Bridge - The Scotsman 23/05/2013

Although the Sime team were outscored almost throughout the Scottish Cup Final, they did not play as badly as the score suggests. Alan Mould did well on this deal.

Alan Goodman had no good bid over the strong 1NT, but he competed with a takeout double on the second round. When South showed positive heart support Iain Sime went on to game.

West led a spade, taken by the ace, and declarer cashed the ace of hearts, felling the queen. This was obviously a singleton, so he led a club to dummy’s king and played a diamond to the ten and jack. West continued with a spade to dummy’s king, and Alan played a club to the jack and ace. A spade now, forcing declarer to ruff, establishes two trump tricks for the defence, but West could not see the trump position, and played a third club. Declarer won the queen, finessed the ten of hearts, and led the king of diamonds, pinning East’s queen. West played the ace so he ruffed and returned to the king of hearts to play a winning diamond, discarding dummy’s third spade. East could ruff, the third defensive trick, but there were no more.

In the other room North became declarer after using Stayman rather than a transfer. East-West stayed out of the auction, so there was no reason to play East for most of the strength. He won the spade lead in hand and played a diamond to the king. When that lost to the ace the contract was doomed.tw