Page 11 - ABF Newsletter February 2026

Will led [6 to the seven, Mike’s jack and Jess’ ace. She played }Q out of hand, with Will winning and continuing a low heart to the nine and king, dummy pitching a diamond. Jess cashed }A then played a low club, ducking when the king appeared. Will played a third round of hearts which Jess won. She crossed to dummy’s {A, cashed }J and played a club out which Mike won with the queen. He cashed his }9 then played a low spade to the ace. Jess cashed {J and Will had to come down to either ]K or [8. Jess had discarded something on the }J but, being the lunch break, she had effectively starved Will into not watching her play. Of course, this ridiculous match ended with a successful memory squeeze and Jess and Shane scored +600 for a full 12-imp gain.
Going into the final round, Brake and Harrison were leading, and played against Mike Ware and Matt McManus who were lying second.
Board 12, dealer West, North-South vulnerable.
]K9
[ A K 10 6 5 2 }J4
{Q98
Board 16, dealer West, East-West vulnerable.
] A Q 10 4 2
[987 [Q }982 }Q63 {A3 {K764
Matt led }2 which was won in dummy. Jess picked the clubs correctly, leading a low one to the nine at trick two. She cashed {A and {K then conceded the fourth club to Mike, pitching a low spade, with Matt shelling three spades. Mike continued diamonds, knocking out dummy’s ace. Jess cashed dummy’s final club, Mike and Jess both throwing a heart and Matt pitching another spade, coming down to:
]3 [AK832 }—
{—
]A8
[ J 10
}Q5 }9 {— {—
]KJ9 [4 }J8 {—
Before the previous trick, I’d hoped she would cash [AK then play a spade to the jack, endplaying Matt. However, due to Mike’s heart discard, she had an easier line: spade to the jack and ace, Matt cashed }Q and then played a heart to dummy, and Jess used Mike’s third heart as a stepping stone to her ]K.
While we might hear stories of wives shooting their husbands at the bridge table more often than we hear of successes, Jess and Shane break that pattern. They won this match by 15 imps and secured their place at the top of the field, outscoring second place by 8 VPs. They backed this up one week later with a win in the Mixed Pairs.
Congratulations Shane and Jess!
WEST McManus
1[ 1
all pass 1. Spades.
]5
[J43
} A K 10 7 5 { J 10 5 2
NORTH EAST Harrison Ware
2[ 4]
SOUTH Brake
dbl
] Q 10 [Q97
Matt and Mike play transfer openings, so 1[ showed spades. Mike jumped to 4], and with 4NT an unre- alistic contract, Jess and Shane did best to double and defend.
Naturally, Jess led }A and Shane encouraged with his doubleton. She continued }K and another dia- mond, giving him a ruff, and he played two rounds of hearts with the second one being ruffed. With Shane having ruffed already, Mike was on a guess for the ]K. He played for Shane to have been normal and not having encouraged Jess to give him a ruff with a natural trump trick, so got it wrong and went two off like he always should have been.
Jess played 3NT really nicely, with many options available to her and little information on which line was best:
] J 8 7 6 3
]3 [AK832 }AK
{ K 10 8 6 5
]A87654 [ J 10 }Q542 {3
]Q10 [Q975 }1093 {QJ72
WEST McManus 2} multi
2]
all pass
]KJ92 [64 }J876 {A94
NORTH Harrison
dbl 3[
EAST SOUTH Ware Brake
2[ P/C dbl pass 3NT
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: February 2026
Page: 11