A Game of Two Halves

The National Inter-County Leagues final is a one-day teams-of-eight event for the champion counties of each division of the five regional inter-county leagues. Although Dorset did not win the A Division of the Western League, we got into the final by the back door as the winners did not want to take part.

In football parlance this was a game of two halves. For the first half we played well and had our share of good luck and we ended with a narrow lead. Sadly it was too good to last - a mixture of bad luck and inferior play saw us fall away to finish in third place - respectable but a bit disappointing after the first half.

We were certainly out of luck on this number

That was the auction where Ann and I sat East-West. North's four hearts was a splinter bid showing spade support and heart shortage, and South's final bid was extraordinary unless he could see through the backs of the cards. Both Dorset pairs bid this 95% slam and went down on a heart lead and a diamond ruff, while both the opposing pairs stayed in game.

On the other hand, the loss on this deal was self-inflicted with all four pairs having a finger in the pie.

South declared 3NT at all four tables, and both Dorset Wests led a high spade. Both declarers then tested diamonds and then ducked a club to establish a ninth trick.

With no sure outside entry, it is much better for West to lead a low spade and that was what our two declarers had to contend with. Both played on diamonds and went down when the suit failed to break.

A far stronger line for declarer is to play a spade back at trick 2. This will lead to egg on the face if spades are 6-1, but otherwise you are much better placed. On the actual hand, West has a choice of losing options; if he cashes all his spade winners he will squeeze East in the minors, while if he does not cash them declarer can afford to duck a club to East.

At first sight it seems as if declarer can play three rounds of diamonds to test the suit and then exit with a spade. The minor suit squeeze will still work if West cashes all of his spades, but West can thwart this plan by exiting with a heart rather than cash the last spade.

A slightly different layout could lead to a more complex squeeze position as there is also a threat in hearts. For example, if the club honours are divided and West cashes all his spades the contract can be made on a guard squeeze.

A further advantage in playing a spade back at trick 2 is that if the spades are 4-3, declarer can afford to duck a club, making if either minor beaks 3-3.

Torquay 2012

This year we chose to play in the teams rather than the pairs but the result was similar to last year - a promising position spoilt by a heavy defeat in the last round. Ann and I had some mixed results but Chris and Alastair brought back a succession of good cards so that we were second going into the last round against Michael Byrne and three junior internationals.

This was the crucial hand

Three Clubs was a little exuberant but the final contract was a good one. West doubled with an air of 'do these old codgers really know what they are doing?' and although he looked somewhat less confident when dummy went down the contract was doomed on the 5-1 heart break and we lost 800.

In the other room South passed over Two Spades and North ended in Four Hearts, which went one down undoubled for 12 imp in the out column. (It can go two down on the double dummy defence of a club to the ace and a heart switch.)

The correct line in Six Clubs is to ruff the diamond lead, cash ace of hearts and ruff a low heart, and then draw trumps. The contract makes when the trumps are 2-2 and hearts play for 5 tricks, or when trumps are 3-1 and hearts play for 4 tricks, a total of about 60%.