Another successful Bermuda Sectional came to an end last Tuesday, under the stewardship of tournament director Jack Rhind. Even with a lot of players off-island there were a healthy 57 tables in play over the five days (and seven sessions) of the event.

The list of winners is interesting with some standout performances by B and C players who scooped some main prizes in events that contained a number of A players. The full results are shown in the results section below — thanks to Rob Mulderig for his weekly work on that — but here are the overall winners in each event.

Friday

Geoff and Kathleen Bell (Strata A, B and C winners)

Saturday morning

Strata A — Stephanie Kyme-Charles Hall

Strata B — Lorna Anderson—Heather Woolf

Strata C — Tracy Pitt—David Leach

Saturday afternoon

Strata A — Judy Bussell-Martha Ferguson

Strata B & C — Betsy Baillie-Delton Outerbridge

Sunday Teams

Strata A — Peter Donnellan-Tracy Nash-Gertie Barker-Jane Smith

Strata B & C — Lorna Anderson-Lisa Rhind-Julia Tadman-Joshimar Hussey

Monday

Strata A and B — Lorna Anderson-Heather Woolf

Strata C — Claude Guay-Sharon Shanahan

Tuesday

Strata A&B — Sancia Garrison-Jane Smith

Strata C — Claude Guay-Sharon Shanahan

Tuesday 99er

Strata A&B — Erika Jones-Caitlin Conyers

Strata C — Tracey Pitt-David Leach

The Sectional gives players to earn the sought after Silver Points which are necessary to move up the bridge ranking ladder. The top ten Master Point winners at the event were:

15.40 Jane Smith

12.75 Martha Ferguson

11.76 Sancia Garrison

10.45 Charles Hall

10.04 Margaret Way

9.97 Gertrude Barker

9.66 Stephanie Kyme

9.31 Lorna Anderson

7.25 Heather Woolf

7.23 Molly Taussig

As I said earlier, the B and C players put on an outstanding showing at the event — it started with Geoff and Kath Bell putting in an excellent performance to sweep Sections A, B and C in the first event, I think their best ever showing, and continued from there.

Lorna Anderson and Heather Woolf had a good result on Saturday morning but then blew that away by winning the Monday event with a plus 70 per cent game.

Martha Ferguson had an excellent win with Judy Bussell in the Saturday afternoon pairs and Sancia Garrison’s win with Jane Smith on Tuesday was equally impressive. Also catching my eye was Tracy Nash swimming with the big fish and being part of the winning Swiss Team.

These results propelled Martha and Sancia into second and third place in the Master Point table and also in the top ten were Lorna Anderson and Heather Woolf — pretty remarkable.

In the Open field, Jane Smith clocked up a very impressive 15.40 Masterpoints in the week to deservedly take top spot — she is a solid player with a great temperament for the game.

Congrats to all the winners — if I’ve spent a lot of time talking up the B and C players it is because I know that all of the players highlighted have put in the hard work needed to climb the ladder and have been duly rewarded.

I’ll close with congrats to Jack Rhind for his director role at the Sectional which gives Peter Donnellan, the Bridge Club director, a rest — the club is really fortunate to have these two.

***

As I’ve written ad nauseam in this column, declarer play is for most players the hardest part of the game to master. One has to bring to bear skill, table presence and experience — lots of experience!

And that takes time and patience, both of which are often in short supply. On this hand (see Figure 1), one declarer put in a pedestrian performance and the other played expertly, but mainly because he had “been there before”!

This deal came up in a Teams game where both South players opened with a 15-17 no-trump. The auction was identical at both tables: North transferred into spades and made a splinter rebid in diamonds — looking a wasted King of diamonds opposite the splinter, both Souths signed off in four spades.

Since no side-suit lead was particularly attractive, both Wests led a trump. At the first table, the declarer was something of a finesse fanatic. After drawing trumps with the King and Ace, this declarer led dummy’s two of diamonds to the King.

West took this with the Ace and exited with the Queen of diamonds, which was ruffed in dummy. Declarer now tackled the club suit optimally (at least, in isolation): he cashed the King and Ace of clubs and led a third club towards his Jack.

Alas, West won the trick with the ten of clubs and exited with the Queen. Now, declarer crossed to hand with a trump and led a low heart to dummy’s Queen and East’s King.

When East returned a low heart, declarer took the best remaining chance for a tenth trick by playing his ten. West produced the Jack of hearts for a one-trick set. Yes, three finesses had lost and clubs were horribly placed, but could he have done better?

At the second table, after drawing trumps, declarer proceeded to demonstrate that he could have. First, he cashed the King and Ace of clubs.

Only then did he lead the two of diamonds to the King and Ace. When West continued with the Queen of diamonds, declarer remembered a problem in a Test Your Play book by Paul Lukacs and Jeff Rubens, where the winning move was to discard dummy's third club! The position now is shown in Figure 2.

The difference from the first table now was that West could not profitably play a club at this point: if he tried the Queen, that would set up declarer's Jack; if he led a low club instead, declarer could discard a heart from dummy, and the Jack would still become the tenth trick.

It would not matter which defender won the second diamond trick — whoever did would be end-played, to give a ruff and discard or set up a trick for the club Jack or the Queen-ten of hearts.

In the end, West exited with a low heart, hoping his partner held the ten in the suit. Declarer called for a low heart from dummy and took East's King of hearts with his Ace. Dummy’s Queen of hearts was declarer’s tenth trick.

Beautifully played, even if the play came right out of declarer’s memory bank!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Bermuda Sectional November 7 -11

Friday, November 7

Open Pairs

1 Geoff Bell/Kathleen Bell

2 Susan Hodge/John Hodge

3 Jane Smith/Sancia Garrison

Saturday, November 8

Open Pairs Morning

1 Stephanie Kyme/Charles Hall

2 Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

3 Gertrude Barker/Caitlin Conyers

Open Pairs Afternoon

1 Judith Bussell/Martha Ferguson

2 Betsy Baillie/Delton Outerbridge

3 Elizabeth McKee/Molly Taussig

Sunday, November 9

Open Swiss Teams

1 Peter Donnellan/Tracy Nash/Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2= Margaret Way/Miodrag Novakovic/Rachael Gosling/Elizabeth McKee

2= Stephanie Kyme/Charles Hall/Tony Saunders/Molly Taussig

Monday, November 10

Open Pairs

1 Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

2 Jane Smith/Sancia Garrison

3 Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan

Tuesday, November 11

Open Pairs

1 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

2 Martha Ferguson/Margaret Way

3 Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan

99er Pairs

1 Ericka Jones/Caitlin Conyers

2 Tracey Pitt/David Leach

3 Julia Tadman/Joshimar Hussey

Wednesday, November 12

1 Charles Hall/Molly Taussig

2 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

3 Martha Ferguson/Peter Donnellan

Thursday, November 13

1 Gertrude Barker/John F W Glynn

2 Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan

3 Judith Bussell/Margaret Way