Bridge - The Scotsman 30/01/2012

THE late Rixi Markus was largely responsible for introducing an annual parliamentary bridge match between the House of Lords and the House of Commons. There are four tables in play, with aggregate scoring, and the Lords have won 20 times to the Commons’ 17.

David Bird reported this key deal from last year’s match, which clinched victory for the Lords by 980 aggregate points. Both their tables reached the excellent 6D. Baroness Byford did well to emphasise the quality of her suit, and the Earl of Caithness viewed his queen with approval, and drove to slam. West led the jack of hearts, and East won his ace and returned a hopeful heart. But the Baroness won her king, carefully cashed the queen of diamonds and returned to hand with a spade ruff to draw the rest of the trump. She then crossed to dummy in clubs to discard her losing club on the queen of hearts.

It does not help East to withhold the ace of hearts at trick one. Declarer wins the king, crosses to the queen of diamonds and plays ace and queen of spades. If East covers she ruffs, draws trump and discards all her losers on spades. If he does not cover she discards her second heart. Even if West can win the spade the contract is secure. The best he can do is to return a club, but declarer enters hand with a heart ruff to draw trump and still has a club entry to dummy’s spades.