Should Have Stayed in Bed

Our second round Crockford's match was one of those evenings where I could do nothing right. Apart from going off in several making contracts, this was the sort of thing that was happening to me. At red, I held

♠	K 10 7 6 5
♥	K 3
♦
♣	A 10 9 6 5 2

Partner passes and RHO opens a Precision 1♦. We don't have a 2-suited overcall to show this hand so I bid 2♣. LHO now cue-bids 3♣, pass from partner, 3♥ on my right. Not having shown my 5-card major on the previous round, I feel obliged to try 3♠. LHO now jumps to 5♦ and partner bids 5♠. I hope she is allowing for my usual over-bidding, as otherwise this might be going for 1100. As expected, RHO places the red card on the table but leftie is still there and removes to 6♦ which partner doubles.

I lead the Ace of clubs and dummy is a bit of a shock

♠	Q 8
♥	5
♦	A K Q J 9 6 4 2
♣	7 4

Partner plays the Jack and declarer follows small. We play reverse attitude on Ace leads, so partner could have J, Jx or KJ. What now? If declarer has AQJx of hearts and KQx of clubs, we need to cash our spade tricks immediately, but a spade lead will be disastrous if partner does not have the Ace.

At the table I tried a spade and began to feel ill when dummy's queen held. Declarer's hand was

♠	A 3
♥	Q J 9 7
♦	10 7 5
♣	K Q 8 3

Should I have got this right? There are no guarantees, but I think a club continuation is best. This works if partner has KJ or singleton J of clubs, or the Ace of hearts, and only loses when partner has the Ace of spades. Even then, declarer has a choice of plays in hearts and may choose to finesse.