It is with great regret and sadness that I report the passing away of two Bermuda Bridge Club stalwarts, Ann Sims and Bill Tucker.Ann has been coming to the Club forever... she loved the game and with her always pleasant manner was a popular member throughout her tenure . Bill was one of the top players at the Club for many years and was as knowledgeable on bridge odds and technique as anyone at the Club,and as a result he won a number of Club Championships. They will both be sorely missed and our thoughts are with their families and loved ones in their grief.Bill’s funeral will take place today, 3pm at St Paul’s Church in Paget, and Ann’s funeral will take place on Monday, at 4pm at the Peace Lutheran Church in Paget.No hand this week but I thought it might be appropriate for a refresher on some suit combination plays, as Bill was always shaking his head at the lack of technique of some of the ‘better’ players !!!On all of these, assume you have no entry problems and this is the trump suit which is hearts.Xxx opposite AQxxxXxx opposite AQ10xxXxxx opposite AQxxQJxx oppsite AxxxWell , on the first and third ones the first thing to realise is that you have AT LEAST one loser in the suit no matter how the remaining cards are distributed, so you must avoid two or more losers.On both of these cash the Ace first ! Now cross to dummy and lead a low one towards the queen...if the king comes up there is no problem, but if it doesn’t you can either play the queen hoping RHO has the king OR you can play low, playing LHO to have started with Kx ! Try it.On the second one there is actually a chance for no losers if RHO started with KJx or KJ....so cross to dummy and play a low heart inserting the 10 if RHO plays low .....if this holds go back to dummy and lead towards you AQ again.If on the first play the ten loses to the king you can now cash the AQ and if hearts are 3-2 you are home. If the ten loses to the Jack go back to dummy and finesse the king.The fourth one is the combination most often misplayed....leading the Queen, which most players do, can NEVER win and loses horribly if either opponent has a singleton king ,or if LHO has K109x... try it !! This is another combination where you have at least one loser ......So , again, cash the Ace first !!! Now lead towards the QJ and try and hold your losers to one !!In closing , next week’s column will have full results for the Bermuda team in the CACBF trials ....after two matches the team had one win and 16 vps and was lying seventh out of 10 teams with the leaders on 34 vps .......more next week !