The 2015 Mixed Pairs Championship ended at the Club last week and it gives me great pleasure to report that Janice Trott and Ernest Paynter held on to their first session lead to hold off a really strong 24 pair field and win the event!

This is a great win for this pair. Janice has been a member at the Club for as long as I can remember and I believe this is her first Mixed Pairs win and probably her first Open Championship win. I’ll happily correct that next week if it isn’t the case! Ernest on the other hand is one of our relatively newer members and to win an open event at this stage of his development is a great effort.

The second session was a strange one — I wrote last week that any one of the first 11 pairs could win this event and it almost turned out that way with David and Sally Sykes climbing from 11th place to second just five match points behind the winners and Jean Johnson and Charles Hall from tenth place to third another half a match point behind! In fourth were Julia Lunn and David Cordon with Magda Farag and John Burville in fifth.

Congratulations to all these pairs and again, great stuff from Janice and Ernest! I believe Janice has also been playing some online bridge of late and it is super to see that commitment and practice paying off for someone who has been such a welcome and strong supporter of the Bridge Club over the years. Well done to her and to Ernest who I think can look forward to greater success in the years ahead.

As I have written many times in this column, at bridge one must keep giving the opponents a chance to go wrong and more often than not, they will! Declarer on today’s hand was an experienced player and it showed in the way he played the hand.

Love All. Dealer South

North

S K1095

H J843

D 752

C A8

West

S 7643

H 95

D QJ94

C J96

East

S 82

H Q102

D K863

C Q1052

South

S AQJ

H AK76

D A10

C K743

South opened 2NT showing 21-23, North bid three Clubs asking for a four card major and South showed his Heart suit. North now got a little carried away and cue bid 4 Clubs, South bid four Diamonds and North made a hopeful leap to six Hearts! West led the Diamond Queen and South realised that he needed something good to happen!

He won the Ace and tried the Ace King of Hearts but the Queen didn’t drop. The contract now depended on declarer being able to get his losing Diamond away on the Spade before the defender with the trump ruffed in. If Spades are 3-3 there is no problem, or if the defender with the Heart Queen has the long Spade that also works … none of that works here but declarer hatched a great plan!

He played the Ace of Spades, then the Jack overtaking with the King and then played the Spade ten looking for all the world like a man taking a ruffing finesse against the Queen. When East fell for this and discarded a Diamond declarer was home! He won the Queen, crossed to the Club Ace and played the last Spade. East was helpless as no matter what he did declarers Diamond was going away.

Should East have fallen for it? No way! Firstly, where are declarer’s points? East had seven points himself, dummy had eight and partner had already shown three with the QJ of Diamonds …..that left only 22 points which meant that the Spade Queen had to be with declarer. Also, on the Spades West should play high-low to show four Spades which meant declarer had to have three, another clue!

Despite all that, kudos to declarer for giving East a chance to go wrong — without his play the hand had no chance at all.