With E-W silent throughout the auction South opens 1D and North bids 1S. South with 16 high card points would have been prepared to make a jump rebid, but the spade response from North is unlikely to be helpful. The best rebid is to simply bid 2C, which indicates the probability of nine cards in the minor suits. North may simply rebid the spades as the hand is strong enough. Now South bids 3C showing at least ten cards in the minors, at which point North is likely to pass. Bidding ‘No Trumps’ by South can go badly wrong if there are no, or not enough entry cards in the North hand.

Inspection of the results in the table below show that six of the nine pairs played the deal in no Trumps in spite for the obvious misfit, one pair played in spades and two played in the safest contract of three clubs; one making only 8 tricks and the other making 11 tricks.  West has a tricky decision to find an opening lead against a 3C contract, none look attractive, so may eventually decide on a spade. Declarer will ruff the spade ace and then perhaps lead a low heart toward the Queen, hoping that West has the heart King, but also planning to ruff the third round of hearts if necessary and gain access to the spades in the North hand for diamond discards before drawing trumps, thus maximising the N-S plus score with the safest contract.

Results

N-S 1^st   De Coning & D Ellender…..57.7% 

        2^nd C Bennett & R Orford……..55.7%

E-W 1^st J Tagg & E Jurgensen…….64.3%

         2^nd P Brown & M Banks……...59.2%