The Bermuda Team to the CACBF trials in Panama (Sheena Rayner — Magda Farag, Judy Bussell — Stephanie Kyme and John Hoskins — Marge Way, Jack Rhind as coach) are now back after competing in the Zone 5 Championships against a field consisting of Barbados, Costa Rica, French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Jamaica, Martinique, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. Sadly, the team performance can only be described as disappointing with three wins out of nine matches and an eighth place finish in the 10-team field.The event started with a full round robin and it was clear at an early stage that the Guadeloupe team was a class ahead of the rest and they finished with a remarkable nine wins out of nine and 147 VP’s out of a possible 180 — a tremendous 81percent. Bermuda’s total was 74.34 ( 45.7percent) and they finished just ahead of Guatemala in ninth and the totally outclassed Barbados team who amassed zero wins and 33 VPs or 18percent. That almost seems as tough to achieve as the 81percent just by following suit.Guadeloupe duly went on to win but not before a major scare in the final — they took a 12 IMP carry-over into the final against Costa Rica and increased it to 35 after the first quarter. They then, however, lost the second quarter by an astonishing 65 IMPs to be 30 IMPs behind at the half. The third quarter reduced the deficit to nine IMPs and in a nail-biting fourth quarter, which they won by 13 IMPs, saw them win the event by just four IMPs. Congratulations to them and to the valiant Costa Rica team who finished second in the round robin, but it is Guadeloupe who will now travel as Zone 5 representatives to the Bermuda Bowl in Bali — well done.Without knowing the details of the individual matches it is tough to say just why the Bermuda team fell short of even a reasonable finish — was it bidding, declarer play, defence or slam bidding? Non-playing captain Jack Rhind has seen a lot of Bridge in his time and with the results just fresh in the memory I will try and get some more from him and if I do, will bring it to you in next week’s column.There is still a ton happening at the Bridge Club ahead of the summer break …. the Bermuda Sectional started yesterday and will run through till Monday with two single session events and three two-session Championship events over the four days — full results next week. The Negative Doubles workshop by Paul Thompson has been shifted to July 3 from June 5 , the Summer Party and Golf Tournament takes place on June 8 and then the Open Teams on June 12 and 14 concludes the tournament season for the pre-summer session. So, still lots to play for.The results in the Round Robin of the CACBF event certainly showed that Guadeloupe had some very strong players and here is one of them, Jean-Claude Pelletier in action against John Hoskins and Marge Way of Bermuda.N/S Vul. Dealer WestAK73J9847¨ AKQ5QJ85 642KQ53 107AJ93 Q647¨ 2 ¨ 109874109A62K10852¨ J63WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH(Hoskins) (Gerin) (Way) (Pelletier)1D DBL Pass 1NTPass 3NT Pass PassPassJohn led the spade queen won by declarer’s Ace. Declarer has seven tricks and needed two more. The spot cards on this hand actually played a huge part in the result — the spade 7 in the North hand, the heart 10 in the East hand and the Diamond 10 in the South hand (a second stopper in the suit ) were all crucial.Pelletier won the spade, crossed to a club and played the nine of hearts covered by Margie with the 10 and won by the Ace. Declarer now led another heart and John won this cashed his other heart and got off lead with the fourth heart — that was now eight tricks for Pelletier but there was work to do for the ninth.Declarer now cashed three rounds of clubs reaching this position (the East hand is not important):J637¨ AJ85AJ¨10K1085¨When declarer now cashed the Club ace John was squeezed — if he discards a spade declarer plays K and another spade and he is endplayed in diamonds. So he gave it a good shot by discarding the diamond jack, but Pelletier was now in control … he played a low spade to the ten and John’s jack — John could now cash the diamond Ace but had to then lead a spade from the 8-5 into dummy’s K7 — contract made! Really good declarer play and the sort of bridge that took the Guadeloupe team to the top.