The Mixed Pairs Club Championship ended at the Bridge Club last Friday and first round leaders (and heavy favourites going into the event), Alan Douglas and Jane Smith, ran out comfortable winners with another win in the second session and a score of 205, which was 3½ boards ahead of second place.

David Cordon and Julia Lunn finished in second on 179.5 after lying in third place after the first session, and they overtook Rachael Gosling and Simon Giffen, who finished in third place on 172.5.

Close behind in fourth place were Eddie and Stephanie Kyme and Magda Farag, and John Burville completed the leaderboard in fifth.

Alan and Jane were always going to be tough to beat, as both of them not only have top-class individual credentials, but are also a reasonably regular partnership.

Alan has been one of the leading players in Bermuda for as long as I can remember and Jane has also established herself as one of the top women players on the island over the past few years, so they deserved to be well fancied in this field.

The other four pairs in the frame are also all strong partnerships and there were really no surprises among the finishing positions. Well done to Alan and Jane — it is one thing being a leading contender but the pressure is then on to deliver, and they did.

Next up is the Non Life Masters event that concludes next week, so results will be in the column the week after.

Bridge, in addition to being a game of numbers and odds and percentages, is also a game that allows for a great deal of invention, which makes it the great game it is.

With that in mind, here is this week’s hand.

• Dealer E/W vulnerable, duplicate pairs

North

S976

H74

D84

CAQJ982

South

SAK85

HAK6

DAK92

C54

You are South and open 2NT (20-22) and partner raises to 3NT wondering whether six can make. Anyway, you are playing pairs so every overtrick is vital anyway.

West leads the Heart Queen and you quite like what you see … you win the Heart and lead a Club and the King pops up from East! You are delighted and are just about to grab the Ace when you stop yourself — if West has the singleton King then East has 10765 and the suit will not run after the top three tricks, so you make the clever play of letting the King hold.

Now you win the return and claim eleven tricks with 5 Clubs, three Aces and three Kings — aren’t you a clever bunny! So the hand was:

North

S976

H74

D84

CAQJ982

East

SQJ

H853

DQJ105

C10765

South

SAK85

HAK6

DAK92

C54

West

S10432

HQJ1092

D763

CK

West, a very good player, mumbles something like “good play” and you move on to the next board.

The game is now over and you go to compare scores and you see that you got a zero on the board! You grab the hand records and this is what you see!

North

S976

H74

D84

CAQJ982

East

SQJ

H8532

DQJ105

C765

South

SAK85

HAK6

DAK92

C54

West

S10432

HQJ109

D763

CK10

West had bamboozled you by the brilliant play of the King from K10 meaning that you made 11 tricks while the rest of the room made 12. West could see what was coming if he played low on the Club and took his only chance by making the play of the King.

But don’t feel bad because West meant it when he said good play — he gave you the credit of being able to spot the danger and make the “right” play — which he knew was wrong ...

Small consolation, but this high-level cut and trust and brilliance only comes along once in a while and you should enjoy being part of it, despite the bad result!