ANOTHER hugely successful Bermuda Regional concluded at the Fairmont Southampton Princess Hotel last Saturday and chairman Lynanne Bolton and her committee (Donna Leitch, Sheena rayner, Alan and Ruby Douglas, Judy Bussell, Jane Clipper, Jack and Lisa Rhina, Steve Ball and David Ezekiel) can take full credit — and a rest!Attendance was up, the games were well run, all the social events went well and the locals put up a good showing, so it all augurs well for the future.

There were a number of locals winning the overalls in the various flights and here is a full listing of the local winners.

FLIGHT A

Sunday Swiss, <$>joint winners: Alan Douglas, Ian Harvey, David Pereira, Barry Rahman; Roman Smolski, Vera Petty,Jade and Karen Lee Barrett

Monday-Tuesday Open Pairs: Bill Souster (ex-Bermuda)-Jim Linhar>

Wednesday-Thursday Open Pairs: Vera Petty, Roman Smolski

FLIGHT B

Sunday Swi$>: Stephan Juliusburger, Valda Feldman, John Hoskins, Don Magann

Monday-Tuesday Open Pairs: David Cordon, John Burvi

Wednesday-Thursday Open Pairs: David Sykes and Sally Sykes

Friday-Saturday Flight B Ss<$>: Philip Shadick, Steve Ball, Tony and Joan Viidik

FLIGHT C

Monday-Tuesday Open Pairs: Richard and Wendyay

Wednesday-Thursday Open Pairs: Richard and Wendy Gray

Friday-Saturday Flight C Swiss: Julia Lunn, Patricia Siddle, Richard Meredith, Gordon Bell

FLIGHT D

Sunday Swiss<$>: Betty Outerbridge, Peggy Maguire, Bea Williams, Felicity Lines

The Master Point races for the locals saw Vera Petty and Roman Smolski rack up an impressive 83 master points to win the Norman Bach for an astonishing seventh straight time.

Also with good totals behind them were Alan Douglas, David Cordon, Pat Riding, Bill Tucker, Barry Rahman, David Pereira, Richard Gray and Wendy Gray.

Well done to all and a special mention to the Grays for getting on this list and for their two championship wins.

The Bermuda Bridge Club Trophy for the top scorer among the 0-20 group was won easily by Russell Craft with an excellent 13 master points.

Rounding out the top ten were: Raymond McDaid, Miodrag Novarovic, Elaine Stevens, Frances Warburton, Gill Butterfield, Julia Patton, Rosemary Smith, Kristina Nadarajah and Christiane Bock — again, well done all!

The winners’ list would not be complete without congratulating those who achieved the status of Life Master during the tournament. Four locals passed this barrier at the event — well done to Richard and Wendy Gray, Elizabeth McKee and Peggy Thompson, who will be receiving their gold cards soon.

While we are on the subject of master points, what about our friend Jim Linhart, who passed the 20,000 milestone during the Regional!

Last word on the tournament is to recognise the presence of Sharon Fairchild, ACBL president, who was with us all week and got to know a lot of the visitors and locals — as well as finding the time to win the Flight A Swiss!

Very often at the bridge table the defender’s cards will give you a good idea as to which line of play stands a chance — and it is up to you to use the information to your advantage.

This hand from the Swiss Teams is a case in point, where the club finesse looks doomed from the start, and declarer has to face reality and look for a solution.orth<$>

[spade]Q J 10 9

[heart]J 8

[diamond]A K 10 4

[club]A Q 3West East<$>

[spade]8 6 [spade]7 5

[heart]A Q 10 6 5 4 [heart]K 9 3 2

[diamond]J 9 7 [diamond]Q 3

[club]8 4 [club]K J 9 7 5South

[spade]A K 4 3 2

[heart]7

[diamond]8 6 5 2

[cl10 6 2West North East South

2[heart] Double 3[heart] 3[spade]

Pass 4|0xab| Pass Pass

PassHow should declarer play when West leads the eight of clubs?

As there is little chance of success if this is a singleton, declarer should play dummy’s three. East wins with the jack and plays a heart to West’s queen.

When another club comes back declarer must rise with the ace, hoping that clubs are 5-2. After drawing trumps declarer should place West with 2=6=3=2 distribution.

That being the case, there is a 100% play to make ten tricks, rather than the anti-percentage one of finessing the ten of diamonds, which relies on West beginning with both the queen and jack of diamonds.

Declarer ruffs dummy’s last heart and continues with ace, king and another diamond. When, as expected, West wins the third round with the jack he has only hearts remaining.

On the heart exit, dummy ruffs and declarer discards the ten of clubs from hand — contract made!