It is essential that East makes a forcing bid. If they bid 3 Diamonds or 3 Clubs, West will pass.

If East doubles, West will bid One No Trump and East will possible decide to bid 3 No Trumps. This will make, making 10 tricks on a Heart lead.

If East bids 2 No Trump (Unusual No Trump or CRO), showing both minors, West will bid 3 Diamonds. East has to decide between 5 Diamonds (which makes on any lead), 6 Diamonds (which makes on a Heart lead) or cue-bidding 3 Hearts, asking West to bid 3 No Trumps with a Heart stop.

Results on the day included all of the above, and also 6 Diamonds going down one and the dreaded 3 of a minor!

Win the opening lead in hand (with the Queen). Lead a Heart to the Queen and cash the Ace of Hearts.

Play a third Heart and ruff with the 7.

Now a small spade to the Jack, ruff the last Heart and draw the last Spade, discarding a Diamond or Club from dummy.

Now the coup - play Ace and another Club.

If West wins, they have to play away from the Ace - Queen of Diamonds.

If East overtakes to lead a Diamond through you, it sets up an extra Club trick in dummy.

Small Heart from North taken by the Ace in dummy.

You can see 2 Spades, 2 Hearts and a Diamond.

You have to find 7 tricks from the Clubs.

Small Spade to the King and back to the Ace.

Another Spade, ruffed by South with the 8, over-ruffed with the 9 of Clubs.

Heart King, discarding a Diamond from dummy.

Now a Diamond to the Ace and another Diamond, taken by South's Queen - no room to lose any more....

South plays a Club to 5, Queen and King.

Now another Spade, ruffed with the 10, over-ruffed with the Ace.

Small Diamond, ruffed with the 2 of Clubs.

Jack of Clubs takes out the remaining trump and then dummy is good.

12 tricks and small slam made.

On the lead, it is probable that East has the King of Hearts. This seems to simplify your task.

Let East win the first trick with the King, take the Heart continuation in dummy and play on Diamonds, establishing at least 2 tricks in the suit, which, with 2 Spades, 2 Hearts and a Club will be enough to make your contract.

So what's the snag?The trouble with playing low from dummy at trick one is that you are relying on the co-operation of the defence.Why should East be helpful and go up with the King on the first round?

He is more likely to play low, forcing you to use your outside entry, the Heart Queen, before the Diamonds have been established.

If the defenders hold up the Diamond Ace for one round, your contract is in danger..

There is no need to take the risk. The correct play is the Ace of Hearts at trick one, preserving the Queen for an entry once the Diamonds are established.

As the cards lie, if you play the Ace of Hearts at trick one you make 9 tricks.

If you play low from dummy, you should only make 6 tricks.

If the Club Ace is led, consider where your 11 tricks are coming from.You need your trumps to ruff as many tricks as possible, so DON'T DRAW TRUMPS or you will lose your ruffing opportunities.

Ruff with the 4 of Diamonds, then start cross-ruffing - S3 - D2; C5 - D5; S7 - D6; C6 - D8; S9 - Dj; C10 - D9; Sq - DA; CJ - D10.

Now play Ace of Hearts and another Heart and you only have trumps left - 12 tricks made!

Did you choose the best opening lead for West?

If, in a very compettive auction, declarer looks to be relying on cross-ruffing, lead a trump!

If D7 is led, this takes out 2 chances to ruff. Declarer can still make their contract, but only now makes 11 tricks - really important in Pairs events.

Brilliant! Lay-down small slam in Hearts or Diamonds, but can you do better?

You can't bid One Heart/Diamond or partner will just pass.

You could open a strong 2 Hearts as long as it's forcing, and then after 2 No Trump, 3 Diamonds, 4 Hearts, 6 Hearts possibly.

Many will open 2 Clubs, and with careful cue-bidding and using some form of Blackwood will find the correct slam. However......

The Acol 4 No Trump Opening Bid is perfect for a hand like this.

The response is 5 Clubs with no Aces, 5 Diamonds, Hearts, Spades or 6 Clubs with just that one Ace or 5 No Trumps with 2 Aces.

If the reply come back 5 Clubs (no Aces), just bid 6 Hearts.

If the reply comes back 5 Spades (just the Ace of Spades), again bid 6 Hearts as you have to lose the Club Ace.

If the reply is 6 Clubs (just the Ace of Clubs) , bid 7 Hearts - you have everything covered.

If th reply is 5 No Trumps (both Aces), bid 7 No Trumps.

Do make sure this bid is in your partnership armoury - if partner takes it as Blackwood (Roman Key Card or straight), a reply of 5 Diamonds is not going to help.

This hand is ideal for a Splinter bid - a hand that is forcing to game and has a shortage - a singleton or void.

Many players holding the North hand will just bid 4 Hearts and that may welll end the auction, especially if West has come in with a Double.

The EBU Bridge for All Acol approach would be for North to bid 3 Spades - agreeing Hearts and showing a shortage in Spades.

Remember that this bid must be alerted!

After that, South will cue-bid their first round control in Clubs - 4 Clubs - and North their Ace of Diamonds - 4 Diamonds.

How does South find out about the Void in North's Spades? If South now bids 4 Hearts, it could be taken as a sign-off,

How would your partnership proceed?

