Dealer: N Vul: N/S
NORTH
♠ AKQ52
♥ 6
♦ 98
♣ AJ1043
WEST EAST
♠ 9743 ♠ 108
♥ J109 ♥ Q32
♦ K1032 ♦ J765
♣ K5 ♣ Q982
SOUTH
♠ J6
♥ AK8754
♦ AQ4
♣ 76
Sitting West you see North/South bid their way to 6NT by South, having mentioned spades, hearts and clubs. What would you lead? The stakes are high – if choose the wrong lead declarer will win twelve tricks and score 1430. Defeating the contract will give East/West a small profit instead of a huge loss. At the table where Jenny Smith and Ros Hart (Welcome back, Ros!) sat, West led the two of diamonds. This was the unbid suit, but it gave declarer what was essentially the twelfth trick. There was time for declarer to cash the Ace and King of hearts, then lead a third heart, thereby clearing East/West of hearts. East won with the Queen, but could not prevent declarer from winning five spade tricks and five hearts to go with two outside Aces.
Twelve tricks can still be won in no-trumps, even on the better lead of the Jack of hearts. That lead, being the top of a sequence, denies holding the Queen. Declarer will not want to allow East to win with the Queen, then to push a diamond through South towards West’s King. The solution to this problem is for South to allow the Jack of hearts to win the first trick. Now it doesn’t matter what West continues. Declarer has five spade tricks, five hearts and two outside Aces. The quirk of this deal is that 6S makes on any lead, because dummy can trump the third round of hearts and promote South’s remaining hearts.
Results, Monday, 06/10/25 (4-table Howell): H. Price R. Hart (66.7) 1; T. Hinde L. Don (58.5) 2; P. Campbell D. Moran (50.0) 3. Friday,10/10/25 (4-table Howell): W. Milne J. Sipple (64.9) 1; J. Smith R. Hart (58.3) 2; T. Hinde L. Don (56.5) 3.
