It came down to the final deal

Bridge is different from most sports in that the players do not know the score. But they will usually have some idea of how things are going.

The Last Board by Mark Horton (Master Point Press) gives the decisive deal in 60 matches, and it starts with an excellent article of the same name by Ron Klinger. This deal occurred during a teams event in north England. With eight boards to go, a team of five top juniors led by 48 international match points over four women’s internationals. The leading junior, Tony Forrester, left to visit Harry Ramsden’s fish-and-chip restaurant to recharge his batteries before the evening match. However, the women recovered, being only 13 imps behind when the last board arrived. The juniors reached six clubs, and West led a club. Declarer drew trumps and ran the spade 10. But, when East won with the queen and the suit broke 5-2, the contract had to fail. If the women had bid and made six clubs, they would have won by 1 imp — but they climbed to seven clubs. (Five no-trump asked partner to bid seven with solid trumps.) A spade lead would have defeated the contract, but that was tough to find. Instead, West chose a low diamond. The declarer, Michelle Brunner, won with dummy’s ace, cashed the heart ace, crossruffed the red suits, drew trumps and had these 13 tricks: two spades, one heart, two diamonds, six clubs in hand and two heart ruffs. Plus 50 and 1,440 were worth 16 imps and a win. Forrester suddenly felt a touch of indegestion!