ANOTHER hugely successful Bermuda Regional concluded last Saturday and pretty much every aspect of the event went according to, or better than, planned. From chairman Lynanne Bolton and her committee (Donna Leitch, Sheena Rayner, Alan and Ruby Douglas, Judy Bussell, Lisa Rhind, David E., Richard and Wendy Gray and Steve Ball) to Chief Tournament Director Sol Weinstein and his team, John Carruthers and Katie Thorpe on the Bulletin and Thorpe, Jim Linhart and Allan Graves, who were so good on my panel, shows right through to the hotel staff — all were superb.

Numbers were up, and it was good to see Barbara Seagram bringing back her group, complaints were down and we had some glorious Bermuda days (and some others!) — all in all, a great event.

And I must mention the great job done by the caddies from De Boys Day Out Club — well done!

I traditionally use this column to recap the overall winners in each event and this year is no exception. The list, however, gets longer each year.

Norman Bach Trophy: <$>Local Masterpoint Winners — Vera Petty-Roman Smolski, 102.22 points.

Bermuda Bridge Club Trophy: Local Non-Master — Charles Pearman, 8.66 points.

Knockout Teams, Bracket 1:<$> Jean Johnson, Joe Wakefield, Bill Souster, Allan Graves, Jim Linhart and John Carruthers.

Wednesday / Thursday Open Pairs, Flight A:<$> Vera Petty-Roman Smolski.

Monday / Tuesday Open Pairs, Flight C:<$> Kevin Comeau-Clifford Alison.

Sunday Swiss Teams, Flight A: Johnson, Wakefield, Souster, Graves, Linhart, Carruthers.

Flight X: Alan Douglas, Ian Harvey, David Pereira, Barry Rahman.

Flight B: John Burville, Charles Hall, Tony Saunders, David Cordon.

Flight D: John Rayner, Stephen Cosham, Gordon Bussell, Richard Meredith.

Friday / Saturday Swiss Teams, Flight A:<$> David and Sally Sykes, Myles Walsh, Margie Sullivan.

Flight B: Richard and Wendy Gray, Peggy Thompson, Elysa Burland.

Flight C: Joan Sims, Gwen Christensen, Mary Arton, Enid Hyland.

Charity Pairs, Flight A:<$> Smolski-Petty.

Compact Knockout Teams, Bracket 1:<$> Smolski-Petty-Cornes-Barrett.

At each tournament a number of players reached personal milestones, the most sought after being the attainment of Life Master status. Achieving this were:

Roman Smolski: Gold Life Master

Diana Diel: Silver Life Master

Bill Pare: Bronze Life Master

Greta Marshall: Life Master

Elysa Burland: Life Master

Well done to all of them — great achievement! If I’ve left anyone bout, please let me know and I will put it in a future column.

Not much room for a hand, but this is a bridge column! This hand, which I recounted at my panel, got everyone talking.

You hold [spade]A K Q 2 [heart]A K 7 6 2 [diamond]6 3 2 [club] None

Your partner, vulnerable against not, opens 3NT showing a solid seven card minor — you are thinking about what to bid when right hand opponent bids 7 clubs! Over to you.

Seems pretty simple since partner clearly holds seven solid diamonds so you confidently bid seven diamonds — easy!

It goes pass on your left and when you see the look on partner’s face you realise something has gone horribly wrong. In fact, partner holds seven solid clubs and RHO, who holds seven solid diamonds (!) has come up with a master bid to suck you into the trap! I’ll let you figure out the rest!