Next Saturday sees the first major tournament of the year as the Open Pairs is staged at Bermuda Bridge Club. It will be a two-session event with the first session starting at 9.30am and the second session after the lunch break — so get your entries in this week.

Full results will appear in the March 21 column.

Before I get to the hand, many congratulations to the following pairs that recorded games above 70 per cent so far in 2026:

• Tracey Pitt and David Leach — February 24, 70.63 per cent

• Lisa Burland and Molly Taussig — February 4, 72.9 per cent

• Charles Hall and Molly Taussig — January 23, 71.7 per cent

• Sancia Garrison and Jane Smith — January 18, 71.4 per cent

Today’s hand (see Figure 1) contains a play I have written about before, and it is here again because I was just enchanted by it when I first saw it in action. Today I will analyse it in a more granular fashion, which I hope doesn’t turn you off — the analysis shows that you have to consider each suit in the context of the full hand.

South opened 1NT and after a transfer sequence became declarer in four spades — West had a difficult opening lead and, in order to avoid giving something away at trick one, led a passive trump — reasonable.

Declarer won, drew the other trump and played a heart. West now had a reasonable diamond holding to attack that suit but decided to continue the passive defence by winning the Ace and playing back a heart. This turned out to be an error and South pounced on it!

Declarer won in hand and took stock — there looked to be a certain diamond loser so it looked like he had to avoid two club losers, and given the lack of high spot cards in the club suit it looked as if the only hope was that West had the club Ace.

Or was it? Declarer saw that if he lost two clubs but was left with a club winner after losing the two, the diamond loser would disappear.

So after cashing the third heart he made the master play of the two of clubs from his hand! Curtains for the defence! West had no choice but to play the Queen and switch to a diamond — too late, declarer was in control!

Declarer won the diamond in dummy and played the Jack of clubs knocking out the Ace — now the King of clubs provided a parking space for the losing diamond — contract made!

I so wish it was me who made that play!

Now take a good look at the brilliance of the play and the fact that it never loses against any distribution of the suit. If East has the club Ace and West has the Queen, there is no way declarer can ever win a club trick.

Where this play gains against the normal way of playing the suit is where East has both the Ace and the Queen — try it ….

As I keep saying — this came continues to provide an endless number of surprises and gems!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, February 27

North/South

1 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2 John Burville/Margaret Way

3 Jack Rhind/Molly Taussig

East/West

1 Gertrude Barker/Stephanie Kyme

2 Duncan Silver/Marion Silver

3 Wenda Krup/Jane Gregory

Monday, March 2

North/South

1 Louise Rodger/Molly Taussig

2 Aida Bostelmann/Elysa Burland

3 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

East/West

1 Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

2 Peter Donnellan/Sharon Shanahan

3 Judith Bussell/Stephanie Kyme

Tuesday, March 3

1 Erica Jones/Jean Schilling

2= Tracey Pitt/David Leach

2= Barbara Harrington/Eldon Lewis

Wednesday, March 4

1 Peter Donnellan/Jane Smith

2 Judith Bussell/Martha Ferguson

3= Sheena Rayner/Molly Taussig

3= Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

Thursday, March 5

1 William Pollett/Linda Pollett

2 Rachael Gosling/Lisa Ferrari

3= Peter Donnellan/Malcolm Moseley

3= Gertrude Barker/Martha Ferguson