Careful play can reap rich rewards

Press, 30 December 1985, Page 12

Careful play can reap rich rewards

A regular reader, M. A. Lewis, has drawn to my attention two hands that were very well played by his partners, proving that he himself has that rarest of qualities for the perfect partner, the ability to praise his colleagues. In the first, he held the North cards with G. R. Towart, one of his longstanding regular partners sitting South. When their vulnerable opponents reached games in hearts, they misjudged slightly to sacrifice in five clubs, or did they? The full deal was:

West would have been defeated by one in his four heart contract, losing two tricks in spades, one in clubs and one in diamonds. But when the dummy

CONTRACT BRIDGE

J.R. Wignail

appeared that was not Towart’s problem — he had to try to make five clubs. After a little thought he saw some hope. After ruffing the opening lead of the ace of hearts, he cashed the ace of clubs, noting the fall of West’s queen with interest. He then crossed to the ace of spades to lead the jack of diamonds covered by the queen, king and ace. Trumping the heart continuation, South went back to dummy’s king of spades to lead another diamond to the eight, nine and 10. Stolidly West returned a heart, and again Towart ruffed. He trumped a low diamond with the jack of clubs, then led the two of clubs to East’s six and his own nine. The king of clubs felled the 10, the seven of diamonds drew West’s last card in the suit so that the declarer was able to claim his eleventh trick with the humble, but established, three of diamonds. The declarer’s careful attention to the spot cards had turned what at first appeared to be a useless sacrifice into a profitable game. On the second hand Lewis

was partnered by B. R. Anderson, an international at both bridge and chess. Again they were NorthSouth and this was the full deal-

Playing in a local duplicate, North, under some time pressure, mis-sorted his cards and opened the bidding with two diamonds, denying, a four-card major suit. South, Anderson, responded three no-trumps ana his partner who by now had realised his initial error, decided to take his medicine and pass. When West led a low heart, South could see that he had nine top tricks, but also that other pairs would be collecting 11 in spades, losing only one trick in trumps and one in clubs, since the object of duplicate bridge is to earn the best possible score on the hand, Anderson set about trying to make 11 tricks in notrumps. He allowed East to win the first trick with the jack

of-hearts and the second ,with the queen, but he took the continuation with the ace of hearts, discarding all three of dummy’s clubs. Next came five rounds of diamonds, leaving this position:

When the three of diamonds was led, on which South discarded the 10 of clubs, West was a desperate man, squeezed in three suits. Hopefully he threw the 10 of hearts, but Anderson now came to hand with the king of spades and cashed his established nine of hearts. On this, West discarded a low spade, for he had to retain the ace of clubs, so the ace and seven of spades in dummy produced the declarer’s tenth and eleventh tricks.

Certainly South had been fortunate to find a lie of the cards to give him the chance to recover but he still had to play the hand carefully to take full advantage.

Stepping into the New Year in style .. Pierre Cardin’s view of contemporary, after-five pizzazz

- a strapless, pleated silk dress, the fluted hem raised to reveal velvet knicker bockers.