Hello dear readers and a very Happy New Year.
First, the bad news: this is my final Wednesday column. But now: better news for those of you who want to keep reading and improving. I am moving on to the next stage, “THURSDAY REVIEW” which will be a small step up from the Wednesday Reviews. A small step for most, but it could be a giant step for some, to borrow a phrase from the man on the moon. Thursday Reviews will follow the play of some of our recent Wednesday players who have taken the step up to Thursday nights at our local Hutt club. I have no idea at what level other clubs play on Thursdays but hopefully not all that different to our Thursday nights.

It's all very well to bid to a makeable contract but then you also have to be able to make it.
Board 15 from Wednesday 29/11/2017 ... Dealer S NS Vul

	J3 842 Q653 AQ85
AT874 KQT3 AT 42		Q965 9 KJ4 KT976
	K2 AJ765 9872 J3

Board 19 Dealer S EW Vul from Wednesday 15/11/2017

	Q42 Q54 JT2 8765
A975 A83 874 KJ3		K8 KJT92 Q AQ942
	JT63 76 AK9653 T

What can we learn from this particular deal? Seemingly, quite a lot so let me start with South.

Did you know that X-Clubs deals are being played in just about one third of New Zealand's clubs? It's like you can have a mini-NZ-Wide Pairs every time you play at club. Check out our Results pages to see which clubs are involved. But that's just the start! James Ward, founder and CEO of Pianola has generously allowed us free use of his fantastic results reporting service. All you have to do if your club plays X-Clubs deals is to send in your email address from this site to get a personalised invitation to create a Pianola log-in for yourself.

We are very fortunate to have a regular commentator on X-Club's Wednesday Night deals. Vil Gravis is an author of long standing and we are privileged to host his lifetime's articles in pdf form on this site. Click on the Vil's Books tab above to see for yourself.

The 2017 Babich NZ-Wide Pairs was scored using Bob Fearn's Compass scoring program: the power behind X-Clubs. We had the first cut of 50 clubs out by midnight. The remaining nine results were in by midday Saturday allowing us to create the final reports for the 1018 pairs that took part - the largest number in many years.

Board 9 Dealer N EW Vul from Wednesday 25/10/17

	T432 AJ92 T3 743
J6 T5 K9765 KT52		95 Q86 QJ842 AQ6
	AKQ87 K743 A J98

When this deal was played, all the Souths at Hutt received a low diamond lead against a spade contract. Some were in 4S, others only in 3S. I won't go into the pros and cons of how to bid the NS hands today, instead I have a problem that I want to set the reader. How best to play 4S when West leads the six of diamonds.