Some partnerships play 'low-level splinters' - and then the bidding is stone-cold as long as the opponents don't interfere!:-

One Heart - Stop 2 Spades - 3 Clubs - 3 Diamonds - 3 Hearts - 3 Spades - Stop 7 Hearts.

Of course, if West has Doubled, there may be a more competitive auction and East/West may well sacrifice in 7 Spades (Doubled) for only -500.

Discuss!

Do you open on the North hand? Only 11 High Card Points, but only a 7-loser hand.

If so, one Diamond.

South gets quite excited! 20 HCP and 3 good Diamonds.

Is there a fit in Spades? Is No Trumps the best contract?

Many pairs will end in 6 No Trumps by South. Were you tempted to bid 7?

What if North passes? South now opens 2 No Trumps. Many Norths will now just punt 6 NT.

How many managed to find the (better) slam in Diamonds?

It takes a very favourable K J of clubs onside to make all 13 tricks.

Look at all 4 hands. Can you make all 13 tricks in No Trumps? (No!)

How about in Diamonds? (Yes!)

Plan your play.

You may plan to win the first trick with the Ace of Diamonds, draw trumps finishing in dummy and lead the Queen of Clubs, taking the Club finesse.

If South has the King of Clubs you cannot lose more than two hearts and a Diamond.

If North wins the King of Clubs, you can discard two of dummy's Hearts on the established club winners and ruff your second Heart in dummy.

What could possibly go wrong?......

Unfortinately, it can. After winning the King of Clubs, North leads a Diamond to South's Queen and a Heart is played through your King - Jack. Now you have a nasty guess, and whatever you choose is wrong as North holds both the Ace and Queen.

Could you have avoided the problem?

Well, yes! South is the danger hand and you want to stop South getting the lead and playing a Heart.

The answer is simple - just duck the first trick and then South can never get in.

If you play a weak No Trump, West will open 1 Diamond, North will bid either one or two Hearts and that will end the bidding.

8 tricks and + 110  to North/South.

If you play a Strong No Trump, you will open 1 No Trump.

Now North will Double and this will probably be passed by all.

Careful defence will hold this to 5 tricks - down 2 Doubled and Vulnerable.

Can you work out the defence?

Queen of Hearts led, taken by the King.

Now what?

Say a club is led to the King and Ace..

North now plays 4 more rounds of Hearts.

What discards are you going to make?

How can you avoid losing 4 Hearts, 2 Clubs and 2 Diamonds or any other combination.

If you try to establish Spades, South is your problem.

A problem with no answer!!

+ 500 to North/South.......

Great bidding. North's 4 No Trump was Roman Key Card Blackeood. South's 5 Spades showed 2 of the 5 Key Cards' (Aces plus the King of trumps) plus the Queen of trumps.

Against the trump lead, the first five tricks are forced.  The ace of spades must be won, followed by a diamond to the king, heart to the ace, and the diamond ace discards south's remaining heart.  Now a heart is led from dummy, and east is squeezed, knockout-fashion.  If a minor suit is discarded, declarer has sufficient entries back and forth to set up and cash the fifth card in that suit as trumps are drawn; therefore, east must part with his remaining spade.

South overruffs and plays a club to dummy's king.

The spade jack is led and east is squeezed again.  If he discards a diamond, then declarer retains the lead in dummy and ruffs out the diamonds; if instead he pitches a club, then the spade jack is overtaken, and a long club is set up.

The spade jack is led, overtaken if east discards a club.

At most tables, the bidding went (just North/South) One Heart, 2 Clubs (delayed game raise), 2 Hearts, 4 Hearts.

If your bidding system includes low-level splinters, you may have found this North'South bidding sequence:

1 Heart, 2 Spades (low-level splinter bid, game force in Hearts, singleton or void in Spades),

3 Clubs (first round control), 3 Diamonds (first round control), 3 Spades (first round control).

4 Clubs (second round control in Clubs), 4 Diamonds (second round control in Diamonds).

South now has all the informarion they need for a small or Grand slam, except to find out about the King of Hearts.

They know there are no Spade losers, probably no Diamond losers, 3 top Clubs and at least 10 trumps to the Ace.

4 No Trumps is now Roman Key Card Blackwood, asking for the number of Key Cards - Aces plus King of Trumps.

A bid of 5 Clubs shows 3 Key cards. They know about two of the Aces, so the third must be the King of Trumps.

Do you bid 6 or 7?

On the day, nearly all pairs finished in 4 Hearts plus 3......only one out of 18 found the Grand.

East ruffs the third Heart and draws trumps in 3 rounds.

Declarer needs to finesse the Diamond but there is no need to guess.

Play 3 rounds of Clubs.

Whoever wins the third round will have to either play a diamond, eliminating the guess,

or lead another suit, allowing the discard of a diamond from one hand and a ruff in the other.

Either defence makes the contract 100%.

This is an example of an endplay.

This looks easy!

Cross-ruff the Spades and Clubs, then play the Ace and King of Hearts - 12 tricks made.

However, you will come unstuck if you don't play the Ace and King of Hearts first.

If you continue to cross-ruff, East will discard another Heart and will be left with 3 trumps - 2 down....

If you try to cash your Hearts, East will trump and you will be at least one down.

So - when cross-ruffing, play out your high-card winners first.

