The Bermuda Regional ended just last weekend which already seems a long time ago — a great time was had by all! I covered the general tournament last week and this week will cover the results of the locals.

But before I do, one last shout out for co-chairs Lisa Rhind and Steve Cosham, who did such a great job in keeping it all together despite the horrible weather on both the arrival and departure weekends, which caused all sorts of logistical problems.

Listed below are the results of locals who were event winners during the week — thanks so much to bulletin editor Janet Evans for providing the list and if I’ve left anyone out please e-mail me and I will rectify next week!

Local winners, Bermuda Regional 2026

Peter Adhemar, Susan Adhemar — Saturday evening 199er, Charity Pairs: 1st overall

Keri McKittrick, Tim McKittrick — Sunday afternoon 199er Pairs: 1st in B and C

Rosemary Smith, Elaine Stevens, Donna Leitch, Lisa Rhind — Sunday/Monday Open Swiss: 1st in C

Wendy and Richard Gray — Monday afternoon Side Game: 1st overall (70.3%)

Tracey Pitt, David Leach — Monday afternoon 199er Pairs: 1st in A and B

Carol Eastham, Veronica Boyce — Monday evening 199er Pairs: 1st in A

Tracey Pitt, David Leach — Monday evening 199er Pairs: 1st in C

Judy King, Martha Ferguson — Tuesday afternoon Side Game: 1st in B

Shirley Higgins, Rosemary Smith — Tuesday afternoon Side Game: 1st in C

Carol Eastham, Veronica Boyce — Tuesday afternoon 199er Pairs: Joint 1st in A

Sally Irvine, Keith Smith — Tuesday afternoon 199er Pairs: Joint 1st in A and 1st in B

Rachael Gosling, John F W Glynn, Gertrude Barker, Robert Todd: finalists in Champ KO

Andrew McComb, Jacques Bonneau — Tuesday evening 199er: Joint 1st in A 1st in B and C

Carol Eastham, Veronica Boyce — Tuesday evening 199er: Joint 1st in A

Lisa Ferrari, Tim Mardon: winners of Bermuda Gold 1 in A and B

James Mulderig, Robert Mulderig: winners of Bermuda Gold 1 in C

Molly Taussig, Elysa Burland — Wednesday afternoon Side Game: 1st in A and B (72.9%)

Tracey Pitt, David Leach — Wednesday afternoon Side Game: 1st in C

Bill Souster, Sheena Rayner — Champ Pairs: 1st in A

Lorna Anderson, Heather Woolf — Thursday morning Side Game: 1st in B

Charles Hall, Stephanie Kyme — Bracketed Pairs 1: 1st

Katrina Van Pelt, Steve Cosham — Bracketed Pairs 2: 1st

Rachael Gosling, Robert Todd — Thursday afternoon Side Game — 1st in A

David Leach, Sara Gage (NY) — Thursday afternoon Side Game: 1st in C

Elysa Burland — Wednesday-Friday afternoon Side Series: 1st

Molly Taussig — Wednesday-Friday afternoon Side Series: 1st

Magda Farag — Wednesday-Friday afternoon Side Series: 3rd

David Leach — Wednesday-Friday afternoon Side Series: 4th

Miodrag Novakovic, Margaret Way, Kiran Kumar, Ramani Ravikandan — Champ Swiss Teams: 1st in X/Y

It is getting tougher for the locals — the pool of “top” players locally taking part in the event is declining each year and a handful of visiting professional players and their clients are dominating the results. All of which makes a local win all the more creditable.

It is, however, encouraging to see how widely dispersed the above list is, and how many new and younger names are appearing for the first time in ages. That bodes well for both the Bridge Club and the Regional in the years ahead.

The result of the week for the locals would be the two-session Championship Pairs win by Sheena Rayner, who is local, and partner Bill Souster, who now lives in Britain but lived and played here for a number of years. This was just a superb result against some tough visiting pro pairs. Both of them also went very close in the two Masterpoint races.

Congratulations also to Rachael, Gertie and John, who got to the final of the gruelling Knockout Teams with Robert Todd and lost to a strong team with two strong pros in a well contested battle.

