In the Garden Cities regional final Weymouth finished 3rd out of nine teams, ahead of a strong Bristol team but some way behind Worcester and Cheltenham. We did have our chances to do better - details of the hand where I went down in an easy 3 clubs doubled are subject to a superinjunction - but here are two declarer play problems that were not solved at the table. They share a common theme which you may be able to spot.
At our table North put down dummy and left the room for a fag, commenting that he hoped his huge hand would be good enough to avoid any problems. He was soon to be disappointed.
Declarer won the heart lead and drew two rounds of trumps with the ace and king to get the bad news. Next came the queen and ace of clubs and a low club ruffed. Stuck in dummy, declarer cut loose with a heart, but I could win and lead another heart which was ruffed and overruffed. Ann returned a diamond and declarer had to try the finesse, but when it lost I could play back a heart to promote Ann's jack of trumps as the setting trick.
Declarer could have avoided the problem by ruffing a club before touching trumps, but this risks going down if the clubs are 5-2 or 6-1, which is more likely than a bad trump break. The error was to exit with a heart after the club ruff in dummy - if declarer plays ace and another diamond the defence have no chance.
One of our team followed the same line, and it took us a while to find the correct play in the pub afterwards. The problem was the queen of diamonds, which somehow makes it counter intuitive to play diamonds from dummy. If dummy had held a small diamond instead of the queen, I'm sure that the contract would have been made.
This was another one that got away
West led a club and declarer played a top spade to East's ace. Now East made a very far sighted play - the nine of hearts. Declarer finessed the queen, cashed the ace of diamonds and played another diamond to the jack and queen. East returned the king of hearts. Declarer had not heard the tale of Greeks bearing gifts and played the eight of hearts - now a master - to draw East's seven, but had no way to reach the winners in dummy and finished two down.
That would have been a great defence if East's hearts had been K92, but on the actual hand declarer could have had the last laugh by leading a low trump to East's seven, endplaying him to lead a diamond or spade to dummy. Declarer's hand was too good - with the seven of hearts instead of the eight there would be no way to get it wrong.
Endplaying East with a trump will only work if the missing clubs are 7-1. As West may well have a 6 card suit at this vulnerablity, I think a better line is to finesse the queen of trumps at trick two and ruff a club in dummy. If East can overruff it is likely to be at the expense of a natural trump trick. On the actual hand, East overruffs but now declarer can draw the remaining trumps, knock out the ace of spades and make the contract easily.
