As Bermuda slowly but surely gets Covid under control things are beginning to open up and that includes the Bermuda Bridge Club.

The Bridge Club, and the ACBL Unit 198 which is responsible for the Regional and the Sectional, are progressing carefully and this week sent out the following update as to where things stand for the foreseeable future in relation to local bridge.

Players of the Year: The competitions for senior, junior and club Players of the Year will recommence – all games from July 1 to count.

Club Championships: A full slate of Club Championships will be planned through the autumn, mainly on Saturdays but with Junior and Novice competitions on Tuesday evenings.

Lessons: Novice/refresher lessons will resume, starting in September. These will take advantage of some of the new online facilities now available.

CACBF Championships: Bermuda will enter teams for the Central American and Caribbean Bridge Federation Championships to be held online at the end of October. Full details are awaited from the CACBF. Trials in the form of a pairs event (IMP scoring) at the Club will take place in early September – provisionally on Saturday, September 4.

Sectional: At present, ACBL rules require a number of Covid-related restrictions (masks for all, minimum table distances, etc) for any ACBL tournaments. With these restrictions in place it would be impractical to hold a Sectional, so plans are on hold until the restrictions are eased.

Regional: January 22-28, 2022. Preparations are now fully under way, with the hotel arrangements made with the Hamilton Princess. So it is now full steam ahead for our Regional team, led by Regional chairman Bill Pollett, as they put the word out to all our potential visitors.

Details and updates on all of the above will follow as matters develop.

This is a useful update and it is exciting to see that the 2022 Bermuda Regional is on the calendar!

Last week I covered a hand which needed declarer to carefully play high trumps from her hand in order to retain low entry cards to dummy later in the hand. Lo and behold, this hand turned up a couple of days ago and followed on the same theme (see Figure 1).

South opened 1 spade and, after partner raised to 2 spades, South made the reasonable jump to 4 spades with his strong hand – West led the club Queen.

This deal requires declarer to show some technique. Give it a try before reading on.

Declarer called for a low club from dummy at trick one and, after the queen held, West continued with the Jack of clubs. When that also held the trick and West played a third club, declarer carefully ruffed East’s ace of clubs with the ten of trumps. Declarer next cashed the ace of trumps and then led the Queen of trumps to dummy’s king, pleased to see that the outstanding trumps were two-two. A low diamond was led to the queen and, when that held, declarer played his carefully preserved five of trumps to dummy’s six. After repeating the diamond finesse with a diamond to the jack, declarer cashed his ace of diamonds then ruffed a diamond to bring his total of tricks to eight. The Ace of hearts would be his ninth trick and the Jack of spades his tenth.

The main lesson for intermediate players is to unblock trumps in order to create entries – on this hand by ruffing the third club with the ten – if you ruff with the 5 the hand cannot make – and then by playing the Queen of spades and overtaking with the King, all the time preserving the precious 5.

Unblocking should become a standard play if there is no danger of creating a trump loser, especially if it may clear up some entry problems in the process. In this case, doing so paved the way to take advantage of the two-two break in trumps when East began with at least three cards in diamonds headed by the King.

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Monday, July 12

North/South

1. Molly Taussig – Magda Farag

2. Elizabeth McKee – Stephanie Kyme

3. Judy Bussell – Jane Gregory

East/West

1. Peter Donnellan – Charles Hall

2. Gertie Barker – Jane Smith

3. Wendy Gray – Richard Gray

Tuesday, July 13

North/South

1/2 Malcolm Moseley – Mark Stevens

1/2 Jo-Ann Dawson – Barbe Forest

3. Gina Graham – Felicity Lunn

East/West

1. Richard Keane – Jane Gregory

2. Angela McKittrick – Janice Bucci

3. Vivian Pereira – Jean Schilling

Wednesday, July 14

1. Stephanie Kyme – Magda Farag

2. Lynanne Bolton – Peter Donnellan

3. Molly Taussig – Jack Rhind

Thursday, July 15

1. Jane Smith – Peter Donnellan

2. Magda Farag – Lynanne Bolton

3/4. Elizabeth McKee – Rachael Gosling

3/4. Stephanie Kyme – Marge Way

Friday, July 16

1. Molly Taussig – Elysa Burland

2. Gertie Barker – Jane Clipper

3. Marge Way – Jane Smith