ACES ON BRIDGE

“Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man’s upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes .....................

This week’s deals were played in the English Premier League of 2023. This eightteam round robin is used to select the English teams for the Home International series. West’s aggressive one-spade overcall helped her opponents in a strange way when, after North produced a negative double, declarer Maggie Knottenbelt drove to game in hearts, expecting four-card support in dummy.

West tried a top spade before switching to the club queen (rather than the killing trump). Knottenbelt won, cashed the club king, and ruffed a club. When everyone followed, she saw the possibility of enjoying her long clubs. She unblocked dummy’s heart tops, then cashed the diamond ace and ruffed a diamond. If hearts had been 3-3, she could draw the remaining trumps and cash two long clubs. Alas, trumps did not split, and the game was beaten.

Declarer could have succeeded by way of a crossruff. After ruffing the third club, she must cash the diamond ace, ruff a diamond and ruff a club before ruffing another diamond with the heart seven. She then makes her remaining trumps separately.

Still, if West holds the expected fivecard spade suit, the crossruff will avail declarer only when West has a singleton trump (or a doubleton with no eight or nine of hearts). If West started with two or three hearts, including the eight or nine, the contract is unmakable. (West can throw her last diamond on the fourth club to prepare an overruff.) So, it was surely best to play for the 3-3 trump split as Knottenbelt did.

ANSWER: Lead the heart 10. East probably has the spade honors, so a spade lead would give away a trick — and unless partner has the spade nine, the spades are unlikely to run on defense. Put the ball in play with a heart instead. Wait for your tricks. You might feel differently if dummy had jumped to game, but here your opponents appear not to have the values for game, so partner must have some bits and pieces.