Bridge - The Scotsman 26/04/2012

On this deal from the Lady Milne most East-West pairs reached the spade game after North opened the bidding. The re-opening overcall is a wide-ranging bid, so when East made an unassuming cuebid, West bid her second suit to indicate opening strength.

The winning defence is to cash the ace of clubs, then switch to trump so that declarer cannot score a heart ruff in dummy, but, unsurprisingly, no-one found that lead. The jack of diamonds was a popular choice, in spite of the dangers associated with a lead from Jx. Declarer can now make her contract by drawing two rounds of trump then playing four rounds of diamonds to discard the king of clubs before leading a heart from dummy. She appears to have four heart losers, but the defence has a dilemma. If South rises with the king to play a third spade declarer makes a trick by force with HQ109. If South plays low declarer puts in the nine and North wins the jack. She can play a top club for declarer to ruff, but now a low heart towards the seven gives the defence an insuperable problem. If North wins the eight she cannot stop the heart ruff in dummy; if South wins the king to play a trump declarer builds a heart trick.

One declarer played two trump, then led a heart, giving the defenders a chance to go wrong. But the Welsh North won and cleverly cashed the ace of clubs to defeat the game.