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Hand played on |
October 26th 2008 [Fletcher Trophy] |
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Board number |
Board 41 |
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Dealer |
North |
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Vulnerability |
EW Vulnerable |
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Submitted by |
Alaric Cundy |
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North ♠KJ74 ♥KT986 ♦KQ43 ♣ void |
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West ♠6 ♥Q43 ♦876 ♣Q87653 |
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East ♠AQT ♥A752 ♦A92 ♣AJ4 |
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North |
Bidding:
East |
South |
West |
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♠98532 ♥J ♦JT5 ♣KT92 |
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1♥ x End |
x 2NT
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No No |
2♣ 3NT |
No pressure or anything, but you find yourself playing this board as East / West against the team who were your main rivals for the trophy...
On our style, an immediate 1NT overcall from East would show 15 - 18 High Card Points, so a No Trump bid after a first round double shows more - 19 to 21. East faced a problem after North doubled partner's 2♣ bid: eight tricks might well be the limit on this hand as partner promised nothing more than a 4-card club suit, having been forced to bid. In the event, East continued to bid the hand as originally planned, and was 'rewarded' by a raise to game from partner. West of course knew that the values were 'thin' but he hoped that the heart honour and the 6-card club suit would provide several tricks.
South dutifully led partner's suit, i.e., the Jack of hearts.
Seeing all four hands, the defence is obvious, but seeing only your own and Dummy makes it more likely that you will make a mistake in defence that Declarer might just spot and take advantage of...
The heart lead was taken in hand with the Ace, ducking in Dummy given that North had bid hearts. From Declarer's perspective the prospects do not look as awful as they do when you can see all four hands. The lead of the Jack of clubs at trick 2 gives excellent chances if North started with either the singleton or doubleton King - as seemed possible on the bidding. That would give five clubs, three outside Aces, with one or other of the major suit queens needing to score for the ninth trick.
Well, that was not to be, but... South, presumably frightened of crashing partner's singleton Ace, decided to duck the Jack of Clubs. North has to discard. From the North hand the defence is now 'obvious': partner has a club entry, and will win the lead and play the second heart - contract dead. So North pitched a diamond. When Declarer followed up with A, x of clubs North had to find two more discards, and chose the other small diamond and a spade. South won the King of clubs at trick 4 and tried (too late!!) a diamond. North was by now down to King, Queen doubleton in that suit. Declarer won with the Ace and exited with a diamond, which North had to win. North has to play a spade. In fact, North can rescue the defence here if he exits with a top spade, and then sacrifices the other top spade, but in practice he led the residual low spade. Declarer put in the Queen, cashed the Ace, and exited to North's King. In the 4-card ending, North only has hearts left, Dummy by now is down to Q4 of hearts and Q8 of clubs - so Dummy makes three of the last four tricks. Contract made, courtesy of some understandable defensive errors and two throw ins!
It was a good time to pull a rabbit out of the hat and to record a positive game swing!
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