Bridge

East made a penalty double of North’s weak 1NT and South decided to attempt game in spades. Take the East cards now. Would you have doubled this contract? Most players would but there is no real reason to. No-one forced South to bid 4S, so he will have some extreme distribution for the bid. Now try defending with the East hand. Your partner leads the queen of hearts and this is covered by the king and ace. Declarer ruffs and leads the queen of trumps, which you win. What next? At the table East gave the matter little thought, returning a second round of hearts. Declarer won and knocked out the other high trump. When he ragained the lead, he drew East’s last trump and ran the queen of diamonds. This lost to East’s king but declarer could then claim the balance. His two club losers would go on dummy’s diamonds. ‘Lead a club!’ ‘I must score four tricks then.’ This was true but East also had a chance to beat the contract. When he won the first round of trumps he could see that declarer would eventually set up the diamond suit. The only chance to break the contract was to play a club, even though this was into dummy’s A-Q. When East next came on lead, whether with a diamond or a top trump, he could clear a club trick for the defenders. One down!

What would you say now on the West cards? (Partner’s opening promises only four spades.)

Answer

This is a tricky situation, if you are playing a weak 1NT and 4-cards majors. If you stretch to a 2C response and partner rebids 2S, 2H or 2D, you will not be able to express your values. To correct 2H to 2S, for example, would hardly suggest three spades and two aces. Best is to raise to 2S initially, but this can result in a missed game when partner holds 16 points and passes. Anyone playing a five-card major system would raise to 2S without thinking. Awards: 2S-10, 2C-7, 3S/1NT-5

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