I love Bernard Teltscher. In fact, I proposed to him recently, but he politely declined, saying I was too old for him! He is 92 so I could be forgiven for thinking I was in with a chance.

Bernard has sponsored the Lederer Memorial Trophy, England’s premier Invitational Teams’ Tournament, for as long as anyone can remember, and this year his own President’s Team won by a country mile. We played at the very posh RAC club, and in his acceptance speech Bernard said that he had played bridge for over 82 years and was still learning. But this hand, featuring a classic Show Up Squeeze, proves he’s still got it:

Bernard showed both minors with 3♠, and 6♦ was a great contract — laydown if trumps break 3–2.

He got the ♥K lead, and played two rounds of trumps, ending in hand. The contract is still easy if only you can lose to the ♣K quickly but, rather annoyingly, the Queen of Clubs held the next trick. The Jack of Clubs came next, West making the mistake of covering, and East ruffed dummy’s Ace and returned his last trump. Declarer could now play a Club to hand and ruff a Club in dummy to establish his last Club. A Heart ruff with the last trump in hand provided the entry, and when Bernard cashed the last Club, West had to let yet another Spade go. Dummy’s ♥J was discarded from dummy, as it had done its job as a threat against West. When the Jack of Spades was lead with two cards left, and West followed low, his last card could not be both the ♥Q and ♠Q, so Bernard played the Ace and scored a satisfying 1370.

Won’t you reconsider B?