Bridge - The Scotsman 20/02/2012

Winners of the Scottish Women’s Teams were Sheila Macdonald, Maida Grant, Sam Punch and Liz McGowan; runners-up were Central District’s Shiena Lang, Liz Hunter, Moira McGregor and Ann Griffiths; and third the Edinburgh team of Veronica Guy, Laura Middleton, Anna St Clair and Lucia Barrett.

This 4S contract can always be made, but the defenders can put declarer under pressure. West should not lead her singleton – who wants to ruff with trump winners? A diamond lead is more testing. If declarer wins and follows a normal line of cashing ace and king of spades her contract is in jeopardy. She might play clubs now, but West waits to ruff the third round, then cashes the queen of spades and switches to a heart for the king and ace. Declarer cannot immediately reach dummy’s clubs, and loses a trick in each red suit as well as two spades.

Declarer avoids this fate by taking a safety play in trump: cash the ace of spades, then lead low towards hand. When East shows out West wins the ten, but declarer has a finesse against her remaining Q5. The defenders may play diamonds to try to force dummy, but she can discard dummy’s heart loser on the third round instead of ruffing. A fourth diamond can be ruffed in hand to finesse in trump. Deep Finesse makes 11 tricks by starting spades from hand, running the jack to pin East’s eight – but most players are not programmed in Double Dummy analysis.