Lingfield players were in action at the Year-End Congress in London, when this hand came up.

South gets a diamond lead (won by QD) and then bangs down the Ace and King of spades, to find the spades 4-1, with West holding 4.

How do you plan to make 6S?

Triple repeating squeezes don't crop up very often, so it's a pleasant surprise when they do (even if poor defence has helped setup the position). This hand comes from a Silver Plate Round 3 match.

East-West were playing 5-card majors, better minor, and a 14-16 NT, hence the 1D opening. South decided to bid 1NT(15-17) rather than doubling, and North's 2C was Stayman.

The opening lead of 5D was covered by 6D, 9D, and won with KD. South now sets about trying to establish one or two heart tricks by advancing a small heart towards dummy. West gives this one a hard stare, but plays 2H and dummy's QH is won by AH. East can't profitably attack diamonds, so tries the effect of JC, covered by QC. Declarer now plays a small heart towards dummy, and West climbs with the KH (mistake) and exits with a spade (yet another mistake) won by declarer with the AS. Declarer now cashes 10H and crosses back to dummy with QS.

This calamitous defence has resulted in the following end position (West's hand is irrelevant)

7
J
A1087
-

       J6
       -
       QJ
       K10

K8
-
3
A96

It looks like declarer only has 4 tricks (JH, KS, AD, AC) but when dummy's JH is cashed, East can't afford to throw away any card. Obviously East can't throw a diamond, as that immediately gives dummy 4 diamond tricks, so at the table East threw 6S. That setup the 8S as a winner, so two tricks later the position is this:

-
-
A1087
-

       -
       -
       QJ
       K10

8
-
3
A9

And now the 8S delivers the final blow. Making 11 tricks was worth 1 IMP - sometimes the rewards are not as high as one would wish!

Excellent judgement from Maura on board 14 from 30th March.

Maura opened the South hand 3.Over Fred's 4, Maura realised that Fred must be void in clubs, must have a few spades, and spoted the huge cross-ruff potential. Out came the 4 card from Maura, all pass, and now the spotlight was on West.  

Do you find a spade lead (the only lead to beat the contract) with the West hand? Probably not. Like most mere mortals would do, West led the Q, and now 4 is unbreakable: cash the two Aces-Kings, and then start cross-ruffing.

Well done Maura - a well thought out  4 bid, and a well deserved top!

Here is a heartbreaking hand - board 10 from 4th August 2009. East deals and opens 2H, showing precisely 5 hearts and at least a 4 card minor, 6-10 points. South cue-bids 3H to show a good hand, West bids 4H (not knowing what East's minor is) and North bids 4S.

East decides the N-S bidding has been far too confident so far, and decides that 5H must be a decent save against 4S, so bids 5D along the way to show his second suit.  South bids 5S, and West now knows that the hand is a massive double-fit so bids 6H, fully expecting to have to bid 7H over 6S.

North goes into the tank and thinks for a long while before doubling. A score of  +200 to N-S for 6H-1 doubled is a bottom, as all other N-S pairs are playing in 4S/6S making 13 tricks. Even +500 for 7H-2 doubled would have been a bottom...

...which is a lucky result for E-W, as a forcing pass from  N over 6H may have propelled N-S to an unbeatable 7S.

An excellent hand from 20th Sept on which to illustrate the concept of the "par" contract. Par is defined as "the minimum which one side must lose given best play/defence/bidding". On the above deal, the par contract (6H*-1) was reached by EW after a Multi 2D opening by South. West makes a spirited overcall of 2H, North thinks that West has walked into a minefield(so North passes), but after 4H from East it is clear to North that South did in fact have spades!   The 4S bid from North is followed by an obvious 5H from East (knowing that partner must be singleton or void in spades as North has supported spades and East has 3 spade , East also has great controls in diamonds and Clubs, and superb hearts), South has a near maximum in spades and a heart singleton so "sacrifices" in 5S, and West makes an the excellent real sacrifice in 6H as she has no defence against spades. Of course, both 5H N-S and 5S E-W make, and the traveller reflected that with two instances of 5H making, two instances of 5S making, and two pairs finding the par contract of 6H going one down.

At one table, the bidding started 2S(weak) by South, a very spirited 3H by West (on a 7 count!!), an obvious 4S by North (6 losing trick count), 5H by East (obvious when partner has freely bid 3H!) and 5S by South, passed out. It's very easy to forgive West for not bidding 6H, as their inital 3H bid was somewhat bold!