And then an excellent performance by Misha Novakovic and the remarkable Marge Way who teamed up with two visitors to win the A/X teams on Friday.

We played against Margie who hardly missed a beat, and on one hand when put to a tough guess by my partner, she thought for a long time and made the right decision based largely on knowing that Bill was good enough to push her in the wrong direction.

Then we come to the local Masterpoint Races:

Karl Hicks Trophy

Local Player with <20 MPs

Leading Masterpoint Winner at the Regional

David Leach 12.95; Keri McKittrick 5.10; Tim McKittrick 4.49; Julia Tadman 3.79; Joshimar Hussey 3.79

Norman Bach Trophy

Local player winning most Masterpoints at the Regional — Open Division

John Glynn  32.76; Gertie Barker 32.67; Rachael Gosling 32.43; Sheena Rayner 29.63; Charles Hall 21.65

The Karl Hicks Trophy was won in dominant fashion by David Leach even though all the top five gathered significant totals — well done to David and the other podium finishers.

The coveted Norman Bach Trophy was mind-numbingly close at the top with three players a fraction above 32 masterpoints and the winning margin being 0.19 of a masterpoint and 3rd place being 0.25 further back — crazy!

Huge congratulations to the consistent John Glynn who finished on top by amassing points in a number of different events. John is an excellent, steady player whose strength is being able to get the best out of himself at the table.

This was undoubtedly the closest masterpoint race in the long history of the Regional.

***

Now to today’s hand (see Figure 1).

As usual, North’s cue bid of three hearts promised a limit raise or better of spades and then South had an easy raise to game. West began with the King, Ace and Queen of hearts. Declarer, with no real thought, ruffed with dummy’s ten of trumps. Alas, East overruffed with the Jack and exited with a trump.

Declarer took the Ace-King of trumps and then turned his attention to the considering the best way to tackle the minor suits. A finesse in one suit or the other was basically a 50-50 guess.

So, declarer decided to test for a short Queen of clubs by cashing the Ace and King of clubs, then ruffed the seven of clubs in hand. As the Queen did not appear, declarer played the eight of diamonds to dummy’s Ace and a diamond back to his Jack. Alas, West produced the Queen of diamonds and declarer was down one.

“That was unlucky,” moaned South. “Yes it was,” agreed North. “Your line had perhaps slightly more than an 80 per cent chance of bringing in a tenth trick. However, I think you were possibly distracted by the Jack of diamonds. If you held, say, the two rather than the Jack, you would probably have found the best play at trick three: the discard of dummy’s low diamond on the third heart. This succeeds, essentially, as long as spades are not 0-4, perhaps a 10 per cent chance given that West started with six hearts. As the cards lay, this was the only way to take ten tricks.”

North explained it well, and it highlights the need to do some thinking and avoid reflex plays — quite often one gets the chance to discard a loser instead of ruffing and it is a play you should keep in your arsenal.

***

I know this is a Bridge Column but I can’t end without a huge shout for Ricky Mallory Jr and his heroic Bermuda Davis Cup Team of Trey Mallory III, Zachary McGuire, Wayne Montgomery and Daniel Phillips. Their win in Georgia to put Bermuda into Group II of the Davis Cup is just an enormous achievement and must make all of us on the island so proud.

This is in here because, and he may not remember, I knew Ricky as a great young kid who oozed talent from every pore of his body, and could have succeeded at any sport he chose — his success is so well deserved!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Monday, February 9

1 Gertrude Barker/Caitlin Conyers

2 Jane Smith/Sancia Garrison

3 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

Tuesday, February 10

North/South

1 Jamie Sapsford/Jane Downing

2 Ross Cooper/Desiree Woods

East/West

1 Keri McKittrick/Tim McKittrick

2 Richard Neame/Heidi Dyson

Wednesday, February 11

North/South

1 William Pollett/Linda Pollett

2 Wenda Krup/Sally Irvine

East/West

1 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2Martha Ferguson/Judy King

Thursday, February 12

1 Caitlin Conyers/Tim Mardon

2 Charles Hall/Stephanie Kyme

3 Linda Pollett/William Pollett