THERE was disappointment for both Bermuda teams who travelled to the Caribbean Championships in Cura|0xe7|ao to try to qualify for the Bermuda Bowl. The Open Team — Roman Smolski, Vera Petty, John Burville, David Cordon, David Sykes, Sally Sykes and non-playing captain John Glynn — finished fourth in the nine-team field to get into the semi-final against Trinidad and Tobago, where they lost in a match in which they were always behind.

Trinidad and Tobago then went on to cause an upset by beating a very strong Guadeloupe squad in the final, and they will now travel to Shanghai for the Bermuda Bowl.

They will be joined by the Guadeloupe ladies’ team who will contest the Venice Cup after their win in the six-team ladies’ field.

The Bermuda team — Gertie Barker, Madga Farag, Judy Bussell, Stephanie Kyme, Jane Smith, Sheena Rayner and non-playing captain Tony Saunders, pictured above — started reasonably well and held second place for a few sessions, with the first and second placed teams going into the final.

They fell away, however, to finish fourth and can be pleased with being in contention for a large part of the round-robin.

I watched a fair amount of the Bermuda semi-final against Trinidad and Tobago. The bridge was not very special with a number of light opening bids leading to some strange contracts.

Watching Vu Graph always reinforces for me the value of playing ‘normal’ bridge where one can make sensible bidding and defending decisions based on partners’ actions, and really make the opponents pay dearly when they step out of line.

This becomes even more important when you believe you are the better pair as the only way you give the opponents a chance is to lose discipline.

While the National Teams event was taking place Alan Douglas and Ian Harvey teamed up with a couple of locals to contest the Open Teams event.

They had a marvellous run in the round-robin, winning it quite easily but then lost in the final, fatigue perhaps playing a part as they played a four-man team throughout. Alan also finished sixth in the Open Pairs with Ian Harvey and third in the Mixed Pairs with Jane Smith, so a good tournament for them.

Feedback on the event itself is good in terms of playing conditions, hospitality and so on and morale among the Bermuda contingent was, from all accounts, positive.

The final between Trinidad and Tobago and Guadeloupe was close and Board 3 in the third session proved pivotal — Guadeloupe were ahead at that stage but -590 in one room and -790 in the other resulted in a 16-imp swing which turned the match.S/EW

North

[spade]—

[heart]9 4 2

[diamond]A Q 10 8 6 5 2

[club]7 5 >

West East<$>

[spade]K 7 6 2 [spade]Q J 10 9 4

[heart]— [heart]K J 10 6

[diamond]9 7 [diamond]J 4 3

[club]A K Q J 8 6 2 [club]10

South

[spade]A 8 5 3

[heart]A Q 8 7 5 3

[diamond]K

[club]9I>Open RoomWest North East South

Hart Bouveresse Clarke Mathieu

1[heart]

Dbl 2[diamond] 2[spade] Pass

3|0xa4| 4[heart] Dbl Pass

4[spade] Pass Pass Dbl

All passSouth’s lead of the [heart]A did not paralyse declarer, who ruffed and eventually made his doubled game: EW +790.

With careful defence 4[spade] can be defeated; [diamond]K overtaken by the ace and [diamond]Q, South pitching a club. Later South should duck his [spade]A one time and in some variations he has to shorten dummy by tabling [heart]A. That way communications to dummy are de

Closed RoomWest North East South

Dubois Seepersad Moers Mapp<$>

2[heart] (Flannery)

3[club] 4[heart] Pass Pass

Dbl All PassDefence started with three rounds of clubs, East pitching a diamond and [spade]Q. Roger Mapp ruffed, ruffed a spade low and played a low trump. East inserted the 10 for South’s queen. Mapp overtook his [diamond]K, played [diamond]Q and East was coupled: NS +590.

The defence could also have done a lot better on this one, but it was not to be.