Contract bridge A couple of coups from Manila

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 17

Contract bridge A couple of coups from Manila

J.R.Wignall

Although New Zealand pe:formed well below expectations at the Far East Bridge Federation Championships in Manila last month, its players at least had the consolation of featuring in two of the best played hands. P. H. Marston of Christchurch was the declarer in the first. East was the dealer

When East opened the bidding one heart, South overcalled one no-trump. He was a trifle below strength for the bid, but a bit of good play is worth a few extra points. Alter checking on the possibility of a fit in spades, North raised to three notrumps. West led the queen of clubs, which did his side no harm at all, and Marston viewed an unpromising prospect. He took the first trick with the ace of ciubs and set about in search of tricks. Since the most likely source was dummy’s long suit, he led the 10 of diamonds from hand. When West followed with the two, North’s three was played, but East made the mistake of ducking, after which he was always headed for serious trouble. The declarer now made the fine play of cashing the king of clubs, stripping East of the suit. Another diamond to the jack forced East to win

with the ace and guess which ‘major suit to lead. He tried j a low spade, which ran to the three, nine and queen. After i making the king of diamonds, on which he discarded a club, Marston led another spade I from dummy, in this ; position:

I East took the spade four 'with the ace, and continued ' the suit. The king of spades produced the sixth trick for the declarer, who then led a heart to the queen and king. His left hand opponent cashed the jack of spades on which South’s club went away, but then had to lead a heart. Unerringly, South put in the nine, and made the ace and jack to land his con- : tract.

It is possible the defence was kind, but the play was still good. The same c.ould be said of the next deal where two top players outsmarted themselves in an effort to fool R. P. Kerr, but instead fell flat on their faces. East was the dealer, with neither side vulnerable: N.

weak no-trump his opponents still reached four hearts, on the surface a hopeless contract. It would seem there are two aces to lose, plus at least two tricks in trumps but it did not go quite like that. The opening lead of the nine of spades was taken deceptively by dummy’s king. When a low heart was led, East made his first cunning play by winning with the king. Had he simply taken the trick with the queen and cashed a top diamond, it is most unlikely West would have gone wrong later. To trick three, however, East led the nine of clubs. Sduth played low, and West went into prolonged trance. It is hard to visualise a disr tribution where it could be right to duck, but eventually he found one and dummy’s queen was allowed to win’

The jack of spades was overtaken by the ace, and on the spade queen dummy’s last club went away. South next led a diamond, taken by East ,who could still have beaten the contract with a trump continuation. Instead he returned a club ruffed in dummy and the stage was set for a classical denouement.

The declarer had won five tricks, and took a sixth by ruffing a diamond. A club trumped in dummy was number seven, and another diamond ruffed in hand was the eighth. South’s last spade was trumped with the ace of hearts, and a further diamond completed East’s discomfort. South had the now bare jack of hearts and whatever happened he had to make a trick with it. That was 10 tricks for Kerr and a well-earned if lucky result. To make it even better, at the other table North-South did not enter the auction. East was left to play in one no-trump, making three tricks in clubs, three in diamonds and a heart for a further 90 points to New Zealand.