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Press, 11 October 1978, Page 13

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East’s opening bid of one diamond was forced upon him by the dictates of his system and had the effect of pushing the auction to the three level before he had mentioned his longest suit. When three clubs was passed around to him North decided that he had too many values in high cards to pass meekly. His double was intended to invite his partner to further action but with three quick tricks South decided to pass. Since North-South can make 10 tricks in hearts, their only losers being the two top diamonds and ace of spades, they had committed their first error in the bidding. Against three clubs doubled South cashed his ace of hearts then made his second error when he switched to a spade. It was essential for him at this stage to lead trumps. After winning with the ace of spades, it was now the declarer’s tum to go wrong. He led a low club to dummy’s 10 then played the ace, king and another diamond. North won with the jack, put his parnter on lead with the king of hearts and at this point South woke up. He played the ace of clubs and another club which removed all of dummy’s trumps. East had by now lost two tricks in hearts, one in clubs and one in diamonds and could not escape the loss of an-

other diamond. He thus finished one down for a 200 point penalty to the defenders. It would have been a different story if after winning the second trick with the ace of spades East had played out three rounds of diamonds before attacking the clubs. He would then have been able to ruff his fourth club in

CONTRACT BRIDGE

J.R.Wignall

By,

dummy and nothing the defenders could do would prevent this. Both the winners and the runners up finished in identical contracts on the next hand and made them for very good scores. South was the dealer with neither side vulnerable:

Since Duplicate Bridge is an aggressive game most seasoned partnerships have adopted the weak notrump, one of the most aggressive opening bids. South therefore opened one no-trump, West doubled and everyone passed.

The opening lead was the three of diamonds and

South viewed his dummy with considerable dismay. There was only one lie of the cards to give him any hope ■ of escaping complete catastrophe and that was to find the ace of clubs on his left and a onceguarded spade honour on nis right.

After winning the first trick with the 10 of diamonds South led a low club. Seeing what was coming West made the ace and returned the suit to dummy’s king. Now a small spade was led from the table to the six, 10 and queen. At this point it was imperative for West to lead out his high cards in hearts but this was by no means clear at the table. In fact he returned a small spade allowing the declarer to capture East’s king with his ace. The jack of spades was cashed and the two led to dummy’s nine. That was five tricks for the declarer but even more interesting was the fact that West had discarded his low heart on the fourth round of spades. When a low heart was led from dummy now and East played low, South put in the nine allowing his left-hand opponent to win with the jack. West continued with the king of hearts but was allowed to hold the trick. With only diamonds remaining in his hand West played the ace and another allowing the declarer to make his sixth trick with the king of diamonds and his seventh with the ace of hearts.

It was bad enough for the defenders to allow the doubled contract to make but even worse when they realised they could have taken 10 tricks had the hand been played by them in hearts.