At trick two, a low diamond must be led from dummy. Subsequently, declarer arranges to ruff another diamond low, draws the trumps, then uses the king of hearts to access dummy's established diamonds for twelve tricks.  This solution is not at all difficult, provided that one does not greedily try for an overtrick.

The trap is for declarer to play diamonds from the top.  When south ruffs the third round of the suit, west can defeat the contract by refusing to overruff, choosing instead to discard a heart.  Should declarer later try to lose the next round of diamonds to east, west would discard his remaining heart, then trump east's heart return for the setting trick.

If declarer discards on the third diamond, he cannot ruff a diamond later without suffering an uppercut; west eventually will score a trump trick.

Playing off even one high diamond originally would be similarly fatal.  Also, any attempt to ruff two clubs in dummy would result in the dreaded trump promotion, leaving declarer at least one trick short depending upon actual play.

Note: Although the winning tactic succeeds against any choice of opening lead, the safety play is unnecessary if west starts with a spade or a diamond.

You have 4 obvious losers - 2 top Diamonds, the Ace of Spades and a Heart.

The only way to make the contract is to discard your losing Heart on the 'long' Diamond (hoping for split Honours or A, K of Diamonds with West).

You must start on Diamonds straight away, before defence forces out your top 2 Hearts.

Win the Club in hand and play a Diamond towards dummy.

When West ducks, play the Queen and East wins and returns a Heart.

Win with the Ace and lead another Diamond. West must take this.

Whatever is played now, you can cross to the King of Hearts and discard youur losing Heart on the established Jack of Diamonds.

10 tricks and contract made.

If you had tried to take out trumps to start with, East would have won the Ace and led a Heart. You do not now have time to establish the winning Diamond.

You can see 8 tricks off the top - 2 Spades, 2 Diamonds and 4 Clubs.

So where is the problem in finding the 9th trick? It probably will come from Diamonds.

You can see that you can either play Ace and King - and hope to drop the Queen - or FINESSE against the Queen of Clubs.

But which way? Which is the DANGER HAND?

If you look carefully, the DANGER HAND is East. If West wins the Queen, they cannot set up their Heart suit.

You must play the Diamonds in such a way that, should the Finesse fail, it is won by West. Then you have your 9th trick safely.

If you Finesse the other way and East wins, they will play a Heart through your King-2 and run off 5 more tricks for 2 down.

SO - Win the Spade with your Ace and play a Diamond to the Ace.

Now lead the Jack of Diamonds and, if East plays low, play a low card - the Finesse.

If West wins it, whatever they play back will give you at least 9 tricks.

The lead is the King of Diamonds - top of a strong sequence.

Do you draw trumps? If you do, you will find you have losers in either Diamonds or Spades at the end.

Win with the Ace of of Diamonds and lead your singleton Spade. South will win and lead another Diamond.

You now need to CROSS-RUFF Spades and Diamonds to set up your winners.

Ruff (trump) the Diamond, then play your winning Queen of Spades (discarding a Club loser) and then trump a Spade, then a Diamond, then another Spade with your King of Hearts, then another Diamond.

You can now cash the Ace of Hearts, ruff another Spade, discarding your other Club loser ('Loser on Loser').

10 tricks and the contract made. Spade King, 7 Heart tricks and the 2 minor Aces.

When you need to ruff several losers in dummy - DON'T DRAW TRUMPS TOO EARLY!

Ruff the Diamond with the ACE of Clubs.

Now play the 6 of Clubs to dummy's 8 and ruff a Diamond with the King of Clubs.

Continue with the 7 of Clubs to dummy's 9 and ruff another Diamond with the Queen of Clubs.

Now play Ace and King of Hearts, discarding a spade, and then the 10 of Hearts, ruffing with dummy's last Club.

Play another Diamond, ruffing with the Jack of Clubs.

You now have 3 small spades in hand, along with the 2 of Clubs. Dummy has 3 Spades to the King and the lone Diamond.

East has a low Club and Ace, Queen and 10 of Spades.

Lead your 2 of Clubs.....

East has to win and then, even if they cash the Ace of Spades, has to lead to dummy's King of Spades and master Diamond.

11 tricks and game made.

Happy Christmas!

How did you do? The only way to make the contract is to ruff low in BOTH hands - twice!

Dummy wins with the 3 of Spades, South under-ruffing with the 2.

The 4 of Spades is led and, whatever East plays, is covered by South.

Declarer now plays Ace and King of Diamonds, then Ace and another Club.

West wins and is forced to lead another Heart.

This is again ruffed in BOTH hands, keeping the lead in Dummy.

Declarer now runs Dummy's Diamonds, discarding Clubs.

Whenever East ruffs, Suth overruffs, draws trumps and claims the remaining Clubs.

Happy New Year!

West liked the hand he picked up; little did he realise he was endplayed at trick one.....!

A red-suit lead would give up a trick in that suit, so West led a top Spade. Declarer ruffs with the 7 of Clubs (preserving the 3) and leads the 9 of Diamonds.

West ducks, the Diamond Queeen wins and a Spade ruffed (with the 8). The 6 of Clubs is led to the Ace and 6 Clubs returned.

If East plays low, South plays the 3, ruffs a Spade and draws the Queen of Clubs with the King.

If the 6 is covered by the Queen, South wins the King, plays the 3 to the 5, then ruffs a Spade. Either way, East no longer has a spade.

