Last Saturday saw the summer party at the Bermuda Bridge Club, which I attended for the first time in years, and I’m so glad I did!

It was a smaller event than last year but was a fun evening – great company, superb food by Food4Thought, and a chance to talk some bridge and other nonsense with a bunch of people who love the game – all really special.

Thanks and congratulations once again to Judy King for orchestrating the whole affair – I know there are a ton of people helping before, during and after the event, notably Richard and Wendy Gray, Betsy Baillie, Charles Hall, Peter Donnellan, Lynanne Bolton, Gertie Barker and Joyce Pearson, with Rosie Smith and Martha Ferguson responsible for the great flowers on the tables which made it all look festive – so a big thank-you to them and all the other elves.

This week’s hand deal (see Figure 1 and the bidding in Figure 2) shows how the development of declarer play grows with experience – we start with an Intermediate player, then Advanced, and finally an Expert – each one improving on what went before.

West’s two-spade bid showed a six-card suit in a non-opening hand (effectively a weak two bid) and North’s three-spade bid agreed hearts. Four clubs and four diamonds were cue-bids, 4NT was Roman Key Card Blackwood and when North showed two Aces and the heart Queen, South bid the slam.

The Intermediate player, just having had a lesson on finessing, will win the opening lead of the King of spades with the Ace, draw trumps then play the King of diamonds and then finesse the Jack of diamonds.

After East wins the Queen of diamonds and exits with the Jack of clubs, declarer plays the Queen of clubs and is down one.

A slightly more experienced player’s variation on this would be to cash the Ace and King of diamonds before leading his remaining diamond towards dummy’s Jack. The advantage of this plan is that the Queen may come down or the suit may be 3-3 providing a parking space for the club Queen.

And, if none of this happens, this declarer, unlike the first one, knows how the diamond suit lies before he takes the possibly losing club finesse – an improvement!

Then we come to the expert declarer who tackles the hand differently because he recognises that the best route to making 12 tricks falls under the umbrella of an elimination play.

The keys are that after drawing trumps, there will be trumps left in both hands, and then the Jack of spades is the perfect way to effect a loser-on-loser throw-in to put West on lead with no favourable exit.

So, after drawing trumps and ruffing dummy’s low spade in hand, the expert declarer cashes the King and Ace of diamonds then leads the Jack of spades, throwing his last diamond from hand – see the position now in Figure 3.

West wins the trick with the Queen of spades and, as he has only black-suit cards left on the above layout, he has either to lead a club into declarer’s Ace-Queen or concede a ruff-and-discard by exiting with a spade. Either way, declarer makes 12 tricks.

What would happen if West still had one or two diamonds in his hand? If West exited with a low diamond, declarer would play dummy’s Jack – which will either win the trick or be covered by the Queen, which means that the suit was originally 3-3 leaving a winning diamond in dummy on which to pitch the Queen of clubs.

In both cases, declarer would make 12 tricks: the Ace of spades, seven trumps, three diamonds and the Ace of clubs.

Beautifully played!

So, in which of those three levels do you fit? Wherever it is, set your sights on the one above!

• David Ezekiel can be reached on davidezekiel999@gmail.com

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, June 27

1 Wendy Gray/Richard Gray

2 Gertrude Barker/Molly Taussig

3 Louise Rodger/Magda Farag

Monday, June 30

1 Martha Ferguson/Judy King

2 Stephanie Kyme/Gertrude Barker

3 Charles Hall/Tony Saunders

Tuesday, July 1

North/South

1 Desiree Woods/Kim Simmons

2 Tracey Pitt/David Leach

3 James Mulderig/Robert Mulderig

East/West

1 Sharon Andrews/Vivian Pereira

2 Malcolm Moseley/Finn Moseley

3 Amanda Ingham/Heidi Dyson

Wednesday, July 2

1 Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

2= Charles Hall/Stephanie Kyme

2= Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

Thursday, July 3

North/South

1 Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

2 Charles Hall/Stephanie Kyme

3 Judith Bussell/Gertrude Barker

East/West

1 James Mulderig/Robert Mulderig

2 Amanda Ingham/Heidi Dyson

3 David Leach/Kim Simmons