Another hugely successful Bermuda Regional came to a close last Friday and the event was a success on all fronts … attendance held up against last year, the weather was stunning, the Fairmont did a great job, and the local Committee made sure it all ran like clockwork.

All the comments were positive and I see good things ahead for the event in future years so congratulations to Donna Leitch and Judy Bussell and their team who saw all their hard work rewarded.

On top of it all the locals once again made their mark across all events and here is the honour roll of locals who were overall winners in the various events.

Saturday, January 21Magda Farag and John Burville

Stratified Charity Pairs

Newcomer Stratified Charity Pairs Judy Harte-Lovelace and Stephen Smith

Sunday, January 22

Stratiflighted Swiss Teams Flight X Sally and David Sykes, Tony Saunders and Charles Hall

Tuesday, January 24

Compact Knockout Teams Bracket 1 Vera Petty and Roman Smolski/Ed White and Bert Newman

Stratified Championship Pairs A Alan Douglas and Bill Tucker

Stratified Championship Pairs B Linda Pollett and Steve Ball

Stratified Championship Pairs C

Donna Leitch and Katrina Van Pelt

Wednesday, January 25

Newcomer Pairs Martha Ferguson and Mark Crampton

Thursday, January 26 and

Friday January 27

Swiss Teams Vera Petty, Roman Smolski, Ed White and Bert Newman

Bracketed Championship KO Teams (Bracket 2) Stephanie Kyme, Eddie Kyme, Judy Bussell and Graham Fenton

Compact Knockout Teams Bracket 1 Pat Riding, Jade Barrett, Brian Meyer, and Jeff Roman

Stratified Open Pairs A Bill Tucker and Adam Kaplan

Stratified Open Pairs B Judy Bussell and Robert LaTourette

Stratified Open Pairs CJohn Rayner and Thomas Gillett

The Norman Bach trophy for the local player with the most masterpoints won during the week was won, for an incredible 12th straight year, by Vera Petty and Roman Smolski although they were pushed hard this year by a stellar performance from Bill Tucker who won two major events.

The trophy for the Newcomer with the most masterpoints won went to Mark Crampton who reinforced his good results at the Club … congratulations to all of these.

And I can’t end the results without pointing out that Compact Teams win by the remarkable Pat Riding. Amazing!

I went up to kibitz a couple of times and the first hand I saw at the tournament was this one, where I was sitting behind South, the dealer, who held:

? 76 ? AQJ Ÿ None ??AQJ108765

The bidding went , with nether side vulnerable:

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1C

1D 2H 3D 5C

Pass 5S Pass ???

The opposition have made this difficult and despite knowing that partner has at least 5 hearts, I agree with the jump to 5 clubs.What does the 5 Spade bid mean? Well, North cannot be cue bidding in support of himself, so I think it must be agreeing clubs and showing spade control … South agonised for ages and then bid… six hearts, going for a higher scoring slam.

The full hand :

Board 11. Love All. Dealer South.

S-AK85

H-K10876

D-KQ

C-93

S-J93 S-Q1042

H-2 H-9543

D-AJ10432 D-98765

C-K42 C-None

S-76

H-AQJ

D-None

C-AQJ108765

The heart slam was not a success after East led a diamond……. declarer elected to ruff in dummy, cross to a spade and try the club finesse … his got ruffed and another diamond caused further difficulties and the hand went down one. Six clubs is, of course, an easy make.

I was talking to Bob Hamman the day after the Regional and started talking about this hand in the middle of which he said ‘What do you call an 8 card suit headed by the AQJ ?’………When I stayed silent he provided the answer …. ’Trump!”

Enough said! These one suited hands rarely play well in a side suit fit.