The 2018 Bermuda Sectional concluded last Monday and chairman Peter Donnellan can be well satisfied with how it went.

Attendance was once again great with 100 tables in play, just shy of last year’s record table count and, based on the people I spoke to, the atmosphere and refreshments throughout the event were top notch.

Our own ACBL tournament director, Jack Rhind, did his usual calm and efficient job and reports that there were no ‘incidents’ which required strong action during the event.

Peter also thanked Diana Diel, Ellen Davidson, Dianna Kempe and Kate Viotti in his wrap-up, and we all know the importance of the volunteers at these events.

With six pairs events and one team event there were many different winners in the three flights. Here is the full list of winners:

Friday afternoon

Flight A: Ed Betteto and Alan Douglas

Flight B & C: Ellen Davidson and Jeanette Shaw

Friday evening

A: Ed Betteto and Fabian Hupe

B: Stephan Juliusburger and Rachael Gosling

C: Tracy and Des Nash

Saturday morning

A & B: Molly Taussig and John Glynn

C: Tracy and Des Nash

Saturday afternoon

A: Alan Douglas and Jane Smith

B: Julia Beach and Pat Siddle

C: Ellen Davidson and Dianna Kempe

99’er Event: Joanne Edwards and Robina Fullerton

Sunday teams

A. 1st/2nd: Diana Diel, Patricia McKee, Stephan Juliusburger and Rachael Gosling

1st/2nd: Alan Douglas, Sheena Rayner, Jane Smith and Magda Farag

B: Peter Donnellan, Lynanne Bolton, Wendy Gray and Richard Gray

D: Tracy Nash, Des Nash, George Correia and Caroline Svensen

Monday afternoon

A & B: Richard and Wendy Gray

C: Geoff and Kathleen Bell

Monday evening

A & B: Julia Beach and Pat Siddle

C: Katrina Van Pelt and Judy King

A few results caught the eye: the excellent performance of Ellen Davison and Jeanette Shaw in the Friday afternoon game where they not only won A & B but also finished sixth in A.

Alan Douglas had three Flight A wins over the seven events, and Tracy and Des Nash had three Flight C wins.

Players with two wins each were Stephan Juliusburger, Rachael Gosling, Ellen Davidson, Julia Beach, Pat Siddle, Wendy Gray and Richard Gray. Well done all.

In the Masterpoint races Alan Douglas (21.01) just pipped Ed Betteto (19.09) to win the Robert Todd Trophy in the open category.

In the under 1250 Category, Richard and Wendy Gray were joint winners with 10.53

In the under 300 Category Ellen Davidson won with 7.04, and in the under 100 category Lisa Ferrari amassed an impressive total of 5.18 to win.

These are good scores for a four day sectional event.

Another great development during this Sectional was the first ever Youth Bridge game on the Saturday afternoon.

Ten youngsters turned up and with two member fill-ins a three table game was held which was full of energy and excitement. Well done again to John Burville for his untiring efforts in this area of Bridge development.

Now to the hand, which I urge you to follow as closely as you can, as it may set you off in a brand new direction in your Declarer Play.

For a Declarer, on a hand where the opponents have also been bidding, things become a lot easier.

Each bid gives you a bit of information and as you get more experienced at the game you should be able to build a picture of the opponents hand and base your play on that picture.

So today I’m going to start you off with a really straightforward piece of picture building — even if you are not advanced enough to know what to do with the picture.

I want you to at least follow how it is built!

Dealer West, Both Vul (see Fig 1 ), and for the bidding see Fig 1a.

East showed a weak hand with 6 spades and North South got to a reasonable contract in 3NT.

East did well to not lead a spade as that gives declarer his ninth trick and instead he led the club 10.

Declarer could count 4 clubs, 1 heart, 2 diamonds and 1 spade — that makes 8 tricks and he needed 9.

The only place the 9th could come from was spades — diamonds breaking 3-3 was possible, but highly unlikely.

Declarer started by cashing 4 clubs and was surprised to see West follow to all 4 — so build the picture with me, West has 6 spades and 4 clubs so he has just three red cards.

Declarer now saw his opportunity and decided to remove those red cards from the West hand, so he started by leading a low heart.

East won and returned a diamond but now declarer was in control.

He cashed two diamonds and his heart to come down to this position, knowing that West only had spades left in his hand. (see Fig 2

Declarer had 7 tricks and he now produced the magic play — the spade queen!

West was dead. If he won he has to lead away from the jack and if he ducks declarer just leads another spade towards the King — nine tricks.

A beautiful piece of picture-building and then execution by declarer.

I hope you, dear reader, as least got to the picture, the execution can come later.