Bridge

Today's hand came up in a very light-hearted game and, no, I'm not advocating that readers adopt the bidding style employed by this quartet.

South opened One Club, West doubled (with a singleton diamond, a simple overall of One Heart would have escaped criticism) and North redoubled. (It's possible that you or I might have been tempted to mention the strong 8-card diamond suit at this point!) East bid One Heart and South One Spade. West bid Two Hearts, and I was now invited to guess North's next bid. I made a variety of attempts, but failed totally to find North's actual choice of Six Clubs.

West led HK and, on winning with the ace, declarer cashed DA and followed with DQ. When East did not cover, he ruffed with his ace of clubs, West showing out. Next he played a small club to dummy's queen and ruffed out the king of diamonds with his king of trumps, then played a small trump towards dummy's CQ9, West following small. Now he was at the crossroads.

Although West had doubled the One Club opening bid he had shown up with just a single ton diamond. If he had only a doubleton club, there was no hope for the contract. So declarer played a dummy's club nine, and with a sigh of relief when this held, drew the last trump with the jack, then ran the diamonds, losing just one spade at the end. At least the play justified the bidding.