A great time was had by all at the Bridge Club last Saturday when in excess of 50 players turned up to my session on “How to maximise your ability at the table”!

There was a great mix of intermediates, advanced and experts, and at the end of the two hours and 20 minutes the energy in the room was still high. Hopefully the attendees will, over time, see their results improve from some of the tips that resonated with them — time will tell!

Today’s hand embraces three topics I addressed at the session — fourth suit forcing in the bidding, and in defence, trying to recreate declarers hand from the bidding and … being patient!

See the bidding in Figure 1:

East’s two-diamond bid was fourth suit forcing, asking partner for a stopper in diamonds. Partner confirmed by bidding 2NT and East had an easy raise to 3NT.

Partner, North, led the four of diamonds and this dummy came down (see Figure 2):

Dummy’s ten held the trick — South, who had been to one of my previous talks, immediately worked out that partner had a four-card diamond suit (as partner had led the four and he could see the two and the three), which left declarer with three diamonds.

Declarer now played the King of clubs and South patiently ducked this, and also ducked the Queen — he won the third club perforce and noticed that partner showed out and discarded a small spade.

South now did some thinking — his patience had shown that declarer had five clubs, he knew he had three diamonds, and he had bid spades. So, that all added up to 12 cards, leaving him with a singleton heart! Because West opened the bidding, the singleton had to be the Ace or King!

If it was the Ace, the contract was probably unbeatable, so playing West for the singleton King of hearts, South beautifully switched to……. the heart seven! Curtains!

Se the full hand in Figure 3:

The defence now took four heart tricks to beat the contract. Notice that if South had led the Queen of hearts, the defence can only take three heart tricks and the contract makes — great analysis and great execution by South!

***

It is with sadness that we belatedly heard that Joy Lusher, a former member of the Bridge Club, passed in December 2025. Her memorial service will be held at St John's Church, Pembroke, today at 3pm. Joy was a popular presence, and the Bridge Club and its members send sincere condolences to her family.

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Wednesday, January 7

North/South

1= Louise Rodger/Margaret Way

1= Rachael Gosling/Elizabeth McKee

East/West

1 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2 Sheena Rayner/Molly Taussig

Thursday, January 8

1 John F W Glynn/Rachael Gosling

2 Erica Jones/Delton Outerbridge

3 Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan

Friday, January 9

1 Diana Diel/Stephanie Kyme

2 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

3 Aida Bostelmann/Allyson Eadie

Monday, January 12

North/South

1 Gertrude Barker/Magda Farag

2 Tony Saunders/Margaret Way

3 Geoff Bell/Kathleen Bell

East/West

1 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2 Judith Bussell/Stephanie Kyme

3 Elysa Burland/Molly Taussig

Tuesday, January 13

North/South

1 Colin James/Anna White

2 Barbara Harrington/Eldon Lewis

East/West

1 Andy McComb/Jaques Bonneau

2 Amanda Ingham/Heidi Dyson

Wednesday, January 14

North/South

1 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2 Louise Rodger/Margaret Way

East/West

1 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2 Geoff Bell/Molly Taussig

Thursday, January 15

1 Miodrag Novakovic/Margaret Way

2 Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan

3 Delton Outerbridge/Sancia Garrison