Dubious Logic

Suffolk v Norfolk (2)

In the last county match, against Norfolk, Suffolk enjoyed mixed fortunes. The second and third teams won but the 'A' team faltered (full results at the end). This hand was a 'textbook' play and strangely it found the first team wanting more often than those lower down.

As West you become declarer in four spades. Partner deals and opens a diamond to which you respond a spade. Next hand comes in with two hearts and partner leaps to game. That may seem a bit of a stretch but it is reasonably warranted; the heart king and the club queen have gained weight now that North has shown strength. The lead is ace and another heart, how do you play?

You have a spade loser, maybe two. If the worst comes to the worst you will need to pick up both clubs and diamonds. So you start naturally by drawing trumps, Ace and low to the king, both following. That's one hurdle over with, what now?

You have lost a trick and must lose to the spade queen, how do you play the diamonds? The suit may be worth five tricks ; either a 2-2 break or guess who has a singleton honour and finessing against their partner. But how many tricks do you need? You can only know that if you know whether the club finesse is working – you can't avoid it, so take it now. When the club queen holds you only need four diamond tricks. As you are in dummy you can play a low card to the ten. That will guard against the unlikely occurrence of South having QJ84. And so he did. Two of the 'A' team declarer missed this play and were now down.

Suffolk v Norfolk
'A' team lost 4-8 VPs
J. Green / J. Gobert
C. Stokes / P. Markwell
P. Gemmell / P. Sutcliffe
J. Lang / D. Morran

'B' team won 12-0 VPs
E. Newman / M. Sherer (Capt.)
M. Allnutt / D. Marriott
A. Moore / J. Moore
E Colley / C. Chambers

'C' team won 8-4
'A. Kingsley / D. Brown
D. Gudka / J. Wilmott
J. Orton / M. Olsiewicz
J. Mayhew / A. Wilmer

Published Saturday 17.Feb.2001