BRIDGE

Declarer played the nine from dummy as East won the ace but shifted to a club for the ace. South continued with the top hearts without success and followed with a spade to the ten. The king and queen of spades furnished two club discards resulting in ten tricks, N-S +620.

The lead disclosed that East held the ace of spades where the best chance of success was to win three spade tricks and dispose of the club losers. The queen of hearts was very unlikely to fall in two rounds.

South's rebid had deflected West from finding the killing opening lead of the queen of clubs. I believe that West should begin with the queen of clubs for lack of a better alternative.

Presumably, North had issued the negative double with the intention of disclosing a three-card limit raise by jumping in hearts at his second turn. However, he apparently had a change of mind when partner rebid clubs and chose to leap to the iffy major suit game.

The other option in the auction would be to cue bid two spades delineating a limit raise or better of hearts. This action was rejected because North owned only threecard heart support.