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This week's hand was dealt at the table and occurred in the NICKO match between Nailsea A and Bristol A.
At our table, where I held the South hand, the bidding was as shown above. West decided to start with a quiet 1♥ and North overcalled 2♥, which in our methods showed a two-suited hand with at least five spades and a five card (or longer) minor. East joined in with 3♣, which suggested to me that partner’s minor was diamonds (wrong!) and I had an easy bid of 4♠. Naturally West competed to 5♥ (East probably was not too happy at this point –her ruffing value in spades was not pulling its weight due to the void in trumps) and North bid 5♠. With no top honour in trumps or in partner’s (presumed) minor I passed and West chose to double. When this came round to me I was tempted to redouble, but as I had little defence against a sacrifice in clubs (partner had other ideas) I chose to pass, and 5♠ doubled became the final contract.
The opening lead was ♥K and the play presented no problem – dummy’s ♦J disappeared on the heart lead, a trump was conceded and there were still enough trumps left for a complete crossruff. Twelve tricks were made for a score of +1050 for NS.
Events took a different course at the other table, and after the sort of competitive sequence that might be expected following a 4♥ opening bid, North-South allowed themselves to be pushed into 6♠ doubled. Again the opening lead was ♥K, and declarer was once more able to take twelve tricks in comfort. The slam score of +1430 meant a swing of 9 IMPs to Bristol.
The vicious nature of the hand becomes even clearer if West is able to find an unlikely diamond lead against the slam. Declarer wins trick one with dummy’s ♦A, but cannot now play a trump as the defence have a diamond to cash when they get in with ♠A. In order to discard the losing diamond from dummy, declarer needs to enter his hand so that the diamond may be ditched on ♥A. However, this proves impossible: declarer can lead a club from dummy and ruff, but West overruffs with his bare ♠A and cashes a diamond to defeat the slam. This would turn a loss of 9 IMPs into a gain of 15 IMPs – quite a swing. Despite this setback, Nailsea A managed to overturn a half-time deficit of 14 IMPs into a win by 9 IMPs thanks mainly to tight defence in both rooms on key game hands in the second half.
Incidentally, remember this hand next time you are tempted to complain about the unbalanced nature of computer-dealt hands!
Bob Baker
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