couple of problem hands are posted every week.

? QJ7

? KJ32

? KQ8

? AQ7

? AK6

? A974

? AJ109

? 83

North opened one Diamond, you respond one Heart and you soon find yourself in six Hearts.

West leads the Spade ten, over to you! Hint, think a lot about the possible layout of the trump suit in the East West hands! It is teams, so all you want to do is make your contract! Start thinking!

Given it a good try?

Okay, here goes … there are only two suits here that matter, Clubs and Hearts. You have no options in Clubs other than the finesse, the King is either onside or it isn’t!

You do, however, have a few options in Hearts depending on whether you need four heart tricks or whether you can afford a loser. Given that is the case, you need to find that out first by starting with the Club finesse.

If it loses you have no choice but to play West for the Queen of Hearts … win any return after the club finesse loses and play the Ace of Hearts and a Heart to the Jack. If that holds and East follows cash the King and the contract makes.

So, what if the Club finesse wins — now you have to really think?

Now you can afford a safety play in Hearts in order give yourself the best chance of making, as you can now afford to give up a Heart trick.

Stick with me, I said this was hard — in fact I’m beginning to regret starting this hand!

If Hearts are 5-0 you are probably going down anyway … if they are 4-1 with West having Q10xx you can survive by the normal heart play. But what if East has Q10xx? You can survive that if you plan for it!

Now to the play…..cash the King of Hearts first and lead a low one from dummy and if East plays low insert the nine!

If West wins this the Hearts are 3-2 and the rest is easy … if East had started with Q10xx your nine wins and it is also easy.

What if East shows out on the second Heart? Go up with the Ace and lead towards the Jx — West is helpless.

The full hand:

Notice that the ‘normal’ Heart play would end up with two losers in the Heart suit — the recommended play caters for Q10xx in either hand.

Again, congrats to Lyn and Diana!