Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

A few days after the Bath debacle, we played in the Garden Cities qualifier, with the main opposition coming from an Allendale squad that had brought out their big guns. We were in second place until near the end, when errors on this deal at both tables led to a 13 imp swing that turned our match around and gave us a narrow overall victory.



With Hilary and Chris sitting East-West, the auction was as shown in the diagram. After South had doubled to show four spades, a spade contract was always going to be played by North. 4♠ is solid from this side, so Hilary's raise to 5♥ was very well judged and sent the opponents overboard. North's decision to remove to 5♠ was not unreasonable (South would have bid the same way with the ace of clubs and three small hearts), but 6♠ was from another planet. 6♠ drifted two down.

At the other table, a completely different auction occurred after West opened an off-centre 1NT (allegedly 10-12). Ann overcalled 2♦ (spades and another suit), East bid 2♥ and my 4♠ ended the auction.

4♠ is a much less secure contract when played by South as the defence can force dummy in hearts. West duly led a heart, which seemed to mark East with the ace of hearts and a club honour (West would have led a top club with AK), so the diamond finesse was sure to fail. There is one legitimate chance for the contract - East needs to have exactly two trumps.

I ruffed the opening lead, cashed dummy's top trumps and led a diamond to the queen and king. West returned another heart which I ruffed in dummy and played a diamond. If East ruffs he can cash a heart and two clubs for two down, but he threw a heart, so that I was now able to draw the last trump and cash the diamonds to make an unlikely overtrick.

When I led the second round of diamonds off dummy, East should have reasoned that his partner would have led a top diamond with AK, so that declarer almost certainly held the ace, in which case West had to hold the ace of clubs. Ruffing the second round of diamonds might cost an extra undertrick, but was certain to defeat the contract.