Not long to go before the bridge calendar starts getting full, and I’m sure many of you are waiting for the heat and humidity to disappear and have it replaced by cards in your hand!

First thing to put in the diary is the Bermuda Sectional, which will be held from October 11 to 14. More on that closer to the time.

Summer or not, the youth programme continues and John Burville has just launched an interschool video competition and several schools that have agreed to participate.

The competition is to produce a promotional video three to six minutes in length about bridge. The participants in the competition do not have to have any knowledge about Bridge. Contestants will be provided a video which is a very good example of scripting and structure for a promotional video. The expectation is that they will use Bermuda students to narrate the video, and then intersperse the video with clips of the many videos and photos supplied to them of interviews of Bermuda youth players, and of students playing the game.

I believe there will be more detailed publicity elsewhere, so keep your eye out for that.

This week’s hand is a low level part-score hand, but this is where the points are won at Duplicate pairs and where a plus score brings great rewards. Once again, the theme is trump management and using the trumps in the hand with fewer trumps to do what they should — ruff! (See Fig 1).

The bidding was over quickly. East passed, South opened 1 club, West passed and North bid 2 clubs, which became the final contract. I think West should 100 per cent reopen with a double at Pairs when this comes around to him (E/W can make 3 spades) but 2 clubs was the final contract.

West led the ace-king of diamonds and then switched to a spade and the play went predictably after that. South won the ace and rushed to do what players love to do — draw trumps, asap, especially if it entails taking a finesse.

The club finesse loses to the king, and East, an experienced player, fired back a club and declarer now began to shift in his seat. Declarer won and tried a spade but East won and played the last club and the hand was over — declarer lost two spades, a heart, two diamonds and a club for down one.

Declarer went wrong after winning the spade, he must plan to ruff one of the losing spades in hand and so must immediately exit with a spade after winning the ace — now the defence cannot stop declarer from winning 1 spade, 2 hearts, 4 clubs and the spade ruff for eight tricks — contract made.

Declarers often find it hard to play a hand where the short trumps are in their hand as they are used to ruffing in dummy. I think declarer would have found this hand a lot easier if South was the dummy.

• Bridge results of the week of August 19:

Monday afternoon

North/South

1, William Pollett/Molly Taussig

2, Gill Gray/Patricia Siddle

3, Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

East/West

1, Linda Pollett/Diana Diel

2, Aida Bostelmann/Richard Hall

3, Gertrude Barker/Dianna Kempe

Tuesday evening junior game

North/South

1, Katyna Rabain/Louise Payne

2, Marion Silver/Duncan Silver

3, Sarah Jane Varley/Elena Marshall

East/West

1, Sarah Lorimer Turner/Diana Downs

2, Malcolm Moseley/Mark Stevens

3, Felicity Lunn/Gina Graham

Wednesday morning

North/South

1,Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2, Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

3, Annabelle Mann/Patricia Colmet

East/West

1/2 D Diel/P Siddle, W Pollett/L Pollett

3, Caroline Svensen/Dianna Kempe

Thursday evening

North/South

1, George Correia/Richard Hall

2, Diana Diel/Margaret Way

3, William Pollett/Charles Hall

East/West

1, Gertrude Barker/Martha Ferguson

2, Linda Pollett/Elizabeth McKee

3, Annabelle Mann/Dianna Kempe

Friday afternoon

North/South

1, Aida Bostelmann/Heather Woolf

2, John Glynn/Molly Taussig

3, Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

East/West

1, Charles Hall/Margaret Way

2, Martha Ferguson/Sancia Garrison

3, Elizabeth McKee/Diana Diel