The Central American and Caribbean Bridge Federation Zonal Championships commenced in Barbados on Monday and Bermuda is represented in the Open Event by Alan Douglas and John Burville, Judy Bussell and Stephanie Kyme, and Diana Diel and Lynn O’Neill, who qualified via the local trials.

To my surprise, and apparently to most other Bridge Club members on the Island, Bermuda appears to have also entered a women’s team comprising Sheena Rayner and Magda Farag, and Gertie Barker and Jane Smith, so I will report on both.

It looks like a straight round robin in both events, which finished on Wednesday for the Open and Thursday for the Women, with the semi-finals and finals set for Thursday, Friday and Saturday in which neither Bermuda team will be involved.

Both Bermuda teams got off to a disappointing start and after three days of play the Open team finished in eighth place in the nine-team field ahead of only the hosts Barbados. The women’s team played one further session and finished in fourth in the six-team field.

The results are probably below what one would have expected for our teams. While there will always be one or two good teams in each field, one would have hoped for a higher finish, particularly from the Open Team that earned their place through the local qualification event.

The team of the tournament appears to be Guadeloupe – they won the Seniors section to book their place in the Bermuda Bowl in Chennai, India, while their Open team is on top of the Open event and they are lying second in the Women’s section.

Today’s hand is a funny one and there is little to recommend the bidding or defence, but that will lead to some good instruction on how to bid and defend against a gambling 3NT opening, which most people play as a 7-plus card solid minor and at most two points outside.

E/W Vul Dealer South

North

S K43

H Q7

D KQ10973

C 76

West

S Q102

H AK104

D AJ8

C 1098

East

S AJ965

H 86532

D 65

C 3

South

S 72

H J9

D 42

C AKQJ542

Bidding

South

3NT

West

DBL

North

Pass

East

Pass

South

Pass

First to the bidding …..South had his bid as did West but the same cannot be said for North and East.

North cannot pass after the double... North should simply bid 4 clubs and then see what happens. East should, in this sequence after North passes, bid 4 clubs, clearly asking partner to choose a major – on the lie of the cards 6 hearts is cold (but not 6 spades).

South’s pass is correct – although he suspected that North had slipped up, South has bid his hand and must play in 3NT – North could have Axx, Axx, Q10xxx, xx and 3NT would make.

Now to the defence…the standard defence against a gambling 3NT is different to the usual fourth best of your longest and strongest.

The rule is that you must lead any ace you have to look at dummy (and if you don’t have an ace lead a king) and since you know exactly what declarer has (a solid 7 card minor and nothing else) the defence then becomes an open book.

On this hand, West leads the ace king of hearts and knows they have at least 5 heart tricks when the queen and jack fall... there is more to be done.

West knows that East also holds the ace of spades, so at trick four he should cash the ace of diamonds and lead the spade queen knowing that partner can win the ace and cash hearts before sorting out the spade suit.

You can see what happens here. The defence takes 10 major suit tricks and the diamond ace... down 7.

What actually happened at the table? You won’t believe it but West led... a club! Don’t ask, as I have no idea!