The lead of the last trump forces West to discard his last spade in order to guard the red suits as dummy sheds a Diamond.

South now leads the King of Diamonds and West has to lead a Heart. He leads the Jack, hoping to block the suit, but South wins and plays a heart to the 10 where his remaining 2 Spades are good.

Ruff the opening lead and cross to dummy 3 times in spades to ruff dummy's 3 remaining Clubs.

Now play A and K of Hearts and a third Heart to West's Queen.

West remains with 3 trumps as do you. Dummy has has 2 trumps and a Heart and east has the Ace of Diamonds and a spade and a club.

West must lead a diamond, which you duck to East's Ace.

East must return a black suit which you ruff with the Jack. If West over-ruffs, you play the King of Diamonds and then win your 10 on the last trick.

If West plays low, you discard youur Heart and your King wins the last trick- technically a 'smother play'.

Declarer wins the Ace of Clubs, discarding a Diamond from dummy.

A heart is led to the Ace and a Spade trumped.

Another Heart to the King and another Spade ruff.

Another Heart to dummy, then the last Heart, discarding the Ace of Diamonds and the Ace of Spades, discarding the King of Diamonds.

Dummy's Diamonds are now all good.

7 Hearts bid and made....

South realises that, if East has the King of Diamonds, or if the Spades divide 4 - 3, the contract will always be made.

What if West held the King of Diamonds AND 5 Spades to the King? He would surely have bid 1 Spade over 1 Diamond, non-vulnerable.

With any other 5 -2 split, going up with the Ace is correct. If East had doubleton J - 10, the 9 would become a stopper. If East held the King, the spades would be blocked if declarere takes the Ace on the first round.

So North takes the first trick with the Ace,and plays the Jack of Diamonds to West's King. A Spade comes back, but now there is no entry to West to take his established Spade tricks.

One Spade, 2 Hearts, 4 Diamonds and 2 clubs - 9 tricks and contract made.

You have to be a bit careful.

You win the opening lead (North plays low, East put up the Jack) with the Ace.

You have the option now of playing a Spade to the Queen and then discarding your 2 Diamond losers on the top 2 Hearts.

But what if West has a Singleton Heart? They will ruff the second Heart and you still have a Club to lose later.

You must ruff a Diamond straight away with your Spade 10, then paly the Queen of Spades to find the split in trumps. You are delighted to see the Jack fall!

The Ace of Hearts sees your last Diamond discarded and now you ruff a Heart HIGH to get back to your hand.

You can now draw trumps and just give up a Club to make your contract.

Did you find the 9 tricks?

there are several solutions, but this is the simplest and most effective.

West leads 9 of Spades to East's Ace.

King of Spades, West plays the 6 - High-Low showing a doubleton

Another Spade ruffed with the 7 of Diamonds.

Now Jack of Hearts, ducked by North.

Now the 10 of Hearts to East's Queen.

Trick number 6 is the Ace of Hearts.

Now another Spade, ruffed with the 10 od Diamonds by South and over-ruffed with the Jack of Diamonds.

A Club to the Queen and Ace for trick number 8.

Finally, another Spade promotes West's Queen of Diamonds.

+ 800 to East/West.

Win dummy's Ace of Clubs and ruff a Spade.

Ruff another Club, ruff another Spade.

Ruff another Club, ruff another Spade.

Cash the Ace and King of Hearts, taking out all trumps..

Now cross to the Ace of Diamonds.

Play Queen of Spades (dropping the Jack), discarding a Diamond.

Your last 2 Diamond losers go away on the 10 and 9 of Spades.

That wasn't difficult, was it?

Thanks to Andrew Robson for this puzzle.

At one table, they tried 3 Hearts - very much over-egging their hand! When West bid 3 Spades, North bid 5 Clubs and there it rested.

At all other tables except one, South passed.

The successful South was the one who Doubled, showing values in the other two suits.

North was then able to take an educated punt at 6 Clubs, 'knowing' that South had a minimum of 4 Clubs and probabaly either the Ace of Hearts or the King of Diamonds.

This produces some very interesting bidding!

At one table, the bidding went 1 Spade (S), Double (W), 4 Hearts (N), Pass (E), Pass (S), 4 Spades (W!), Pass (N), Pass (E), 5 Hearts (S), P, P, P, making 11 tricks.

At another table, the bidding was 1 Spade, Pass, 1 NT (N), Pass, 2 Diamonds (S), Pass, 2 Spades (N), P, P, P. making 8 tricks.

Another table started 1 Spade, then 2 Clubs by North, 2 Diamonds (S), 2 Hearts (N), 5 Clubs (S!), making only 10 tricks.

At the other 2 tables, South opened 1 Diamond, then, after 1 Spade by West, 2 Clubs (N), P (E), Double (S), P (W), 2 Hearts (N), the final contract was 4 Hearts by North, making either 10 or 11 tricks.

North is excited!

Perhaps this is where a delayed game raise of 1 Heart is appropriate.

South then bids 2 NT, North 4NT, South 5 Hearts and then North either 6D or 6NT (optimum).

On the night, contracts ranged from 5D (+1), to 7D (-2), from 3NT (+3) to 7NT** (making by South on a Spade lead and a squeeze - well done, Steven and Charles! Now make it on a Diamond or Heart lead!)

