It is with great shock and sadness to report on the untimely passing of Jean Wolosiuk last week, who died while visiting her daughter in England.

Jean was an avid Tuesday night player, a real fan of the game and was universally popular with many, many friends at the club.

I have known her and her son Nick Jones for many years and even though I had not seen her of late I, along with other members, will feel a deep sense of loss. She often played with Nick at the club.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family on their tremendous loss. I am sure they know what a loss this will also be to her wide circle of friends both at and away from the club.

I believe the funeral service was held in England last Thursday.

The Player of the Year races are well under way and I thought it might be an idea to bring you the standings at the end of May in order to get some people focused on the competition.

Senior player of the year:

Jane Smith, 16.21; Margaret Way, 15.43; Gertrude Barker, 11.48; Diana Diel, 11.28; Elizabeth McKee, 11.06; Alan Douglas, 10.57; Judith Bussell, 10.01; Misha Novakovic, 9.44; Jean Johnson, 9.33; Ruby Douglas, 8.97.

Day player of the year: Molly Taussig, 31.97; Diana Diel, 27.66; Patricia Siddle, 22.64; Elizabeth McKee, 21.62; Gertrude Barker, 19.41; Louise Rodger, 16.76; Judith Bussell, 16.12; Sheena Rayner, 13.52; Lyn O’Neill, 12.92; Tony Saunders, 12.57.

Junior player of the year:

Sharon Shanahan, 3.52; Claude Guay, 3.52; David Pickering, 2.55; Felicity Lunn, 2.3; Gina Graham, 2.3; Linda Manders, 1.68; Richard Keane, 1.66; Wendell Emery, 1.54; Jean Wolosiuk, 1.45; Heather Farrugia, 1.39; John Luebkemann, 1.37.

There’s a long way to go in this competition and the winners will have earned their place by playing a lot of games — and playing well! I expect to see Alan Douglas shoot up the rankings when he gets back to playing. On a poignant note, Jean’s ninth place in the Junior event is a sad reminder of her keen participation and she would have been proud to be on the leaderboard.

This week’s hand has a number of interesting aspects to it... good card reading by defenders in each room of the teams game and good declarer play by the south player in the closed room.

South Dealer N/S Vul

S AQ1053

H 674

D A10764

C 94

E

S AJ97

H J106

D K9

C QJ108

S

S K42

H AK3

D QJ82

C AK6

W

S 86

H Q9852

D 53

C 7532

The auctions were exactly the same in both rooms — South opened 2NT (20-22).

North bid 3 Clubs (Stayman), South bid 3 Diamonds denying a major and North now bid 3NT.

In the open room, West led the 5 of Hearts and when East played the 10, Declarer let it hold.

East now did some counting — on the play to the first trick partner must have the Heart Queen and therefore South must have every remaining high card to make up 20 points. So knowing that partner’s hand was dead, East switched to the Club Queen!

Declarer won in hand with the King but with East holding both the Diamond King and the Spade Ace the hand slid to a one-trick defeat as the defence made a Spade, a Heart, a Diamond and two Clubs.

In the closed room Declarer saw the danger of the Club switch if he held up on the Heart and therefore won the first trick and at trick two led the King of Spades.

If this held he could then finesse the Diamond and claim nine tricks so East won and played the Heart Jack which Declarer now ducked.

West was alert and, knowing from the bidding that East had at least four Spades (because South had denied four) he overtook the Heart with the Queen to play another Spade.

Declarer now rose with the Spade Queen, crossed to a club and took the Diamond finesse in this position:

N

S A105

H 6

D A10764

C 9

E

S J9

H 6

D K9

C QJ10

S

S 2

H A

D QJ82

C A6

W

S

H 982

D 53

C 753

East won the Diamond but now could not defeat the contract which made with 1 Spade trick, 2 Hearts, 4 Diamonds and 2 Clubs.

This was a big swing in the match as +600 and +100 resulted in a 12 IMP gain.