The Bermuda Bridge Club Christmas party was held last Saturday and was once again a huge success on all levels, so big congratulations and thank you to Judy King and her band of helpers who helped in the set-up, on the night, and after — quite an undertaking.

A popular feature at the party is the Calcutta Bridge event which this year was won by Charles Hall — the final table was Charles, Lynanne Bolton, Richard Gray and Tracey Pitt. It seems Charles had the most tickets staked on him by the members, which is understandable as he is a top- class player and has also played a big part in teaching bridge at the club.

Also announced at the party were the Player of The Year awards. Winning the Open section was Jane Smith and the Intermediate award went to Betsy Baillie — well deserved and many congratulations to both.

Next up is the Ernie Owen Individual which will be held on Thursday, December 18, at the club — Ernie was my regular partner for many years until he was taken from us in a tragic accident which occurred when he was riding his bike back home after the Friday night game.

He was a great friend and a superb bridge player — he was a talented bridge theorist, and my main job was to keep him from changing our bidding system every time a hand came up which we didn’t handle well!

He left a real void for his family, the club, and for me — our partnership was based on a close friendship and an obsession with this amazing game, and it was not one that could be replicated.

Playing a bridge hand properly often involves a voyage of discovery — declarer should take every opportunity to find out more of the defenders’ hands before making an often crucial decision. This hand (see Figure 1) came up in a high-class match and declarer was surprisingly too lazy to shine his torch into the last dark corner of the defenders’ hands.

South opened a heart, West bid one spade and when North bid two hearts, South decided his 18-point hand was worth a shot at game and so he bid four hearts.

West led the Ace-King and a third spade to kill dummy’s Queen — East ruffed and South overruffed. Declarer now crossed to the King of diamonds and took the losing heart finesse — West, an experienced player, now returned a heart and challenged declarer to make the rest of the tricks.

Declarer now made a series of pedestrian plays — he drew trumps, and then played three rounds of clubs ending in dummy. When the clubs didn’t break he now took the losing diamond finesse — down one!

Yes, it was unlucky to lose to a doubleton Queen, but declarer brought it on himself. Declarer should, after drawing trumps, play the last trump from his hand throwing a diamond from dummy. Now three rounds of clubs leaves this two card ending (see Figure 2).

Now when declarer plays the diamond from dummy and East follows with the ten, declarer knows he cannot have the Queen, because his other card is known to be a club! With this analysis done, declarer played the Ace of diamonds with a flourish, bringing down the Queen and making the contract.

The discovery process had led to the pot of gold …!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, December 5

1 John F W Glynn/Molly Taussig

2 Tont Saunders/Margaret Way

3 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

Monday, December 8

North/South

1 Charles Hall/Stephanie Kyme

2 William Pollett/Linda Pollett

3 Rachael Gosling/Margaret Way

East/West

1 Tracy Nash/Desmond Nash

2 Duncan Silver/Marion Silver

3 Caroline Svenson/Jane Clipper

Tuesday, December 9

North/South

1 Ross Cooper/Desiree Woods

2 Jamie Sapsford/Jane Downing

East/West

1 Vivian Pereira/Sharon Andrews

2 Kim Simmons/Tracey Pitt

Wednesday, December 10

1 Charles Hall/Stephanie Kyme

2 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

3 Elysa Burland/Magda Farag

Thursday, December 11

1 Charles Hall/Stephanie Kyme

2 William Pollett/Linda Pollett

3 Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan