The Junior Open Pairs Championship was held over two sessions last Saturday, and congratulations to Nick Kempe and Delton Outerbridge who had a great first session and then held on fairly comfortably to take the title.

Finishing second were the pair of Katyna Rabain and Louise Payne, and in third were Malcom Moseley and Mark Stevens.

Nick and Delton were always going to be the pair to beat in this event, they clearly focus on their game and recent good showings in open competition was a precursor to this fine result. I expect them to figure in future open competition leader boards, if they continue to work on their partnership.

Many congratulations to the winners and to Katyna and Louise, and Malcolm and Mark who finished second and third.

Congrats also to Jane Gregory and Diana Downs, who had an excellent second session with a 64.29 per cent game — remarkably that was the same score that Nick and Delton had in the first session that helped position them for the win. Well done to all.

Straight into the hand this week, which is a defensive play that most people miss, but one that will come up hundreds of times at the table (see Fig 1).

South opened 1NT and North had an easy raise to 3NT — West led the spade seven.

Declarer played low from dummy and won the spade with his jack and then played a diamond to the king and East’s ace. East returned a spade, and when declarer played low West grabbed the ace and cleared the spades and the defence is now dead.

West’s play was completely lacking in thought — there was no point clearing the spades without any other entry to his hand. Partner clearly has some points and West has to hope partner has another entry and should thus duck the second spade and allow dummy’s queen to win.

Declarer now cannot make the contract even with hearts 3-3 as he has two spade tricks, four heart tricks and two diamond tricks, and the minute he plays clubs East wins and plays the last spade for West to cash three tricks and defeat the contract.

Not difficult if you think about it, but thinking about it need some thought.

• Reminder: the Bridge Club and ACBL AGM’s will be held at the club on Monday at 6pm. Try and attend if you need to express an opinion or just be informed on what is happening with the administration of the club and the game in Bermuda.