Bridge - The Scotsman 24/04/12

Tuesday’s puzzle...

This 24-count 3NT contract from the Lady Milne was bid at four tables. (England and Wales both stopped in partscore for a flat board in their match.) West led a heart to the queen and king, establishing four heart winners for the defence. The declarers followed sound advice by cashing their long diamond suit, forcing the defenders to make some uncomfortable discards. The WBU West erred by discarding a heart. Sheila Adamson could now afford to run the ten of spades to establish her ninth trick, and she was the only declarer in the event to bring home the game.

The Scottish West threw two spades and two clubs, East a heart and a club. The simple line now is to finesse the queen of spades, but the discards told Gilly Clench that was unlikely to succeed. Reading the position accurately she played a spade to the ace, removing West’s last spade, and exited with a heart. West cashed four hearts to reach a two-card ending where dummy had Q4 in clubs and declarer A10. East had kept the king of spades and one club, and West had two clubs, either Kx or Jx.

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West led the nine of clubs, and declarer had a guess for her contract. If East has the king of clubs she should play low from dummy; if West has that card she must play the queen. When you are having an unlucky weekend you seem to make every wrong guess; after a great run Gilly fell at the final hurdle.

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