Two cooks stir the pot

Homer claimed, “Light is the task when many share the toil.” However, he was unaware of Alder's Law of Cliches: “For every statement, there is an equal and opposite restatement.” In this case, we have the antithetical “Too many cooks spoil the broth.”

In a bridge deal, there are two defenders. Occasionally one must plan the defense on his own, but more often the two have to work together. If one fails to pedal correctly, their tandem bicycle crashes.

Defending against five spades, West led the club two: three, jack, queen. Declarer tried the spade queen, but West won with the ace and switched to the heart queen. Gratefully, declarer won with the ace, drew the last trump and claimed, conceding a trick to East's diamond ace. How do you assess the blame for the defenders' failure to defeat the contract?

The bidding was tricky. West was right to show his second suit over two spades. This made it easy for East, who knew about the double fit, to go to the five-level. To defeat five hearts, the defenders must organize a diamond ruff, which is difficult to do. North understandably sacrificed in five spades.

The culprit was East. The club-two lead must be a singleton. So East's priority, as his play is irrelevant in the club suit, is to make a suit-preference signal.

At trick one, East should play the club four, telling West that he, East, holds a diamond honor, not a top heart.

West will switch to a diamond at trick three to get his ruff, and the defenders finish with a plus score. Then, as Elbert Hubbard wrote, “Two grins grow where there was only a grouch before.”