A large part of declarer play is about keeping control of the hand and choosing just when to let the opponents have a trick, and when not to. With that in mind, take a look at this hand (see Figure 1), which came up last week.

The bidding was good – North had a tough decision after the three-spade invitational bid, but decided to go on because of some ruffing values in the heart suit.

West led the Ace of hearts and, in an attempt to stop dummy ruffing hearts, switched to the spade Queen at trick two. South won the spade trick and then started thinking … … too late! The hand is over and there is now no way to make the contract – try it!

If South draws the second trump and starts on diamonds, West will ruff the third one and cash two more hearts. And if South plays a heart at trick three, West simply wins and plays another spade with the same ending.

The solution? South must know that he has to lose at least one trump trick with that holding – he should thus let West win the second trick with the spade Queen!

There is now no way to beat the hand – again, try it! Declarer still has control of the heart suit as he has a trump left in dummy and he has the over suits covered – he wins any switch and makes the contract with four spade tricks, five diamonds and the club Ace …. not that difficult?

• The three pairs who comprise the Bermuda Mixed Pairs team are now competing in the Wuhan Cup in Denmark. I will have a full report next week.

As I wrote in my pre-match column, this would be a whole new level of competition after Barbados and after two days of play the first eight matches have been a real trial by fire. Hopefully things will improve as the event progresses and before next week’s column.

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, August 15

North/South

1 Duncan Silver/Marion Silver

2 Jack Rhind/Judith Bussell

East/West

1 Diana Diel/Gertrude Barker

2 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

Monday, August 18

North/South

1 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2 Gertrude Barker/Margaret Way

3 Joyce Pearson/Betsy Baillie

East/West

1 Linda Pollett/William Pollett

2 Judy King/Martha Ferguson

3 Jane Smith/Sancia Garrison

Tuesday, August 19

North/South

1 Tracey Pitt/David Leach

2 Stuart Clare/Sarah Bowers

3 Ross Cooper/Desiree Woods

East/West

1 Malcolm Moseley/Finn Moseley

2 Andy McComb/Jacques Bonneau

3 Veronica Boyce/Carol Eastham

Wednesday, August 20

1 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

3 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

Thursday, August 21

1 Miodrag Novakovic/Margaret Way

2 William Pollett/Martha Ferguson

3 Ross Cooper/Scott Gilbertson