BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

AT Pairs, south plays in 5 ♦ , doubled by West, who leads ♥ a. Can you see how declarer will make it extremely difficult for West to defeat the contract, but how the defence ought to succeed? NO ONE can blame West for his double with at least three apparent tricks. declarer must pause to plan his play carefully, then he plays low from dummy and confidently plays the king from hand.

The irresistible temptation is for West to continue with his ♣ A; if he does, the cause is lost, as declarer will ruff and play two rounds of trumps — end of story. But assuming east has played his correct ♥ 4 on the first trick, West should spot the safe line to kill the contract. The ♥ 6 and ♥ 3 are still missing and east’s ♥ 4 guarantees declarer must hold at least one of them. West must continue with hearts, which dummy wins, but east will ruff when declarer attempts to get a spade discard, by playing a third heart.

PETER DONOVAN