With my chaotic travel schedule, I missed covering the results of the Bermuda Bridge Club Non Life-Master Championships — many congratulations to Tim Mardon and Des Nash for their wire-to-wire victory over the two sessions. In second place overall were Wenda Krupp and Jane Gregory, just ahead of Duncan and Marion Silver.

Des and Tim scored a great 65.28 per cent in the first session which gave them a good, but not insurmountable, lead over Wenda and Jane on 55.26 per cent and Erica Jones and Caitlin Conyers on 51.39 per cent.

They then followed up with another strong session, as did Wenda and Jane, and when the smoke had cleared the margin of victory was impressive — well done!

Winning Strata B were Carol Jones and Kathleen Keane ahead of the Silvers.

These events are an essential step in getting players ready for the big bad world of Life Master bridge, and the hope is that these players will stick at it and push on, and eventually make their mark in Open competition.

Next up is the Novice Pairs Championship on Tuesday, May 12 at 7pm, followed by the two session Mixed Pairs Championship with both sessions being held on Saturday, May 16, starting at 9.30am.

***

I’ve written a lot lately about avoiding “reflex” plays and I’ve written for years on planning the play of the hand before playing to trick one — declarer on the hand below (Figure 1) is clearly not a reader of this column or he would not have butchered the hand as badly as he did!

The bidding was not great, but South did have a dilemma after East opened one spade — double by South will usually promise four hearts or a very strong hand, which would be clarified later, and South had neither of those.

A two-diamond overcall is not great with that ratty suit, but it would be my choice from two bad options — a 1NT overcall is worth thinking about, but a bit dangerous.

North’s three-club bid shows a hand with values as two clubs was available to slow down the bidding, and South then made the borderline bid of 3NT with just the one spade stopper and was lucky to see that North had another.

South, however, was not finished with the dreadful bridge, as you will see.

West duly led a spade and East correctly let the ten win in dummy — declarer now played a low club to the King (ouch!) and led a diamond to the King and the hand now fell apart. East switched to the heart Queen and declarer was held to five tricks — two spades, two hearts and a club — down four!

As is often the case, the big mistake was at trick one — knowing he needed to get to dummy declarer should win the first trick with the spade Ace even after East played low.

Now, overtake the club King with the Ace and force East to win the club Queen. If East now switches to a heart, declarer wins and plays a spade and the defence can’t stop him making two spades, two hearts and five clubs for his contract.

The key here is planning — East must have the diamond Ace for his opening bid so the only reasonable entry to dummy was spades, and declarer needed to plan accordingly. Hard? Yes, but easier if you stop to think!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, April 24

North/South

1 Erika Jones/Margaret Way

2 Gertrude Barker/Martha Ferguson

3 Elysa Burland/Magda Farag

East/West

1 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

2 Betsy Baillie/Heather Woolf

3 Diana Diel/Stephanie Kyme

Saturday, April 25

Non-Life Masters Championship

1 Tim Mardon/Desmond Nash

2 Wenda Krup/Jane Gregory

3 Duncan Silver/Marion Silver

Monday, April 27

North/South

1 Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

2 Louise Rodger/Molly Taussig (Tied 2nd)

2 Elysa Burland/Aida Bostelmann (Tied 2nd)

East/West

1 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2 Wenda Krup/Jane Gregory

3 Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

Tuesday, April 28

North/South

1 John Thorne/Heidi Dyson

2 Sarah Bowers/Stuart Claire

3 Tracey Pitt/David Leach

East/West

1 Ross Cooper/Desiree Woods

2 Keri McKittrick/Tim McKittrick

3 Richard Burton/Muna Vallis

Wednesday, April 29

1 Tracey Nash/Desmond Nash

2 Betsy Baillie/Sharon Shanahan

3 Judith Bussell/Jane Smith

Thursday, April 29

North/South

1 Gertrude Barker/John F W Glynn

2 Miodrag Novakovic/Tim Mardon

3 Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan

East/West

1 Ross Cooper/Desiree Woods

2 Kate Van Rooyen/John Van Rooyen

3 Julia Tadman/Joshimar Hussey