BOTH Bermuda teams that travelled to the CACBF Championships in Costa Rica performed creditably to reach their respective semi-finals where they both came up short with similar scores after never getting in a serious blow at their opponents.In the Open Event, Martinique chose Bermuda as opponents after the round-robin and added to their carry-over of seven imps with sessions of 34-22, 47-28 and 56-30 to run out comfortable winners by 144-80. In the Ladies’ event it was a similar story with Guadeloupe taking in a 12-imp carryover and then winning all three sessions to win by 158-82.

In the final of the Open, Martinique were beaten by Guadeloupe and in the Ladies’ final Guadeloupe were beaten by Trinidad and Tobago. Since the T&T Ladies’ team are ineligible for the Bermuda Bowl, Guadeloupe will, I believe, send both their teams.

In the other championship events, there is news of a remarkable win by Marilynn and Delmont Simmons who, after five sessions, finished first and second out of 62 players, beating the field by a wide margin.

Congratulations! More on this when I get some information.

This was the first hand in the Open event Bermuda-Martinique semi-final:

Dealer: East

None: Vulnerable.North

[spade]A 8 7 4

[heart]8 6

[diamond]A 9 5 2

[club]A K 8

West East

[spade]Q J 10 6 3 [spade]9 5 2

[heart]A J 3 [heart]10 5

[diamond]Q [diamond]K J 10 7 6 4 3

[club]Q J 5 4 [club]3

South

[spade]K

[heart]K Q 9 7 4 2

[diamond]8

[club]10 9 7 6 2Open RoomNorth East South West

(Pare) (Glynn)

Pass Pass 1[spade]

1NT 2[spade] 4[heart] All Pass

Closed Room <$>

(S. Sykes) (D. Sykes)

Pass 2[diamond] (Multi) 2[spade]

3[heart] 3[spade] All PassIn the Closed Room three spades went a quiet one down for +50 to Bermuda, so the Martinique declarer in the Open room could generate a real swing.

The declarer, Christopher de Tessiers, won the opening spade queen with the ace, sacrificing his king, in order to lead a low heart to the king and ace. He ruffed the spade return, cashed the heart queen, crossed to the club king and . . . cashed the club ace — down one!

He would have done better to cash one club before the queen of hearts. Now a club to the eight (!) guarantees the contract once West follows.

Well done to all who took part, and once again, huge congratulations to Marilynn and Delmont Simmons.