DAILY BRIDGE CLUB:

My summer tour of Ireland began in Dublin, where I played at the outstanding Regent Bridge Club. In today’s deal, my partner slipped on defense. To see if you can do better, cover the West/South cards. Defend as East.

Against five clubs, West leads the jack of hearts: king, ace, deuce. What next?

To beat this contract — and since not every NorthSouth will reach game, you may need to beat it to avoid disaster — West must hold the ace of spades, but unless you have a diamond or trump trick coming, you will need two spades.

If declarer has enough entries to set up and run the diamonds, you are sunk. But if West had a singleton diamond, he might have led it. If South has one and can’t use the diamonds, he may have unavoidable spade losers.

At Trick Two, return a passive heart. As the cards lay, South must lose two spades. At my table, East shifted to the jack of spades: seven, five, king. Declarer later led a spade to his nine and made his game.

DAILY QUESTION: You hold: ♠ A54 ♥ J10865◆ K6 ♣ 9 6 2. Your partner opens one diamond, you respond one heart and he bids one spade. What do you say?

ANSWER: To pass is possible — partner’s one spade is not forcing — but he could have 18 points, and you might miss a game. A rebid of two hearts would require a longer or much stronger suit. As the lesser evil, try 1NT despite the lack of a club trick. At least your pattern is balanced.