Bridge

East/West game; dealer North When a contract looks almost solid, work out what could possibly go wrong and take steps to circumvent those troubles. North got the bidding underway with One Diamond. South responded One Spade. North raised to Two Spades and South bid the spade game.

Against Four Spades West led the jack of hearts. Without too much thought declarer covered with dummy’s queen, to the king and ace. South continued with a low spade and when the queen appeared from West, declarer won with the king and played another spade back to his ace, West showing out.

By now a frown had appeared on South’s face. He continued with the queen and jack of diamonds and a third diamond. East ruffed and sent back a club. Declarer went “into the tank” – but West cut short his agonising by showing the ace and queen of clubs. One down.

The second declarer appreciated that he needed to keep East off lead, so he played low from dummy at trick one. He won the heart continuation perforce, then thought about the best way to tackle trumps. If they broke 2-2 or West held three, he was in good shape. But if East held three he would be faced with a club guess. Unless West’s singleton trump was the queen. So South led low from hand and lo and behold, the queen appeared, which was allowed to hold. Virtue rewarded, as no attack from that side of the table could harm declarer.