Diamond disasters

In the third round of the Gold Cup match we faced tough opponents in Andy Hughes' team from Hampshire. To stand any chance, we would need to play well and have some good fortune, but neither of these occurred and we lost heavily. Our only problem was the diamond suit; where diamonds were not involved we held our own, but on the ten hands where a diamond contract was declared at one or both tables we lost 64 imp.

This hand from the first set showed the way the wind was blowing.

West's 2♥ opener showed a weak hand with five hearts and a minor of at least four cards. He led a heart. Ann won this and drew two rounds of trumps, with West shedding a low club. The opponents were playing count discards and this suggested an odd number of clubs. It looked as if West's shape was 2-5-1-5 so Ann cashed a top spade in hand, crossed to dummy in trumps and led a spade to the nine. Well played but down two on this occasion. In the other room, our pair were not playing two-suited openers so declarer had no clue to the defenders' distribution and played spades from the top.

That was an unlucky way to lose 11 imps, but this was more culpable.

I eventually decided to pass 4♥. This was the wrong move when partner had

                                                  ♠ Q 5 3    ♥ A 9 7 3   ♦ 10 5   ♣ K 9 7 3

When the trumps didn't break declarer lost control and finished three down. In the other room my hand just bid 5♦ directly over 3♠, which was an easy make. 4♥ might have been the right contract but a quick simulation on BBO showed that 5♦ was much more likely to be a better spot.

Yet another mishap around the diamond suit -

The defence started with three rounds of spades and then West switched to a heart, so that East was able to ruff a heart for 800 in the out column. In the other room East (reasonably enough) chose to pass over 1NT, South jumped to 3♦ and the opponents finished in 4♥. West might have doubled but, with no guarantee of any tricks in partner's hand, was scared of pushing the opponents into a making 5♦ contract. 4♥ drifted four down but we lost 9 imp.
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Thirty years on

In the Knight Cup we started off on the wrong foot when we arrived late due to a flooded road and then started with a 20% first round. In spite of two zeros from doubling the opponents in cold contracts, we had recovered to about 55% at half time, but Krzysztof and Mark were leading on 66% so it seemed as if we had little chance of winning.

Not so - in the second half we managed over 67% while Krzysztof and Mark were only just over average, so we won by about a top. I won this competition three times in the mid-1980s but had not come close in almost thirty years since.

We certainly had more than our fair share of good fortune; the opponents allowed us to make four impossible game contracts and donated several other good boards, and we gained an undeserved top after a bidding mix-up. This was one of the lucky boards.

A couple of optimistic views in the bidding landed us in a hopeless contract. West led the king of hearts which I won in dummy. I could establish an extra spade for an eighth trick but there seemed no legitimate chance for a ninth so I tried the old Zia ploy of playing on the defenders' best suit.

A low club to the nine lost to West's ten, and he obliged by playing two rounds of hearts. The contract is now cold - if East plays a club I can arrange a strip-squeeze on West in the black suits, and on any other return I can set up dummy's nine of spades.

It wasn't all jam. Here are a couple of hands of half-decent bridge that we managed in between unwrapping the presents. First, a neat hand where a defender was endplayed twice.

West found the best lead of a club, which was covered by the jack, king and ace. I played the ace of hearts and ruffed a heart, crossed to the ace of trumps and ruffed my last heart. Now I cashed the queen of clubs and exited with a trump. This guaranteed the contract on any lie of the minor suits, but there was an added bonus when West had a doubleton club and the king of diamonds. After winning the king of trumps, West led a low diamond which ran to my queen. Now ace and another diamond endplayed West again to give a ruff and discard for the overtrick.

This was an excellent slam that only one other pair managed to bid.

The defence kicked off with the ace of hearts and a heart to the jack. The best line is to draw trumps, starting with the ace, as you can pick up J10xx with East. When trumps are 3-1 you draw three rounds, unblock the queen of clubs, cross to the ace of spades and cash the top clubs. You now know if you can ruff a club to establish a twelfth trick, but if the clubs are unkind you can try for a 3-3 spade break while you still have a trump in dummy as an entry. I didn't get the timing quite right, but fortunately it didn't matter as with clubs breaking the hand was idiot-proof.