Having had their bidding space taken and a certain +620 for 4 Spades (possibly + 1), East/West had to take North off 3 to take a top.

If East leads the obvious Spade, North can discard a heart to only lose a diamond, a heart and a club - just one off.

In fact, East led his singleton diamond to West's ace. At this point, it is tempting for West to cash his ace and king of hearts, then, with East making a club later, N/S is 2 down. Not good enough!

West led a diamond for a ruff, heart return to the King (to let partner know he also had the ace), diamond ruff with Q, heart return to the ace. 5 tricks to East/West, - 800 and an outright top.

It should be noted how clever East's 3 Spade bid is. If East passes, South will bid 3 Clubs and the hand will be played from South. It is more difficult for West to find the winning defence.

Congratulations to Steven and Charles for finding the defence and winning the Club Championship.

So what did you lead? A Spade or a Heart? 2 down and - 300. JD? One down - 100.

On the day, North led a low Club (!) to the Ace, expecting a Spade return.

Instead, South returned another Club......

West discarded their singleton Spade, a low Club from North and the 8 won the trick in dummy.

Then a Diamond finessed to the Queen, Ace and another. North pondered, then discarded a Spade. Ruff in dummy.

A low Heart to the Ace, small Heart back, taken by the King and dropping the Jack.

Now a Spade is ruffed, the last trump drawn and the 3 remaining Diamonds are good.

11 tricks and + 650.....

..... and, yes, this was the play at one table! The Bude E/W pair were elated!!

South opens 1NT and West passes. North bids Stayman in the hope of finding a Heart fit. East now has to decide at what level to bid the Diamonds. If they bid 2 Diamonds, South can bid 2 Hearts and they find their fit.

If East bids 3 Diamonds, South may still decide to bid their Hearts.

What if East bids 4 or 5 Diamonds? They only lose 4 tricks.

Only one North/South managed to find and make 6 Hearts, with another pair making 6 Clubs and 2 others going down in 6 - playing the King of Clubs first and losing a Club and a Spade.

At most tables, the contract was either 5 Clubs by West (making 10, 11 or 12 tricks) or 4 Hearts by North (making 11 or 12 tricks).

At one table, the bidding went West: I Club, North: 4 Hearts, East: 5 Clubs, South: 5 Hearts (!), West: 6 Clubs, North: 6 Hearts, East: Double.

On the Club Ace lead, 12 tricks were made.

At most tables, East bid either 3 Clubs or 3 Diamonds.

South then bid 4 Spades and the final contract was either 5 Diamonds by West or something horrible in Spades, doubled, by North, making 8 tricks.

The only successful slam bid was after the sequence: West: 1 Diamond, North, 1 Spade: East: 2 Spades (Splinter bid, support for Diamonds and shortage in Spades), South: Double, West: 3 Hearts, East : 4 Clubs, West: 4 No Trumps (Roman Key Card Blackwood), East: 5 Spades (2 of the 5 'Aces' plus the Queen of trumps), West: 6 Diamonds. 12 tricks made.

How can you find the Heart slam instead?

2NT seems to be a good contract if East has Hearts covered.

Stayman (2 Clubs) will reveal  that East doesn't have 4 Hearts.

Therefore bid a weak 3 Clubs.

With everything offside, this will not be a pretty result, but, on a Heart lead, you may just get away with 2 Spade losers, a Club and a Diamond to make your contract.

3 Hearts (or even 4 if you guess correctly) make North/South, but how do you find it?

On the night, 3 NT by East went 4 off, 3 Clubs by West only made 8 tricks, and 4 Hearts doubled by South went one off.

There are 2 tricks in Spades, 5 in Hearts and 2 in Diamonds.

You need to conjure up 3 tricks in Clubs.

You are going to have to be very careful.

If you win with the Diamond Ace in hand you could play 5 rounds of Hearts. You are watching for a Club discard. It is unlikely from 3 to the Queen, but may be if it's 3 to the Ace.

No luck - West discards a Spade, East discards a Spade and 2 Diamonds.

Now cross to dummy with the Spade Ace and lead a small club towards the King.

If West plays low, win with the King.

Now you have no entry to dummy to repeat the manoever, except the Diamond King. When the next Club loses to the Ace, you'll have a Diamond loser as well.

You have to try the Clubs whilst you still have the King of Hearts as an entry.

Cross to the King of Hearts and lead a Club.If West plays low, go up with the King.

Now retrurn to the dummy with the Ace of Spades. Lead another low Club.

If West plays low again, you are sunk!

The only way to make the contract is for the clubs to be 3 - 2, with East holding the Queen doubleton and West holding the Ace. Then, if West rises with the Ace on the first or second rounds, the Queen will fall under your King (or West's Ace) and you can enjoy the long Club. You must hope that West feels they need to take their Ace of Clubs early.

One North/South pair did find the winning play.

The North hand is too strong for a pre-emptive 3 Spades.

The choice is between 1 Spade or 4 Spades.

On the night, all 3 bids were made (1, 3 and 4 spades).

4 Spades goes 2 off for - 100.

The 3 Spade opener was left and went one off for - 50.

At one table, North opened 1 Spade, East doubled and West bid 2 Diamonds. North bid 2 Spades and this was left for 8 tricks and + 110.

