No news as yet from the pairs who travelled to the American Contract Bridge League Summer Nationals in Las Vegas and once I have some results, I will get them to you.

A short column today as I am travelling pretty much all week. How would you play this hand at your usual Thursday afternoon Pairs game?

You are playing in the reasonable contract of 3NT and West leads the spade queen — over to you.

N/S Vulnerable — Dealer South

You have eight top tricks and are looking for a ninth — if clubs break 3-3 you have ten tricks and a very good score by simply playing out the clubs. But do you take that risk? Do you see the alternative play?

The full hand:

The odds of the club suit breaking 3-3 are 35 per cent, so in essence they will break 3-3 once in every three times you play the hand — not great odds. If you were playing this hand at Teams, where making the contract is paramount and overtricks don’t matter much, it is a no-brainer — you win the spade and play a club and play low from dummy, letting the opponents win the trick.

Now you still have an entry to the club suit and the chances of you getting four tricks in clubs rises to 85 per cent

What would I do at Pairs? I would make the same play — duck a club, chalk up your plus 600 and move on.

You are likely to get a score that is slightly above average and can look for the good scores on other hands.

Minus scores are never good, for the scoring or for team morale, so try and avoid them!

Results for week of July 15

Monday afternoon

North/South

1, Charles Hall/Tony Saunders

2, Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

3, A Bostelmann/R Hall, L Bolton/M Taussig

East/West

1, Gertrude Barker/Julia Beach

2, Ellen Davidson/Diana Diel

3, Elaine Stevens/Ian Hilton

Wednesday morning

North/South

1, Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2, Charles Hall/Joseph Wakefield

3, Annabelle Mann/Patricia Colmet

East/West

1, Magda Farag/Sheena Rayner

2, Tracy Nash/S Lorimer-Turner

3, Tony Saunders/Molly Taussig

Thursday evening

North/South

1, Fabian Hupe/Gregor Von Buebow

2, William Pollett/Greta Marshall

3, Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

East/West

1, Charles Hall/Heather Woolf

2, Martha Ferguson/Judy King

3, Linda Pollett/Elizabeth McKee

Friday afternoon

North/South

1, Joseph Wakefield/Malcolm Simmons

2, Diana Diel/Julia Patton

3, Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

East/West

1, Margaret Way/Charles Hall

2, Ellen Davidson/Dianna Kempe

3, Greta Marshall/Heather Woolf