The Men’s and Ladies’ pairs concluded on Friday last week and as predicted the Ladies’ winners were almost decided after the first session and the Men’s event was still up for grabs with nothing separating the top pairs.

In the Ladies’ event first round leaders Jane Smith and Gertie Barker had another solid session to comfortably take the title by a clear 16 match points from Diana Diel-Elizabeth McKee, who themselves put together two good sessions to jump into second place from fourth, and Ruby Douglas-Lynanne Bolton who moved to third place from fifth after the first session.

The win by Gertie and Jane was an emphatic one — an impressive showing from one of the most experienced pairs in the field, and should serve them well in the forthcoming events both home and abroad in 2017

In the Men’s pairs Alan Douglas-Delmont Simmons, who were lying just behind the leaders after the first session, put together a huge 68 per cent second session to ease to victory by some 10 match points.

An excellent 63 per cent second session from Harry Kast and Edward Betteto saw them leapfrog into second place ahead of Peter Donnellan and Bill Pollett who finished 7 match points behind in third.

Alan has been one of the leading Bermuda players for four decades and he is a prolific winner at the Club and Regional level and this was clearly the pair to watch after session one.

I think this is Delmont’s first Men’s pairs win and it is really great to see him on the Winners podium after many years of consistent play at the Club — he doesn’t play as often as others but reminds me of David Pereira in just having a good feel for the game.

The only newish name in the pairs in the frame is Edward Betteto who partnered stalwart Harry Kast — I hear Edward is an experienced player to watch so we will see how that develops.

Well done to all the winners and placing pairs for some solid performances as both fields had some strength in depth.

All the six top pairs put in two good sessions which is good to see in a tournament setting.

This week’s hand is a real fun one and can go under the heading of “life imitates art”! Most of you will be familiar with the famous “James Bond” hand in Moonraker when our suave hero outfoxed the horrible nasty Drax by opening 7C on a hand that looked like S-None H-None D-109876532 C-AQ1065 and of course made it with an outrageous dummy.

Well, look what happened to poor “Selma” in real life on Bridge Base Online!

Selma picked up: S AQ94

H AQJ

D Q

C AQJ65

She was the dealer and opened a strong 2 Clubs, heard LHO bid 3 Diamonds, partner bid 3 Spades and RHO bid 6 Diamonds. Selma loudly doubled … this was the full hand!

Dealer East, E/W Vulnerable

North

S J732

H 63

D AJ42

C 987

WEST

S K10865

H 84

D K

C K10432

EAST

S AQ94

H AQJ

D Q

C AQJ65

SOUTH

S None

H K10987653

D 10987653

C None

West led his singleton trump but no lead was going to trouble this contract — South won in dummy, led a Heart and now the hand was over, 12 easy tricks!

You will note that East West with their 31 points had a good “sacrifice” in 6 Spades which only goes one down.

Once again distribution triumphs over High Card Points, as Bond did over Drax all those years ago! It’s why we love this game … I think.