The most productive bidding East/West was 1 Spade by North, Double by East, South pass and then 3 Hearts by West. East raised to 4 Hearts and 12 tricks rolled in, + 480.

This hand was played 9 times on the evening.

At 2 tables, West bid 2 Spades and this was passed out, making 9 or 10 tricks.

At 1 table, West bid 4 Spades, making 11 tricks.

At 2 tables, West raised to 3 Clubs and this was passed out, making 12 or 13 tricks.

At 2 tables, West raised to 4 Clubs, East  bid 5 Clubs  and 13 tricks were made.

Only 2 pairs managed to bid a slam, one Small and one Grand.

The Grand slam was bid when West made a splinter bid of 3 Diamonds, showing game or slam-going support for Clubs and a void or singleton Diamond.

East bid 3 Hearts (cue bid of the Ace of Hearts), West bid 3 Spades (Ace of Spades) and East bid 4 No Trumps - Roman Key Card Blackwood (RKCB).

West now bid 5 Clubs to show their 3 'Aces' - the King of Trumps counts as an Ace in RKCB.

East raised to 6 Clubs, and West bid 7 Clubs in the knowledge that their 2 Hearts would go away on the 2 red Aces.

I wonder how many Easts bid 1 Heart and then pondered when partner bid 1 NT?

Now a bid of 2 Spades leaves West in a quandry.

How about passing, knowing West has Clubs covered and you have a decent Diamond doubleton?

The only pair to find the major game bid 2 Spades and West bid a very speculative 4 Hearts, making 11 tricks. Well done, Peggy and Noreen!

All the other pairs were  in 2 Hearts (10 or 11 tricks), 2 Spades (10 tricks) or 1 or 2 No Trumps (7 or 8 tricks). One pair played in 3 No Trumps, going one off.  

My preference would be for East to bid 1 Spade initially, expecting to bid 2 Hearts over a 2 Club or 2 Diamond bid.

Over 1 No Trump, knowing West has 15 or 16 points, East bids 3 (or 4) Hearts, letting West decide which major game they wish to play.

Now what about a pair who open 1 No Trump, playing a 12-15 NT?

This is pure heaven! Bid 2 Hearts, transferring to Spades. Then, after partner bids 2 Spades, bid 3 Hearts.

With a minimum hand, West can either Pass or bid 3 Spades.

With a maximum hand, they bid 4 Hearts or 4 Spades. In this case, 4 Hearts successfully brings in the contract.

This was a real problem for East. It depends what system is in the partnership agreement. With 13 HCP, it looks like 3NT is a safe bid, but what if North has 6 tricks off the top in Clubs?

The solution may well be to Double, South will Pass and West may now also Pass, but obviously better to bid 2 No Trumps which East will raise to 3. North may  be left in the Doubled Club contract, making only 5 tricks for - 500.

However, if they can make the extra trick and only lose -300, this may well be a good result, as East/West can make 3 No Trumps for + 400.

Of course, the problem comes if West takes the double to be Stayman. They may be tempted to bid 3 Hearts and East may then bid the game.

What if East bids 2 Diamonds instead of Doubling? Does West take this as a weak bid and Pass?

Or do they take it as a transfer to Hearts and again bid to the poor game?

On the night, nobody was left in Clubs. 3NT by West made either 8 or 9 tricks; 4 Hearts by West made 8 tricks (after East had bid 2 Diamonds over 2 Clubs and West took it as a transfer to Hearts); 2 Diamonds by East made 10 tricks and 2 Spades by South made 7 tricks (when they took the 2 Clubs bid as some sort of Stayman....).

In the National Pairs heat, which included many top pairs from Cornwall, nobody managed to find even the small slam.

After 3 Diamonds, 4 No Trumps will ask for Aces. If you use Roman Key Card Blackwood, this will also ask for the Queen of trumps if you have 2 of the 5 'Aces' (which includes the King of trumps).

West will now bid 5 Hearts (2 Aces but not the Queen of Diamonds) and East will probably stop at 6 Diamonds.

The Grand Slam is makeable, but you'll have to successfully finesse the Queen of Diamonds.

Both pairs were playing a Multi 2-Diamond, so North opened 2 Diamonds, showing his weak 6-card major (5-9 points, or it could have been a strong minor or 19 - 20 No trump hand).

East passed and South bid a negative 2 Hearts.

West has a powerhouse, and Doubled.

North now bid 2 Spades to show his hand.

East bid his 4-card major, 3 Hearts, South passed, West passed and North, realising that partner may well be void in Hearts and therefore with ruffing possibilities, jumped to 4 Spades, duly doubled by West.

How does North make 10 tricks?

East leads a small Heart to the Ace.

West plays the Ace of Diamonds, trumped by North.

Now North leads the 9 of Hearts, a ruffing finesse against the King. East plays low, South discards a Club.

Now North leads the 10 of Hearts, this time covered by the King, ruffed by South, West following both times.

(If East covers the 9 of Hearts with the King, ruff with the 6 of Spades, cash the Spade King, return to hand with a Diamond ruff, draw trumps and run the Hearts; if East doesn't cover the 9 or the 10, play the 4th Heart, ruff with the King of Spades, then play the Spade 6  back to hand, finessing against West for the Jack)

The King of Spades is cashed, a diamond ruffed, trumps drawn and the Hearts are run. Just 2 Clubs to lose at the end, 4 Spades doubled made and the Club Championship won!

