Bridge - The Scotsman 17/04/2012

IN a teams match one West reached 3NT after an informative auction. He opened his longest suit, then rebid 1NT to show 15-17.

East’s 2C asked about majors. West showed four spades, denying four hearts, and now 2NT was invitational. North realised that East must have hearts as well as diamonds, and chose a safe-looking small spade lead.

There were obvious communication problems. West led a low club at trick two, and when the queen appeared he took it at face value, won the king and played a club to the eight, confirming the 4-1 break. He played the king of diamonds, and North ducked, but he took the jack with the ace. A second spade went to the queen. Declarer, desperate to reach dummy, cashed his third top spade, discarding dummy’s low diamond, and played a heart to the ten and jack. South won, but had no good play. With no spades left, the best he could do was to cash his other top heart and return a club, giving declarer the finesse and nine tricks.

As so often on auctions like this, North does better to lead a heart through dummy’s strength. At the other table, with less information, North led a diamond. Declarer won the king and played a club, ducking the queen to maintain communications. This gave North the opportunity to switch to a heart, and regain the lead with the ace of diamonds to play a second heart – but he did not appreciate the position either.