Bridge

IN THE Scottish Cup Final Derek Diamond and David Gerrard reached this excellent 6C. West led a trump. Declarer might cash two top spades, then ruff a spade high; when the 5-2 break appears he can return to hand with a diamond ruff to take a second spade ruff. This line requires a 3-2 trump break, and Derek preferred to rely on a 4-3 spade break. He played ace of spades, ruffed a spade, and drew trump. When West showed out on the third spade there were only 11 tricks, so declarer needed luck. He cashed one more club. East could not afford a spade or heart, so threw a diamond. The position was:

Easy for the BBO audience to see the winning line: ace of diamonds, ruff a diamond and endplay East in spades to lead a heart away from the king. Not so clear to declarer, who cashed his last club. West and North threw hearts, and East another diamond. Now declarer was reduced to the forlorn hope of trying to endplay West in diamonds, and the slam failed.

In the other room, on a diamond lead, Cliff Gillis ruffed two diamonds in hand and one spade in dummy to reach a position where he had no choice but to endplay East. But the board was flat: Cliff was in 7C.