WARWICK BRIDGE CLUB
Dealer: W Vul: Both
NORTH
♠ Q653
♥ K7
♦ Q
♣ AKQ765
WEST EAST
♠ J10762 ♠ K9
♥ 8 ♥ Q1032
♦ K8652 ♦ J1043
♣ 98 ♣ 432
SOUTH
♠ A4
♥ AJ9654
♦ A97
♣ J10
The two-day teams event was won by the Collins team (Noela Collins, Mavis Simpson, Pat Kelly and John Nankervis) from the Bonnell team. The Collins team established a winning lead in the first round and were never headed despite wavering a little in the second round. On their first board of the match Board Seven (above) in Round One they bid a slam in hearts that no other pair bid.
South (Mavis) had a standard opening bid of 1H to which North (Noela) was able to give a strong response. From then on, it was a steady march to 6H – a contract requiring twelve tricks to be made.
West’s lead has not been recorded, but the Jack of spades would have been the lead to have given declarer the most trouble.
With the Queen of spades visible in dummy, there is now no way that declarer can avoid playing the Ace of spades. From there, success in this contract requires an accurate reading of the cards or a subsequent blunder by the defenders. A low heart is played to the King of hearts, then a low club to the Jack in hand.
Now declarer overtakes the ten of clubs with the Ace, plays the King and discards he four of spades from hand.
Next comes the Queen of clubs, inviting East to trump in and seal the fate of the defence. So East discards a diamond and declarer also lets go a diamond.
This is followed by the Ace of diamonds and a diamond trumped by that seven of hearts lurking in dummy.
Declarer now trumps a (winning) club and is reduced to three trumps: Ace, Jack, nine. East has three trumps: Queen, ten, three. Declarer now leads the Jack or nine, which East wins with the ten. Declarer’s Ace-Jack now sit over East’s Queen-three. East has to concede the last two tricks to South.
Contract made for 1430 and 13 IMPs.
Tony Hinde and Judy Mobbs also made twelve tricks but had stopped in 4H.
Results: 27/03/23 (6-table teams Round 2) : Smith (Jenny Smith, C. Duggan, M. Johnston, N. McGinness) 50 IMPs 1; Hinde (T. Hinde, J. Mobbs, S. Goddard, P. Campbell) 47 IMPs 2. Overall: Collins (110 VPs) 1; Bonnell (92 VPs) 2; Hinde (86 VPs) 3. Friday, 31/03/23 (5 &1/2-table Howell): D. Moran N.McGinness (61.1) 1; M. Simpson P. Kelly (59.7) 2: L. Munson J. Nankervis (55.1) 3. T. Hinde J. Mobbs (54.2) 4.
