County KO Final

In the Dorset County Knockut our cause was helped by the two favourites being eliminated before the final, and we ended with a comfortable win in the final against Mike Jackson's team. This hand gave us the largest swing of the match, though the swing would have gone the other way if the opponents had found the right play at both tables.

At our table declarer won my lead of the ten of clubs in dummy and played a diamond to the ten and  queen. I returned my remaining club which declarer won and he then cashed the ace and nine of diamonds. Now declarer crossed to the ace of hearts, cashed the king of diamonds and ran the jack of spades, so we took all the remaining tricks for down three.  

Maybe this was unlucky but the carding in clubs (and the lead-directing double on a queen high suit) suggest that the clubs are 6-2. In that case West has eight major suit cards to East's six and is more likely to hold the king of spades, so the better line is to lead a low spade from hand after cashing the nine of diamonds. 

At the other table the auction and opening lead were identical but Chris ducked the first club. This seems reasonable but Deep Finesse tells me that the contract can no longer be made against best defence.  Chris won the club continuation and ran the jack of spades which West ducked, but only after a hesitation that gave away the position of the king. Now he played a diamond to the ten and queen. The heart continuation was ducked to East's queen to give this position.

At the table East continued with a club and West threw an innocent looking small diamond, but now Chris could cash the diamonds ending in dummy and run the jack of spades to set up a ninth trick.

At first glance it looked as if the defence could prevail by continuing hearts in the diagrammed position but declarer can counter by ducking to set up an extra heart winner. If the defence continue hearts to take out dummy's entry while the diamonds are still blocked, declarer cashes the thirteenth heart, crosses to the ace of diamonds and cashes the king of clubs to squeeze West. 

To defeat the contract East must return a spade in the diagrammed position, and if declarer ducks West must win and return a heart. Declarer can no longer untangle his tricks and will have to lose a heart or diamond at the end. A tough defence to find.