This is quite a tricky deal in which to get the optimum result. After East’s 1S bid followed by West’s 2H response, then 3C from East; West should be warned that East’s hand is highly distributional so he/she should bid conservatively, hence 3S is a better bid than a jump to 4S and 3NT can go wrong if there are limited entries between the two hands. With three spades, but no honour and a doubleton club with no high card 3NT can go down against competent defenders. See below for confirmation.

Playing in 3S South will probably lead a diamond which can be won by East’s Queen; but reflecting on the need to establish the club suit rather than drawing trumps a case can be made for winning the trick with West’s King thereby sacrificing a diamond trick. Then lead a club towards East’s KQ combination. This puts North in a difficult spot; if he/she plays the Ace the KQ are likely to mop up the rest of the clubs when declarer gets in/ if North ducks it looks as though Declarer is trying to establish the club suit by ruffing in the West hand before drawing trumps. An advantage of this line of play is that the defenders may draw trumps for you as they perceive that you have sacrificed a diamond trick and played a club towards a six card suit with the obvious intention of trying to sneak a club trick while there are still trumps in dummy.

Results

2SE +1; 3NTW -3; 3NTW -2; 4SE -1; 4SE =; 5SE -2

N-S 1^st R Wood & D Ellender……...64.3% 

        2^nd K Tyndall & E Rodrigues…51.4%

E-W 1^st H Clohessy & M Wesselo…63.8%

        2^nd L Kolesky & G Dempers….57.5%