Dubious Logic

Tollemache Qualifier (2)

In Suffolk's qualifying group for the Tollemache the top seeds were Warwickshire. Pre-event speculation was that they would "walk it" and they seemed more than competent – especially at my table. I'll give this as a defensive problem, you are south, defending my three no-trumps after a revealing auction:

East's opening was strong and artificial and the prevailing vulnerability – you were not, they were – tempted you into overcalling. It started to look a little nasty when west passed for take-out and east doubled for penalties but west pulled to his long suit and game in no-trumps was reached.

"If they're good enough to bid, they're good enough to lead", so you start with a top heart, four, ten from partner, king from declarer. East's next move is to cross to the club king and run the knave to your queen; can you profit from this slice of fortune?

Declarer's hand is not to difficult to put together: he seems to have four clubs for the play in that suit to make sense, if you take partner's ten at trick one to be either singleton or doubleton then that does not leave much room for other cards. Yet east should have twenty-odd points in high-cards – that means he can be counted for something like ace-king of spades and king-knave of diamonds. You should get in twice when he attacks diamonds so surprisingly, the defence can set up spades. You must lead a high spade to stop partner covering. The full deal:

When south switched to the eight of spades at trick four and north ducked my cover of the nine from dummy, I had no way back and was down one. Despite this reverse (not as bad as it could have been as one pair of east-west opponents played in one heart plus one) Suffolk beat the fancied number one seeds 20-0 consigning them to the also-rans.

Published Saturday 12.Dec.2009