What a decision! West's hand obeys the Rule of 19, so they can choose from 1 Club, I Heart, a weak 2 Hearts or just Pass.

On the night, only one pair bid the excellent Grand Slam in Hearts.

West opened 1 Heart, North bid 2 Diamonds and East now bid 3 Diamonds, a splinter bid showing support for Hearts and a shortage in Diamonds. South passed and West bid 4 Hearts, showing the Ace of Hearts and a weak hand.

North passed, East bid 4 NT (Roman Key Card Blackwood) and South bid 5 Diamonds.

West Doubled to show their one Ace, North passed and East now bid 7 Hearts.

A club lead is won in dummy, Hearts drawn in 2 rounds ending in dummy, A and K of spades, a third spade ruffed, felling the remaining spades, then a Diamond ruff and the Spades are run, discarding the Clubs, leaving just trumps. Grand Slam made!

Sadly, West mistakenly thought they were only in the small slam and played 'safe', allowing a Club winner through, so going one off.

The only small slam bid and made was on the sequence West Pass, North 3 Diamonds, East 4 Spaes, South 5 Diamonds and West 5 Hearts! East raised to 6 Hearts. 5 Diamonds doubled goes 2 off.

With 20 High Card Points (HCP), West knows that there are a minimum of 32 combined points, and they have all 4 Aces.

At several tables, West made an Acol quantitative bid of 4 No Trumps, inviting a raise to 6 if East is maximum. With 13 HCP and no Ace, most Easts passed.

With such a powerful hand and a 5-card suit, successful Wests bid a direct 6 No Trump.

Of course 7 No Trumps makes, but it a foolish pair who risk everything at teams!

Whatever East leads is trumped. If North needs to enter dummy, a Diamond is ruffed.

A club is now led through West and finessed.

Another Diamond is ruffed.

The Club finesse is again played, West's remaining trump is drawn, then the Diamonds are all established. 13 Tricks made against any defence.

Goodnight, Mr. Bond....

Would you have found this bidding sequence? The 4 NT was Roman Key Card Blackwood and the 5 Heart response showed 2 of the 5 'Aces' (the King of Trumps counts as an Ace) and no Queen of trumps.

I wonder how many will end up in 4 Hearts?

Those that use splinters may bid 1 Diamond, 1 Heart, 3 Spades, 4 NT, 5 Hearts, 6 Hearts.

Even as the cards lie, only 12 tricks are possible without the defence making an error. You're going to need 2 Spade ruffs in dummy and hope that you can set up a long Spade winner in hand.

The Queen of Clubs is led to the Ace. How to make 12 tricks, let alone 13?

A Heart to the Ace. Then the King, hoping for a 2 - 2 split. That doesn't work, so now to try the Diamonds.

 Ace of Diamonds, King of Diamonds (takes out the Queen), Jack of Diamonds. What does East discard?

If they save their Clubs, hoping to cash them at the end, this is fatal! A Spade discard gives South 13 tricks.

South discards a Spade, then plays a Spade to his Ace, ruffs a Spade, ruffs a Club, then ruffs another Spade, dropping the King and Queen of Spades.

Now a Diamond ruff and  South  plays the Queen of Trumps with the last Spade good.

All 13 tricks made... but only if East has the Queen of Diamonds doubleton - and makes the wrong discard!

HOWEVER... what if East hadn't overcalled Clubs and West chooses a different lead? Consider a Heart at Trick One.....

Declarer takes with the Ace, plays Ace of Spades and ruffs a Spade.

Ace, King of Diamonds fells the Queen. Jack of Diamonds (discard a Spade), ruff a Diamond, ruff a Spade, return dummy's last Heart to the King. Now the Heart Queen clears trumps (throw a Club from dummy), a Club to the Ace, the final estabished Diamond enables you to throw your final Spade and you ruff the last Club for 13 tricks.

On the night, one pair bid and made 6 Hearts, 5 pairs bid 4 Hearts, 2 making all 13 tricks, one pair bid 2 Hearts plus 4 and the unlucky pair who bid the Grand Slam went off.

Did you Pass?

If so, you will probably go down one.

...or were you  inspired to bid your clubs? With 2 singletons, it is very tempting...

I Heart, Pass, 2 Clubs, Double (from West), 5 Clubs (North), 5 Diamonds (East), 6 Clubs (South), Double, Pass, Pass, Pass.

West leads a top Diamond, ruffed in dummy, Heart to the King, Club to the Ace (Good News!), Ace of Hearts (discarding singleton Spade). Heart ruff fells the Queen, Diamond ruff and run the Hearts.

13 tricks and doubled slam made with an overtrick. ....or 1 Heart down one.

Which do you prefer?

This bid of a lower suit followed by a higher suit (except Clubs to Spades) is known as 'reverse'.

You know that they have at least 16 High Card Points (HCP).

You can work out the you have enough HCP to be in game but you can't find a suit that you both like.

The obvious game is 3 No Trumps, so that's what you must bid.

If you had 6 - 8 HCP and a Spade stop, you would have bid 2 No Trumps which would have been non-forcing.

Now look at all 4 hands.

There is a small communication problem.

A spade is led to the Jack and your King.

You can't afford to cash the Ace of Spades before testing the clubs because the Spades may be divided 6-3.

