QUESTIONS THAT WERE AND WERE NOT

For two days, here are the answers to my Christmas Competition.

1. How should South play in four spades after West leads the heart queen?

This is embarrassing. In the layout given on Dec. 25 (South having five spades and two clubs), it was impossible to go down! Declarer had 10 sure tricks: six spades, one heart, one diamond, one club and a club ruff in hand.

I was sent this problem decades ago by an expert now long deceased. He had given South 14 cards, including a third club. Then there was a risk that he could lose two diamonds and two clubs. But after reading through the composer's analysis and removing a surplus card,

I should have extracted a spade, giving the hands in today's deal.

The intended solution was that declarer wins with his heart ace, ruffs his second heart, draws trumps ending on the board and plays a diamond, covering East's card as cheaply as possible. Suppose West wins the trick and can safely return a diamond. South takes that with his ace, enters dummy with a trump and leads another diamond toward his hand. If East follows, declarer gets a second diamond trick. If East discards, South loses this trick, and West continues with his high diamond, but declarer pitches a club from the board to leave West endplayed.

2. Propose an auction starting with South, in

bridge

which East-West throughout.

Even with the original 5=2=4=2 hand, South should open two no-trump. Then North makes a Texas transfer to put his partner into four spades. (If North responds three hearts, South must jump to four spades.) Copyright United Feature Syndicate

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