It is with great sadness that I have to report the passing of Alice Palmer, for many years until recently a regular player at the Club, and a much valued one.

Alice was a gracious lady, always with a smile on her face and a kind word for everyone and she will be sorely missed.

She and her late husband, the irrepressible Tony, added so much to the Club over the past five decades, and members like them do not come along every day. Our thoughts are with Alice’s family and they should know that she was seen as a very special person at the club.

Today’s hand was handled beautifully by declarer who had a lot of information and used it well.

Dealer South, Both Vulnerable

North

? 54

? Q532

? 9632

? 864

West

? 108

? AKJ8

? KJ7

? QJ72

East

? 732

? 109654

? 1085

? 93

South

? AKQJ96

? None

? AQ4

? AK105

East opened 1 NT (15-17) and after West bid 2 Diamonds as a transfer to Hearts, South closed the bidding by bidding 4 Spades. Notice the good bid by East in trying to transfer to Hearts — if partner opens 1NT and you have a bust hand and a five-card or longer suit you have to try and play there at the two level if possible … the hand will always play better there.

West led the Ace of Hearts and what was clear to declarer was that West had every single high card that declarer did not have as declarer could see 25 points between his hand and dummy.

West now switched to a Spade and declarer won, drew trumps and played Ace-King of clubs hoping for Clubs to be 3-3 or for one player to hold QJ, Q9 or J9 in which case there is only one Club loser. When declarer played the third Club and East showed out he did not lose concentration. West was also counting and knew that the ending was something like this:

North

?

? Q53

? 9632

?

West

?

? KJ

? KJ7

? Q

East

?

? 1096

? 1085

?

South

? J9

? None

? AQ4

? 10

West cashed the Club Queen and then, knowing that a Diamond lead was probably fatal, led the Heart King. This, however, only delayed the inevitable as declarer cleverly let him hold the trick, discarding a Diamond from hand — now either a Heart lead to dummy’s good Queen, allowing declarer to discard the Diamond Queen, or a Diamond lead into the Ace-Queen gives declarer the contract. Nice.