But if you run into a 4-1 Club split, you will be cut off from your second Spade trick.

The cards may even be distributed so that they take 5 tricks before you can cash your winners.

The way to cater for a 4-1 club break is to DUCK the first round. Play a LOW club from each hand at trick 2.

If both opponents follow suit, the contract is safe.You can win amy return, cros to hand with the Ace of Clubs, cash the Spade Ace before crossing back to dummy to enjoy the club winners.

The biding was fierce! East has shown Spades, South has splintered and shown a Spade shortage, North has shown the Ace of Clubs, East has shown minimum 6 Spades, South has the Ace of Diamonds and then the Roman Key Card Blackwood is disrupted by East's pre-empive Spade bid.

If 4 Spades is Doubled, it goes off 2 for -500.

4 Hearts would have made easily for +650, so how to make 6?

The King of Clubs is led and won with the Ace.

The Queen of Diamonds now unblocks the suit.

King, Jack of Hearts reveals the 4 - 1 break.

A third Heart to the Queen is played.

The Diamonds are run. Ace, King, Jack, with North and East discarding Spades.

Now two more Diamonds. West is in a dilemma. Should they trump or not?

West discards a club and a Spade. Now the Queen of Spades is trumped, a club given up and the Ace of Hearts wins the last trick.

On the night, the pair in the slam made 12 tricks and all others made 11.... except one pair who made all 13 tricks! Can yo see how they made them on a Heart lead? Please let me know how!

A perfect hand for cue-biding!

East bids 3 Clubs, setting the trump suit.

West bids 3 Spades (Ace of Spades), East 4 Diamonds (first round control), West 4 Spades (King of Spades), East 4 No Trumps (Roman Key Card Blackwood).

West bids 5 Spades (2 of the 5 Aces plus the Queen of Clubs).

East can now safely bid 7 Clubs, knowing that their Hearts will provide all the discards needed.

In the play, a Diamond is led. East ruffs, draws trumps in 3 rounds, takes 6 rounds of Hearts, discarding all West's Diamonds and Spade losers, and leaving West's Spades and Clubs to mop up the rest of the tricks.

Grand Slam bid and made.

 You allow the §10 to hold the trick. Dummy has no entry outside the club suit. Don’t play your §A until declarer plays his last club or he will make four club tricks. But

how do you know when he plays his last club? You know because partner tells you how many he has with a count signal.

When §10 holds, declarer play §6 towards dummy’s jack. Do you win this trick? Did declarer start with two or three clubs? Pay attention to partner’s signal. Did partner play §5 first? This is lowest outstanding club (you can see the 2, 3 and 4) so partner has an odd number of clubs which must be three. So declarer has only two and you must win the second club trick.

If partner had played §7 followed by §5 partner has an even number (two) of clubs. Declarer has three and you must duck a second time.

It works just as well when you are in the West seat. Declarer leads §10 which holds and a second club is played. Should you rise with your ace, or duck a second time? Are clubs like this?

§ K Q J 9 3 §A 8 4 §7 2 §10 6 5

Or are they like this?

§ K Q J 9 3 §A 8 4 §7 5 2 §10 6

What did partner play on the first club? If §7, it is the first layout. You must duck again.

 If §2, play your ace. Don’t give declarer an unnecessary club trick.

Ruff the diamond with the Ace of Clubs; over to  dummy using  the 6 of Clubs and ruff a diamond with the King of Clubs. Continue with the 7 of clubs to dummy , ruff a third  diamond with the Club Queen and play the AK10 of hearts ruffing with dummy's last trump and ruff a fourth diamond with the Club Jack, leaving your hand with the 2 of Clubs and three small spades. 

Dummy has Kxx of spades and a high diamond and East has the 3 of Clubs and the AQ10 of spades. Can you see it coming?  Toss  East in with the three of clubs, discarding a spade from dummy. East has to play the ace and a spade and dummy takes the last two tricks with the King of Spades and a small diamond. 

You know that you and your partner have a combined 36+ HCP. It is pretty certain that East has at least one Court card (K,Q, J) for their bid.

Therefore, your partner must have all the other Aces.

Is there any point in bidding anything except 7 NT? Probably not! 

To keep the bidding going, South now bids 3 Hearts to show values.

West competes with 4 Diamonds.

North bids 4 NT (RKCB, Roman Key Card Blackwood).

South responds 5 Clubs. This show 0 or 3 of the 5 Key Cards (the 4 Aces and the King of Trumps)  if Hearts (the last naturally bid suit)  were trumps.

North assumes that South has no Key Cards (WHY? They have been given a positive raise in Hearts!) and bids 5 Spades, assuming 2 Aces are missing.

South now bids 6 Diamonds to show 1st round control in Diamonds.

North bids 6 Spades as they assume the 'control' is a void....

South is fed up mucking about and bids the Grand Slam in No Trumps... 13 tricks easily made.

This was Hand 10 on September 28th.

East opened 3 Clubs and South has to find a forcing bid.

Contracts ranging from 3NT, through 4 Hearts, 6 Hearts and 7 No Trumps were bid.

Those North/Souths in the Grand Slam were unlucky to find the 3% chance of all 5 crucial cards off-side. The excellent bid of 7 No Trumps fails - a shame! 6 Hearts is cold, but most pairs fell short, only bidding the game.