A great turnout of 64 players took part in the Ernie Owen Memorial Tournament, which is played as an individual, and many congratulations to Judy King who finished on top with a score of 65 per cent.In second place was Richard Hall with a score of 64 per cent; this is an excellent performance from Richard who is a brand-new Life Master so this is really icing on the cake.Third place went to Misha Novakovic with 62 per cent, followed by Linda Pollett in fourth, David Pickering in fifth and Diana Diel in sixth.Well done to Judy, who posted a great score in a very competitive field, that had most of the top players turning out.The attendance was exceptional, and pays a fitting tribute to Ernie who was so much a part in the development of the club and Bermuda bridge.Alan Douglas and Jane Smith graciously agreed to direct the complicated two-section individual movement, so many thanks to them for helping make this a success.As we are nearing the end of the year I asked John Burville for an update on how the Youth Bridge initiative was progressing and got this positive response.“Warwick Academy, under the management of Bill Pollett, is doing excellently, and we have good support from all the other schools (Saltus, BHS, CedarBridge, and Somersfield).“Our regular after-school Thursday session at the Bridge Club has held up really well with 12-16 bridge players, and a few learners, who show up each week.“We just had a bridge/minibridge tournament at the club on December 8, with 22 participants all playing together.“As always, the club volunteer support was excellent, and Lisa Burland gathered volunteers and also arranged for members to provide drinks and food for all the students. “I think everyone had a great time.“The event was really an introduction for the new players to see how bridge competitions were played, and for them to meet more students from other schools.“Thanks for putting the results in your column.“We will be holding our usual mini-bridge event at the Fairmont Southampton on the Sunday afternoon at the Bermuda Regional, at which time we will be gaining interest for our sponsored trip to the ACBL Summer Nationals in Montreal next July (22-26). More on that later. “I’d like to once again thank all our sponsors, and volunteers without whom the Youth Bridge initiative would not be possible.”That all sounds promising and hopefully what the Youth Bridge initiative will do is sow the seed that will allow these youngsters to enter the game at a time which is right for them over the coming years.Today’s hand is all about … thinking!That is really most of what was required, and the declarer did that and then needed to follow up with a bit of execution.Figure 1: Dealer South N/S VulnerableSouth opened a strong two Clubs over which West jumped to an obstructive four Clubs and N/S now did not have much bidding space — North bid four Diamonds and East continued the obstruction with his five Club bid (which would stop South using Blackwood).South now made a brave, but reasonable, bid of seven Hearts as North was more than likely to hold five or more Diamonds headed by the Ace.West led the Ace of Clubs and dummy was a nice surprise for South with both the Diamond Ace and the Spade Queen — there was, however, still work to do.Declarer ruffed the Club and drew three rounds of trumps and was surprised to see West follow to all three.He now played the Spade Ace to find out a bit more and when West followed, one thing was clear; West had Diamond shortness as he was marked with at least seven Clubs, three Hearts and a Spade, so the only danger to the hand was East holding J953 of Diamonds.See figure 2Having done the analysis South led a low Diamond from his hand and was gratified to see West show out.He now played the Diamond 10 covered by the Jack and Queen, re-entered dummy with a Spade and played a low Diamond off the board with his K7 standing over East’s 95 — game over, contract made!Great bidding and play by South, who simply took the time to count the West hand, and was duly rewarded with a stone-cold top score on the board.