| An Elopement! |
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This is the first of two hands, which created slam swings for the winners of the Wilts/Avon green point swiss teams.
A good bidding sequence saw North/South to the reasonable spade slam. The 2♦ opening bid was multi two diamonds and the 3♥ bid was a pass or correct bid, assuming partner had a weak two opening in one of the majors. The 4♦ bid showed 17 to 20 HCP in a 4144 shape hand with a singleton heart! After spades were agreed through the 4♠ bid, South 's hand was huge, rich in controls and an absolute maximum for his bid.Knowing his partner must have some values for his initial 3♥ bid, he decided to push on with a key card blackwood 4NT. The 5♣ response showed one of the five key cards (the trump King becomes the 5th Ace), 5♦ now asked for the Q♠. The 6♣ bid showed the Q♠ was held as well as the K♣, so 6♠ became the final contract.
It's tough to get to the slam, and the play was no easier. After the heart lead declarer could see he needed to find a way of ruffing his small hearts or combining two ruffs with a discard of the third small heart on the Q♣. Declarer decided to go for the latter option. So he won the A♥ and ruffed a heart. The A♠ was cashed to see if a singleton K♠ would come to light and returned to hand with the K♣. Another heart ruff in dummy was followed by the A♣. When the J♣ fell this was good and bad news. Declarer pressed on with the Q♣ on which West had to ruff low. Declarer over ruffed and now had to ruff his last small heart. Phew it stood up! Now the diamonds had to break 3/3, so declarer cashed the top diamonds and the angels were smiling. Finally the last club from the table meant declarer must make his contract. The technical term for this end play position, so I am told, is an elopement.
Excellent bidding and play created a deserved 13IMP swing.
Michael Whittaker
12 March 2012
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