Bridge - The Scotsman 14/05/2012

When you are a defender you should cherish your trump tricks – normally you do not have many. North did quite a lot of bidding on his 11-count. After the weak jump overcall he redoubled to show a maximum. South showed a few values, but not primary spade support since with that he would bid earlier. The deal comes from the Lederer, which has a point-a-board element, so North made a tiger double of the final contract, played by John Salisbury of Wales.

North led the king of diamonds to the ace, declarer won and played the queen of clubs, taken by South. The jack of diamonds was covered with the ace, and North ruffed. He exited with a club, ruffed in the West hand. Now declarer could pick up hearts in two rounds with a finesse and ruff another club, establishing two club winners. He conceded a diamond, won the spade switch with the ace, ruffed a diamond and discarded two spades on the clubs to make his game.

To beat the contract North must refuse to ruff the queen of diamonds, discarding a club instead. Now declarer cannot get clubs going, and must lose a trick in each suit.

At another table the first two tricks were the same, but David Burn made a better play when he switched to a spade at trick three. But the five was not sufficiently clear: Zia, sitting West, put in the nine, North won the ten and fatally returned a spade, giving declarer a diamond discard from dummy.

Liz McGowan