The National Pairs qualifier was one of those sessions where we kept on getting poor scores without doing too much wrong, and we finished well down the field. But this was a missed opportunity for a neat play.
I should have had a sixth heart for my 3♥ bid, but it seemed very likely that the opponents could make 2♠ or 3♣ and I wanted to make life difficult for them. On the actual hand this was the wrong thing to do, as 3♥ should go down and the only making contract for East-West is 2NT, which they were never going to find.
West started with top clubs; I ruffed and advanced ♦J, covered by the queen, king and ace. East returned the ♦9 which I won to play a third round. West ruffed this and erred by playing a spade to the king and ace. (A trump exit would have given me no chance.)
This was now the position
I had already lost three tricks and still appear to have a trump and a spade to lose. But I should play king and ace of hearts, ruff a club, cash the ♠Q and ruff the last diamond. Now a club from dummy allows me to score the last trump en passant. The losing spade and trump both fall on the last trick, and two losers are condensed into one - a trump elopement.
Sad to say, I omitted to ruff a club when I was in dummy with the ace of trumps. The elopement had eloped and only resurfaced in the pub afterwards. Could've, should've.
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