Bridge - The Scotsman 14/06/12

Published on 14/06/2012 00:00

THIS deal comes from the East District Hunter Cup, now run as a Swiss Teams. Winners, for the second year running, were Harry Smith, Adrian Orlowski, Alex Adamson and newcomer Finlay Marshall, who noted that his last won was nearly 30 years ago.

Brian Short, captain of the Women’s team that is now in action at the European Championships in Dublin, sat West against one of his team. A minimum 4441 opener can be tricky playing a weak no-trump, especially when opponents intervene. North’s 2C was forcing, but when East raised spades South was temporarily off the hook. Then, when North made a delayed invitational raise showing just 3-card support, South reckoned that all contracts were bad, so bid the one that scored best if, by some miracle, it were to make.

Brian led a spade to the ten and jack. Declarer saw that she needed an endplay, so she cashed all her red suit winners, ending in hand. Brian was fixed: he had to make two discards, and could not afford a heart. If he threw his low club he could not avoid the endplay, so he kept his little club and threw two spades. When declarer now led a club he played low in unconcerned fashion, but declarer had no real option – she played the queen because it could never gain to duck.

A non-spade lead does not help, provided declarer does not allow East to score the jack of clubs and so gain the lead to send a spade through.