Huge congratulations to Richard Bruton/Chris van Rooyen and Tim McKittrick/Richard Neame who finished as joint winners of the Novices Pairs Championship at the Bermuda Bridge Club. In third place were Colin James and Anna White.

The winners put together a solid score and remarkably both pairs finished with exactly 59.38 per cent! It was great that enough pairs signed up to make this game happen — it is hugely daunting for these newcomers to sign up and be judged on hands over an entire session, and hopefully it will inspire them to continue and focus on climbing up the competitive ladder.

So, a big shout out to the entire field — well done!

Declarer play is tough, especially at Pairs bridge where one is trying to squeeze out every possible overtrick and will often take risks to do so.

Declarer play at Teams, however, is a lot simpler, as one’s main goal is to make the contract at all costs and taking no risks, no matter how small, that could derail making the contract.

Most players find it really hard to make the mental switch, as they spend 90 per cent of their playing time playing Pairs bridge, and as a result find it hard to change their habits when they are playing Teams — as illustrated by the hand below.

This was a Teams game — South had a great hand and eventually bid the heart game on his own, hoping that partner would give him a little something — and he did, three trumps and some ruffing values with a doubleton club.

West started with the Ace of diamonds and a second diamond to partner’s Jack — East now played a low diamond which declarer ruffed with the Jack of trumps.

Declarer saw an entry to dummy with the heart ten which would allow him to take the Club finesse — so he duly crossed to the heart ten and took the losing Club finesse — West won and returned another trump and now, all too late, declarer’s alarm bells started ringing!

He now only had one trump in dummy but had two losing clubs in his hand so he quietly went down one.

The main problem with this hand was that declarer really had too much! Change his AQ53 of clubs to A432 and he would definitely make it as he can give up a club while he still has three trumps in dummy — he could now ruff one losing club with a low heart and the other with the heart 10 and the contract makes! The Queen of clubs could be described as a an “embarrassment of riches”!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, May 8

North/South

1 Jane Smith/Sancia Garrison

2= Lorna Anderson/Aida Bostelmann

2= Margaret Way/Tony Saunders

East/West

1 Duncan Silver/Marion Silver

2= Diana Diel/Heather Woolf

2= Patricia Siddle/Loise Rodger

Monday, May 11

North/South

1 Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

2 Loise Rodger/Molly Taussig

3 Geoff Bell/Kathleen Bell

East/West

1 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2 Lorna Anderon/Heather Woolf

3 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

Tuesday May 12

Novice Pairs Championship

1= Richard Burton/Chris Van Rooyen

1= Tim McKittrick/Richard Neame

3 Colin James/Anna White

Tuesday Evening Pairs

North/South

1 Ross Cooper/Caitlin Conyers

2 Amanda Ingham/Heidi Dyson

East/West

1 Veronica Boyce/Carol Eastham

2 Sharon Andrews/Desiree Woods

Wednesday, May 13

1 Jane Smith/Judith Bussell

2 Sheena Rayner/Molly Taussig

3 Loise Rodger/Margaret Way

Thursday, May 14

1 Gertrude Barker/John F W Glynn

2 Peter Donnellan/Kevin Dunn

3 Erika Jones/David Leach