Autumn is coming and the leaves are falling, so it’s time for a new season of the Wiltshire Premier League.

The duplimator seems to be keeping us on our toes, with a few possible slams last night, as well as the scope for a defensive brilliancy.

6H on board 6 depends on a 4-1 break and AC being onside (or led if you can contrive to have it played by N). It looks difficult for S to stop short once N has supported hearts and shown an A (and KC if there was room). The three pairs who bid it were disappointed.

6C on 8 is excellent, but minor suit slams are hard to bid with only 28 points and no shortages in the combined hands. We all failed on that one.

6S (or 6NT) is foolproof on board 17 (barring a first-round ruff), but the opponents will probably intervene. NS are unlucky that they have identical distributions, which stops 7S having any play. That didn’t stop four pairs trying it. Board 20 is also difficult to bid and needs very careful play once the clubs are shown to split 4-1. Fortunately the hearts split, so declarer can throw losers in whichever suit was led before West can ruff the fourth heart.

Now it’s time for our team-mates to take a bow. They defended 4H after East had shown at least 5-4 in the majors. Philip led AC and saw that the best chance of defeating the contract was to find Dave with a singleton club. He continued with C2 for Dave to ruff while declarer followed low. Dave reasoned that declarer had KC left, which meant he had at most one diamond. He therefore underled his diamond AK, trusting Philip’s 2C to be a suit preference with QD. Virtue was rewarded when this proved to be the case and 4H was defeated after a second club ruff.

Please note that neither Colin nor I will be at the next match. Richard Gwyer has kindly offered to direct. The scores will be posted, but there might be a slight delay.

Richard Samter