The Junior Pairs concluded on Tuesday and when the smoke had cleared Delton Outerbrige and Betsy Baillie were the runaway winners, finishing more than 3 Boards ahead of second. In second were Richard Keane and Mike Viotti with 116 matchpoints compared with the winners’ 133, and close behind them on 111.25 were John Luebkeman and David Pickering on 106.5. In 4th and 5th were Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan and Carol Jones/Wendy Salvia.

This was an excellent performance by Delton and Betsy who finished ahead of two very strong pairs in a good field – the 4th and 5th placed pairs also can be pleased with their showing and Claude/Sharon and Carol/Wendy must take encouragement from this finish.

Well done to all the pairs in the frame and we look for some of them to keep this going into the upper ranks.

This week’s hand came up at the Club on Friday the 3rd, Board 12 and is really interesting.

Dealer North, E/W Vulnerable

North

? AK42

? AK

? AJ107

? QJ4

East

? Q853

? 53

? 962

? A873

South

? 976

? 109

? Q53

? K10652

West

? J10

? QJ87642

? K84

? 9

With the Kxx of diamonds under the Ace it looks as if South can make either 6clubs or 6NT … one pair was in 6 Clubs making and one pair in 5 Clubs also made six — but they shouldn’t have.

West led the spade jack and declarer won the ace to play the club queen … at both tables East won the ace and play back a low spade but it was all over. Declarer won, drew trumps and played the diamond queen — the defence is dead — declarer made 2 spades, 2 hearts, 4 diamonds and 4 clubs for 12 tricks.

Do you see how to beat it? East must hold up the ace of clubs till the 3rd round. Now he wins the club and plays a spade or heart and declarer is defeated – try it.

Declarer can give it a good shot by winning the second club with the ten and then playing the queen of diamonds and playing three rounds before going back to clubs in this position:

North

? AK42

? AK

? 7

? J

East

? Q85

? 53

?

? A8

West

? 10

? QJ8764

?

?

South

? 97

? 109

?

? K65

There is still no hope … if declarer plays a club, East wins and plays a spade and declarer is stuck on the board. If declarer plays diamond, East ruffs with the 8 and declarer is left with a losing spade.

When you are ever dealt Axxx of trumps, more often than not holding off the first two rounds creates chaos.