Bridge - The Scotsman 08/03/2012

IT was appropriate that Alex Wilkinson should win the Junior Camrose at his last opportunity to do so. An immensely talented player, he will represent Scotland at the European Open Championships in Dublin in June. On this deal he found a double dummy play that was his only chance.

Playing five-card majors, North’s 2H showed a strong three-card raise. East had a bash at 4S, a hopeless contract, but it was hard for South not to bid out his shape, and so he reached the five-level. West led his spade, and East played three rounds of the suit. Ruffing with the nine of hearts works only when East has precisely Q10 doubleton, and even then there will still be a club loser, so Alex ruffed high, and dropped the singleton queen of hearts under the ace at trick four. He ran the nine of hearts to pick up West’s remaining 10x, and drew the last trump with dummy’s jack. Next he played the king of diamonds and ruffed away East’s ace to reach this position:

Alex cashed his last trump, discarding a club from dummy, then crossed to the ace of clubs to cash two diamonds. East was squeezed in the black suits, unable to keep both the jack of spades and two clubs in the two-card ending.