Huge congratulations to Tony Saunders and Marge Way for winning the Mixed Pairs Championship at the Bermuda Bridge last Saturday! The end result was crazy close — after two sessions Tony/Marge scored 108.5 match points, edging out first-session leaders Steve Cosham and Molly Taussig who had a score of 107.5 — a difference of a wafer thin match point!

In third place with another creditable performance were Tracy and Des Nash on 94.5 and in fourth, Judy Bussell and Charles Hall on 94.

Molly and Steve also won Section B with Tracy and Des in second — Tracy and Des once again carried off the Intermediate section of the event, having also won it last year, and they are showing great progress with each event they enter. Steve and Molly put up a great performance and to lose by the slimmest of margins is never easy.

The win by Marge and Tony is a more than remarkable achievement! Enough to say that Margie is in her 90th year and Tony can call her “kiddo” as he is an amazing 95 — that is astonishing in any field of endeavour, though us bridge players know that quality never goes away!

Both Tony and Margie have been among the top of the Bermuda bridge world for 60 plus years — I haven’t played against Tony for a while, but played against Margie at this year’s Regional and she hardly put a foot wrong in a tight eight-board match!  What is also remarkable about this win is that, despite winning everything in sight in his day, the Mixed Pairs is the one title that had eluded Tony in 70 years of bridge — until now!

Writing all of the above brings on a sense of déjà vu — I arrived in Bermuda 50 years ago on the BA flight and, as any bridge addict does, dropped my wife at the Glenmar guesthouse opposite Modern Mart, made sure she got some food and ……….headed to find the Bridge Club! Normal behaviour for me in those days, sorry to say!

The Club was situated in a small below-ground space next to the then BF&M Building on Pitts Bay Road. I walked in asking if I could kibitz (view) a few players and the first person I met was introduced as one of the local bridge stars and that was a 44-year-old Tony Saunders!

Tony had first represented Bermuda ten years earlier in the 1964 Bridge Olympiad in New York — for those who played bridge in Bermuda in the 1960s and 1970s, the team consisted of Norman Bach, Mal Martin (who I partnered years later), Graham Rosser, Bill Tucker, Peter Willcocks and Tony, and was coached by the legendary Alan Truscott. As an aside, they beat Omar Sharif’s UAR team 7-0 in one of their matches!

Tony is a gifted player who plays the game the way I love it played …..thoughtful and disciplined in the bidding combined with great declarer play technique. The best players know that the only way to let the weaker players in is by losing discipline — Tony won a bushel of events by following that mantra and his name is all over the championship boards at the Club.

And then we have the remarkable Marge Way, who herself has won all the available titles at the Club and has represented Bermuda at Olympiads over the last five decades in both women’s and open events.

Margie, as I’ve said many times before, is one of those rare players who can block out the noise and nervousness of a competitive event and can bring all her skill to the table — not an easy thing to do. Many of the players at the club have benefited from Margie’s teaching, both on a formal and informal basis, as she is always ready to help up and coming players.

All this while raising a family of nine children, all of whom were great tennis players who needed ferrying around, left mountains of laundry each day after multiple daily tennis sessions, and ate her and husband Bill out of house and home!

It is really hard to describe just how good this win is, and it also exemplifies the benefits of playing this great game which constantly tests the mind, the memory and the emotions, and at the same time provides the vital social contact which is a huge factor in staying vibrant and healthy!

When I asked Tony about their game he pointed to two boards, and as good players do they were both bad boards for his side. One was a bidding mix-up that led to a -2000!, but at Pairs that is just a zero on one board, and the other was a hand on which Tony berated himself for not making the “obvious” play — except I’m not sure to whom was that obvious!

It was Board 14 from the second session and this was the hand (positions changed for convenience):

Like many pairs Tony was in the thin 3NT contract — West led the three of spades (I think the ten is probably better), East played the Jack and Tony played the Queen by reflex and mentally wanted to grab it back but it was too late!

What he wanted to do was make a hold-up play which tries to cut communication between the defenders — after the hold-up East continues a spade and West clears them, but East then doesn’t have another when in with the Ace of clubs and the contract makes. So the play Tony wanted to make, but didn’t, would have worked.

But, but, but — bridge is not that simple! Let me switch one card from East to West and give West the singleton Ace of clubs and leave East with the Q82. Now ducking the spade Jack at trick one is a losing play as West would clear the spade suit and cash his winners when in with the Ace of clubs!

So which is the right play at trick one? Is it 50-50 depending on who has the club Ace?

Almost, I think …. I might give the hold-up play 55 per cent on the theory of “split Aces” — when the opponents haven’t bid and hold two Aces the theory is that each defender has one, as the one with both Aces might have bid — flimsy, but better than nothing!

So, on that basis, since West is known to hold the spade Ace, declarer should play East for the club Ace and make the hold-up play.

Yes, complicated, but that is what the game is!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, May 15

North/South

1 Lorna Anderson/Delton Outerbridge

2 Aida Bostelmann/Allyson Eadie

East/West

1 Judith Bussell/Charles Hall

2 Sancia Garrison/Caroline Svensen

Saturday, May 16

Mixed Pairs Championship

1 Margaret Way/Tony Saunders

2 Molly Taussig/Stephen Cosham

3 Tracy Nash/Desmond Nash

Monday, May 18

North/South

1 Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

2 Jack Rhind/Margaret Way

3 Elysa Burland/Molly Taussig

East/West

1 Charles Hall/Desmond Nash

2 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

3 Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

Tuesday, May 19

North/South

1 Tracy Pitt/David Leach

2 Sanja Thompson/Vivien Pereira

3 Amanda Ingham/Heidi Dyson

East/West

1 Joshimar Hussey/Julia Tadman

2 Richard Neame/Sharon Andrews

3 Keri McKittrick/Tim McKittrick

Wednesday, May 20

1 Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

2 Margaret Way/Charles Hall

3 Jack Rhind/Lisa Rhind