Today sees the both sessions of the Men’s/Ladies’ Pairs Championship at the Bermuda Bridge Club starting at 9am, followed by the Junior Teams Championship on Tuesday at 7pm. Full results next week if I can manage it, as I will be golfing somewhere in Italy!

I was sorting my study the other day and came across a column from 2015 entitled “Fathers telling advice”, which centred around the advice from my father that “two chances are better than one – especially if the second chance comes for free”. Given that Father’s Day lands tomorrow I thought, before I get to the hand, I’d make this column about my dad, Maurice.

He was a policeman in Calcutta/Darjeeling (heavily involved during the Hindu-Muslim riots in the 1940s and 1950s) and for a time served as Mounbatten’s aide-de-camp when Mountbatten visited the North East of India.

He was a great bridge and backgammon player, but I picked up both games on my own having watched him spend hours playing. He tutored me in all the other games in which he excelled – he was a national class tennis and table tennis player, and for many years after he left the police, a poker and backgammon professional.

His best game, however, was snooker – he was a world-class snooker player and in the mid 1950s he once beat world snooker champion Horace Lindrum from Australia in a head-to-head exhibition at the Grand Hotel in Calcutta, our home town. We still have a photograph of Lindrum, signed by him: “Thanks for the licking – from Horace to Maurice!”

Dad’s weakness, however, was the horses – he boasted that there were only five days in his life when he did not have a bet on the horses and that was when he went in for a triple bypass!

The tragedy of that was that, as talented as he was elsewhere, he was maybe the worst horse racing gambler in the history of the world, and every penny he won elsewhere, and more, went down that drain – so a few more days off would have been a blessing for our entire family!

Above all, though, he was a world-class father, and was blessed to have met my mother Sylvia who was a saint, as she had to be to live with all of the above! I could write a book on how great she was – but she never played bridge, so she does not get into this column!

Back to the hand – to illustrate his point, Dad whipped out a napkin and scribbled the North South hands of the deal in Figure 1.

“You are in the excellent contract of six spades – West leads the club Jack – how do you play it?” he challenged.

Before I could answer he continued: “South can draw trumps, cash three clubs and can pitch a heart, hoping the diamond finesse is right, or can pitch a diamond and hope the heart Ace is on his left – which is better?” Well, he said, you can actually try both, making this a 75 per cent slam if you plan it well.

Take a heart pitch on the clubs and then come to hand to lead a heart in this position (see Figure 2).

If LHO has the Ace and doesn’t take it you are home and can go for the overtrick – if he does take it you know have a diamond pitch on the heart King and you don’t need the finesse. If the heart King loses to the Ace and a heart is returned, ruff it and now try the diamond finesse for your contract!

Would I have got it right if he allowed me to answer? I like to think so even at that early age!

• David Ezekiel can be reached on davidezekiel999@gmail.com

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, May 30

North/South

1 Tony Saunders/Patricia Siddle

2 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

East/West

1 Elysa Burland/Heather Woolf

2 Lorna Anderson/Joyce Pearson

Monday, June 2

North/South

1 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2 Charles Hall/Margaret Way

3 Jack Rhind/Judith Bussell

East/West

1 Duncan Silver/Marion Silver

2 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

3 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

Tuesday, June 3

North/South

1 Ben Stone/Andrew Tobin

2 Sally Irvine/Sandra Ogden

East/West

1 Sue Sharpe/Karen McNamara

2 Veronica Boyce/Carol Eastham

Tuesday, June 3

Novice Pairs Championship

1 Gareth Cooper/Maximillian Santiago

2 Edward Ferrari-Willis/Jamie Ferrari-McComb

3= Michael Frings/Sanja Thompson

3= Julia Tadman/Joshimer Hussey

Wednesday, June 4

1= John Hodge/Susan Hodge

1= Geoff Bell/Molly Taussig

3 Jane Smith/Elysa Burland

Thursday, June 5

1 Gertrude Barker/John F W Glynn

2= Miodrag Novakovic/Margaret Way

2= Erika Jones/Caitlin Conyers

Friday, June 6

1 Jane Smith/Sancia Garrison

2= Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2= Gertrude Barker/Martha Ferguson

Monday, June 9

North/South

1 Gertrude Barker/Margaret Way

2 William Pollett/Linda Pollett

3 Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

East/West

1 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

2 Stephanie Kyme/Charles Hall

3 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

Tuesday, June 10

Teams

1 Betsy Baillie/Stephan Cosham/Stuart Clare/Sarah Bowers

2 Jamie Sapsford/Jane Dowling/Tracey Pitt/Desiree Woods

3 Scott Gilbertson/Ross Cooper/Joshimar Hussey/Julia Tadman

Wednesday June 11

1 Charles Hall/Margaret Way

2 Desmond Nash/Jane Smith

3 Diana Diel/Patricia Siddle

Thursday, June 12

North/South

1 Delton Outerbridge/Wenda Krupp

2 Gertrude Barker/John F W Glynn

East/West

1 Judith Bussell/Peter Donnellan

2 Stephanie Kyme/Charles Hall