A little bit of self indulgence this week as I dedicate this column to the imminent departure of Jean Johnson, who has been my most regular partner and great friend over the last four decades and an ever active member of the Bridge Club.

Last Wednesday I turned up at the Bridge Club for a farewell lunch for Jean, who will be leaving the island after some 50 years, a large part of which was spent at the club!

Jean has been an important member over those years both at the playing level and, for a long period of time, in helping the club grow at the Administrative and teaching level.

Beyond that, she had the unenviable task of being my most regular partner for much of that time — and that is not easy!

Jean has won many titles at and away from the Club including 8 Ladies Pairs titles, 3 Open Pairs, 2 Mixed Pairs and 4 Team titles.

She has also had some good wins at the Bermuda Regional and has represented Bermuda at the Open Teams, Ladies Teams and Ladies Pairs level.

All told, a really successful run at the Club both at a local and a representative level.

Jean has also held the position of President of the Bridge Club in 1988 and served as chairman of the Bermuda Regional and has been on the local ACBL Unit 198 Committee — I also remember her rolling up her sleeves and painting at the time the new Bridge Club was built on Pomander Road!

I first partnered Jean in the mid- seventies when she had come from playing mainly social bridge in England and she soon acclimatised to the cut and thrust of duplicate pairs.

Always a good card player, she soon became a fan of the Precision Club system and, while she now plays 2/1 with many of her partners, Precision is where she is most comfortable.

In the last few years we played most of our bridge online, first on OK Bridge and now on BBO, and our games are usually successful and, most of the time, enjoyable!

She will be hugely missed at the Club and I think the lunch, which had a tremendous turnout, and the presentation was a fitting tribute to a member who has contributed so much over the years, as were the words from President Jane Smith and Tony Saunders, probably Jean’s most regular partner in recent times.

One area of Jean’s game that has taken her card play to a new level is the ability to look beyond the obvious declarer play on a hand, and seek to improve her chances of success by doing some no-cost preparation before making the crucial play.

This play from a hand last week was impressive.

? QJ65

?Q107

?63

?AJ75

? 32 ? 7

? J8654 ? K2

? QJ10 ? AK9542

? 863 ? Q1094

? AK10984

? A93

? 87

?K2

Jean opened the South hand 1 Spade and with four card trump support and a bit of shape I bid the spade game with my 10 points, knowing that 10 tricks had to have a chance opposite any opening hand.

This bid is easier to make at Precision than in 2/1, as you know that partners hand is limited to 15 points and she is rarely going to go on some futile slam chase.

West led the Queen of diamonds and then a diamond to East’s King, and East then switched to a trump.

Jean won and drew one more round of trumps — it looks like the play of the heart suit would determine success or failure but all good declarers look for other routes to success before making the obvious play.

The club suit offered an opportunity — if either opponent held Q, Qx or Qxx of clubs the jack could be set up for a heart discard.

So, King of Clubs, Ace of Clubs and a club ruff yielded no queen so it looked as if all that was left was the heart play with West more likely to hold the King given that East had already shown the Ace King of diamonds and the club queen.

Before this, however, Jean made one last seemingly useless play of crossing to dummy with a trump and ruffing the last club.

This was now the actual layout of the remaining cards:

? Q

?Q107

?

?

? ?

? J86 ? K2

? 10 ? A2

? ?

? A

? A93

?

?

Now Ace of hearts and a low heart and when West played low Jean stuck to the plan and guessed to put up the queen.

This, disappointingly, lost to the King but poor East now, thanks to the seemingly pointless club ruff, had to lead a diamond providing a ruff and discard — contract made!

A really delightful play!

Jean, bon voyage, though I still look forward to many enjoyable online games in BBO!