BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Neither vulnerable, South deals

NORTH

xVoid

u7 2

vA K J 10 8 4 3

wQ 9 7 2

WEST EAST

xA Q J 8 5 3 x10 7 4 2

u9 6 uK 10 8 5 4 3

v2 v9

wJ 10 5 4 wK 8

SOUTH

xK 9 6

uA Q J

vQ 7 6 5

wA 6 3

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1v 2x 6v All pass

Opening lead: Nine of u

Today’s deal was played by the late Lidia Beech, one of Australia’s leading players for many years. She and her partner were using an opening no trump range of 12-14, hence the one diamond opening bid. North’s leap to slam was a brave gamble. Brave is what we call it when it works. We call it something else when it doesn’t.

Beech won the opening heart lead with the queen when East refused to part with his king. The contract seemed to depend on finding the king of clubs in the West hand, but Beech showed that there was an additional chance. She ruffed a spade in dummy at trick two and then led the eight of diamonds to her queen. Another spade was ruffed in dummy, this time with the ace, and Beech returned to her hand with a low trump to the seven. She ruffed her last spade, then led a heart back to her ace and ruffed the queen of hearts in dummy.

At this point, all of the spades and the hearts had been eliminated from both the North and South hands. Beech finally turned her attention to clubs. She led a club to the ace and a low club back to the queen. This lost to East’s king. Sadly for the defense, this was East’s last club and, thanks to Beech’s careful play, East was forced to yield a ruff-sluff and declarer’s second club loser went away. Brave bidding by North and well played by South!

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