TWO-SPEED CROSSWORD
1 Powder (4) 3 Retain (8) 9 Drunk (7) 10 Lid (5) 11 Negligence (12) 13 Cower (6) 15 Filched (6) 17 Fearful (12) 20 Milk vessel (5) 21 Curl (7) 22 Pestered (8) 23 Teem (4) 1 Titbit (8) 2 Sweeten (5) 4 Oppose (6) 5 The best (6,2,4) 6 Update (7) 7 Merit (4) 8 Pugnacity (12) 12 Creator (8) 14 Confine (7) 16 Fee (6) 18 Ice-house (5) 19 Blackleg (4)
1 Pagan; 2 Garner; 3 Sly; 4 Strife; 5 Potency; 8 Request; 11 Guarded; 13 Caprice; 15 Remark; 16 Exodus; 17 Hurry; 20 New. 1 Just the same as potentially neutral journo (9) 6 Some French wife gets
water droplets (3) 8 Applaud revolutionary
with some hesitation (5) 9 Sort of beard that’s prohibited (7) 10 Conservatory feature, two
snooker shots (3,5) 11 Extra money bishop left is a
burden (4) 13 Plot brings awful danger (6) 14 Mend shoes with stone (6) 17 Security breach at Staffs
town, we hear (4) 19 Pass foot around to flatter
(4-4) 22 Two cricketing terms go on
too long (7) 23 Confront the opening aspect (5) 24 Tiff doesn’t end at health
resort (3) 25 Chopped melon laid round
decoration (9)
1 Take the top off a French
hat (5) 2 Accomplice has a chance
to repent, initially (7) 3 Excited by stream in the The bidding:
1 2 3 5 Opening lead — six of hearts. . To be a good defender, you must do a lot of theorising about the composition of the two unseen hands. Fortunately, there are nearly always clues that stem from either the bidding or the play, so that the best method of defence need not be treated as guesswork. Take this case where EastWest are defending against
Pass 2 Pass 3 Pass 4 Pass Pass Pass 1 Changeless (9) 6 Dawn moisture (3) 8 Applaud (5) 9 Banned (7) 10 Indoor growing flower
(3,5) 11 Burden (4) 13 Horticultural area (6) 14 Rounded paving stone (6) 17 Allow rain in (4) 19 Cajole (4-4) 22 Inundate (7) 23 Aspect (5) 24 Health hydro (3) 25 Coin-shaped object (9)
1 Open (a bottle) (5) 2 Accomplice (7) 3 Delighted (8)
five clubs. It is not difficult for West to find a heart lead, given the reluctance of both North and South to bid notrump at any point. East wins the heart with the ace and returns the ten. He hopes partner has the K-J, in which case, if dummy can be forced to ruff a heart, East’s queen of clubs will become the setting trick. Declarer covers the ten with the queen, and West wins with the king. West does not know at this point that East has the Q-x of clubs, but he can easily deduce that the jack-of-hearts continuation offers the best chance to defeat the contract. West arrives at this conclusion by assuming that South, who bid clubs three times, must have at least seven of them. Since declarer has already produced two hearts, it follows that South’s four unknown cards, whatever they are, are fully covered by dummy’s two sets of A-K’s. It thus becomes clear that no advantage can accrue from returning a spade, a diamond or a trump at trick three. The only real chance is that East has either the Q-x or J-10 of clubs, in which case forcing dummy to ruff a heart with the ace will promote a trump trick for the defence. If West fails to lead the jack of hearts at trick three, declarer makes the contract, but with that lead South must go down one. East-West vulnerable J96 J83 KQ72 K65 The bidding:
K432 AKQ5 83 10 9 4
A Q 10 8 7 10 9 6 4 10 6 5 2
5 72 AJ94 AQJ873
1 Pass 1 2 Pass 2 2NT Pass 3 NT Opening lead — two of diamonds. Pass Pass