The webmaster of the Hertfordshire Bridge Association won a prestigious national Swiss pairs event in Devon in June.

Chris Cook of Watford Bridge Club, playing with Monica Lucy of Bedfordshire, won the EBU English Riviera Congress in Torquay on June 24 and 25.

Remarkably, it was the first time they had played together face to face, having only played online a few times before.

Playing Benji Acol with a weak no-trump, they were in equal tenth place after Saturday's seven matches, with 98 victory points from a possible 140, and five more seven-board matches to play on Sunday.

Chris writes: "In the eighth match against Chris and Sue Taylor from Essex we ground out a very good win.

"Two hand were particularly pleasing – in the first Chris Taylor bid two hearts, a Lucas-style bid showing five cards in the suit bid plus another suit.

"When I discovered Chris’s second suit was clubs I was able to throw Sue in (after eliminating her side suits) so she had to play into my ace-queen of diamonds.

"The second hand was played by Monica and she had the following diamond suit combination - A98x with QTx in dummy.

"Monica needed all the tricks bar one to make her contract.

"Her right hand opponent, was forced to take the fifth-last trick, who now had only diamonds left.

"A low diamond ran to the ten which held. Monica now played the queen, and with her opponent holding Kxx the jack was pinned. We won that match 20-0.

"We played Catherine Curtis and Paul Fegarty next and won 19-1. We were now lying in third place.

"Our next match was on table one and played against Ruth Edmondson and Brigid McElroy. "We lost this match 15-5, the key hand in this match being a thin slam that failed to make.

"This loss put us in sixth place, 21 victory points behind the leaders John Dakin and Richard Harris.

"We stayed on table one, as the matches are assigned one match in arrears, where we had to play the leaders.

"We needed to win this one big to have any shot of the title.

 
Dealer North                      
Vul E/W                      
      North       North East South West  
      S 9       Richard Chris John Monica  
      H T765       Harris Cook Dakin Lucy  
      D K86                
      C JT976       Pass Pass 1C1 1NT2  
  West   East   Pass 2H3 Pass 3D4  
  S AJT5

S

K7432   Pass 4S Pass Pass  
  H A3

H

Q84   Pass        
  D AJT5

D

Q972            
  C K32

C

Q   1Third seat bid to try and prevent the game being reached
      South       215-17 with a club stop
      S Q86       3Transfer to spades
      H KJ92       4Break transfer, showing four spades, a maximum and diamonds as a second suit
      D 43                
      C A854                
                       
                       
 
"John made the lead of the two of hearts, but this gave a trick away. Since he had opened, the spade finesse was taken, for plus one.

"Most of the other tables were in the same contract, but usually played by West, which is more difficult to make with no information.

 
Dealer East                      
Vul Both                      
      North       North East South West  
      S J743       Richard Chris John Monica  
      H Q6       Harris Cook Dakin Lucy  
      D KT654                
      C Q6       - 1C 1NT1 2D  
  West   East   X 2H Pass Pass  
  S 852

S

AQT9   3S2 Pass 4S2 Pass  
  H K952

H

AT43   Pass X Pass Pass  
  D J9872

D

-   Pass        
  C K

C

J8432    
      South       115-17 with a club stop (The values of this hand was upped because he had two aces)
      S K6       2 Values with a second suit
      H J87       3 John assumed that his partner had a long natural spade suit
      D AQ3                
      C AT975                
                       
                       
"The contacted was doomed from the start and went four off for 1100 giving us another 20-0 win.

"Robert Mayers and Ed Jones, a pair of junior England internationals, now led the field as follows:

             
  1 Robert Myers & Ed Jones 171      
  2 John Dakin & Richard Harris 163      
  3 Chris Cook & Monica Lucy 162      
                   
                   
"Monica and I played our last match against Jim Grant & Stefan Lindfors. The match felt like a close tussle but we managed to win 18-2. Robert & Ed lost their last match 14-6 and John Dakin & Richard Harris won 12-8 which was not enough for them, leaving Monica and I champions.

"The day began as a nice sunny day - it was now positively beaming"