THE Bermuda Bridge Club Teams Championship concluded on Monday with a fine win for the team of Alan Douglas, Jane Smith, Charles Hall and David Gordon who held off some strong opposition to take the event. The outcome was wide open with two matches remaining and even going in to the last match three teams were mathematically in with a chance. A 12-8 and 15-5 finish for the Douglas team was, however, good enough for the win.

The final table:

1. Douglas 11 wins, 178 VP

2. Smolski (Petty, Sykes & Sykes) 9 wins, 170 VP

3. Wakefield (Johnson, Bussell, Pride) 8 wins, 162 VP

4. Hutton (Rachael Gosling, Ball, Cosham, Alison) 9.5 wins, 137 VP.

As you can see the event was close and the winners deserve congratulations. Douglas, Gordon and Hall have all had many Open wins to their credit. Jane King continues to impress at this level and must count this as an especially satisfying victory.

Smolski is always in the hunt, as is Wakefield and it was probably always going to be between these three.

This week's hand returns to one of my favourite themes — always giving yourself an extra chance.

Dlr North, E/W vul.

North

[spade]Q 7 5 2

[heart]A Q

[diamond]A 9 8 4 3

[club]7 6

South

[spade]A K J 10 6 3

[heart]3

[diamond]K J 5

[club]A 8 4North South<$>

1© 1[spade]

2[spade] 4NT (1)

5[spade] (2) 7[spade] (3)1. Roman key card

2. Two key cards and the trump queen in this pair's methods

3. My my — very aggressive

Opening lead is the club queen. Trumps are 2-1. Plan the play.

If you just had Superman's X-ray vision capabilities, you could see where those missing red suit honours / donors are hanging out. But you can't, so you must have to give it your best shot by winning the CA, drawing trumps (leaving two trump entries in dummy), and cashing king-ace of diamonds. You cash the king first in case East has a singleton queen in which case you have five diamond tricks.

Say both follow in diamonds, but no queen appears. Return to your hand with a spade and take the heart finesse. If it loses, down three is good bridge. If it wins, discard a diamond on the HA, ruff a diamond and return to dummy with a trump so you can pitch your two losing clubs on the established diamonds.

Don't look now, but you just made your contract. You see, you didn't need X-ray vision after all — you just had to give yourself two chances in the play. The full deal:

Dlr: North, Vul E/W

Matchpoints

North

[spade]Q 7 5 2

[heart]A Q

[diamond]A 9 8 4 3

[club]7 6West East<$>

[spade]4 [spade]9 8

[heart]K 9 7 5 2 [heart]J 10 8 6 4

[diamond]Q 10 7 [diamond]6 2

[spade]Q J 10 3 [club]K 9 5 2South<$>

[spade]A K J 10 6 3

[heart]3

[diamond]K J 5

[club]A 8 4

The bottom line:

When a successful finesse in one of two suits will make your contract, but you have to choice the right one, consider this:

If the longer suit (diamonds) is missing the queen and the shorter suit (hearts) is missing the king, play the ace-king of the longer suit. If the queen doesn't drop, take a finesse in the shorter suit.