Wednesday night hands continue to be very challenging.

No one pair seemed immune from calamity.

Of the two slams, Bds 15 and 16, congratulations to the pair that bid and made 7D.

Only two of the seven found the play to make 13 tricks.

Bd 15 presented some great opportunities for defence.

Of the 7 pairs, 3 were in 6H, two making, despite missing an ace and 2 kings.

The bidding sheet shows one way to get to 6H

Ace asking found one, enough for East to bid 6H.

Shown is Norths hand, with the dilemma of what to lead against 6H.

Bd 22 posed headaches for West playing in 4H (no bidding interference).

Assume 10D lead from North.

You see their problem, there are 5 possible losers; 2 C's, 1 D, 1H, 1S.

Its no wonder 4 out of 5 Wests went down. One West got a helping lead.

Where do you start with a plan ?

You must remain optimistic. Assume all finesses work, trumps break nicely, opponents do not have shortage and trump in.

Opener must try to convey shape and strength in as few bids as possible.

Most unbalanced hands can be shown in 3 bids by opener.

The best start is to bid your longest suit first, even if it is lower in rank than a second suit.

Bidding a second suit twice must show at least 5 cards, indicating at least a similar length first suit.

If the first suit is lower in rank, then repeating a second suit twice, must show a 6-5 shape.

What happens when opener has not got sufficient strength to bid a second suit of higher rank.

One of the highlights of our Club competition year is the annual Teams tournament with teams competing for the Janet Milbank Memorial Trophy.  This year Swiss Pairs format was chosen and we had 8 teams enter.

Looking at the results for 2026, as with last year it was tough at the top with a very close competition and especially so for 2nd and 3rd place.

Winners : 84.30 VP Joyce Reid, Rex Tulloch, Karen Warren, Bronwyn Kamphorst

2nd:  80.6 VP Derek Moores, Bobbi Drysdale, Don Moore, Ali Barr

Thank you Trust Horizon for again supporting small clubs like ours with a generous Grant towards power costs. This year we have been successful with a $2500 Grant secured from the latest funding round. This amount of money will go a long way towards helping meet what is one of our most significant annual costs. We would like to acknowledge Trust Horizon for this donation.

Only N-S hands are shown, to replicate the difficult decisions North players faced in playing 3NT.

East leads a small heart. Good play is not to play the Ace. West wins with the KH and returns a small heart.

You play the Jack, East the Queen, now you win with the Ace. Now the 10H is a winner.

North now takes stock. Combined, the other 3 suits have 7 cards each.

Those suits could give 3 winners each. Which suit to play on first?

Care must be taken because E-W will lead hearts at the first opportunity.

The second heat of the 2026 Bay Pairs competition which was to have been held at Whakatāne on Sunday 12 April has been postponed due to the forecast weather and official advice for only essential travel on the day.

We will notify clubs of an alternative date as soon as possible.

Many hands in bridge you would like to bid again, or should I say PASS.

Board 19, South opens 1NT and a vulnerable West has a dilemma.

Those West who took action by doubling, quickly got their side to 2S or 2NT.

Two Norths became saviours and bid to 2NT and 3S.

The auction closed at 1NT for 3 N-S pairs.

None of the final bids in all the auctions make with proper defence.

 Fortunately for those Souths in 1NT, West never got off to the best lead:  3H.

How often have you been told, you should "Pass". 

Computer dealt hands throw up weird distributions.

Voids and long suits allow quite a lot of latitude in bidding and much over bidding.

40% of contracts going light, some by 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 tricks.

Board 1 is a prime example, needing sound planning to make 4S, bid on 16 points.

Put yourself in Norths' shoes, 7spade tricks and the Ace of clubs = 8 tricks.

How to keep losers to 3?

Standard methods involve ruffing losers or throwing them on a side suit or finessing.

Two rounds of trumps will clear the suit.

Can you find the solution?

Hand 17 is an excellent example of when NOT to support partners 1H opening.

East opens 1H and West supports bidding 2H.  East with a good hand raises or competes further to 3H.

6 out of 8 E-W pairs went 2 light. Why ?

Unfortunately for E-W trumps break 4-1 and South leads their singleton diamond.

More importantly both E-W hands are flat.  Flat hands have more losers.

If you are in NT, it doesn't matter as much if the H"s and D's break badly, but costly in a suit as E-W found out.