Bridge

On this deal from match play, one South was justly proud of having reached Six Hearts (rather than Six Spades, which would have had no play). He was annoyed to find that his counterpart had reached, and made, the small slam even more easily.

Both Souths rated their hand as worth a conventional Two Club opening and, after the start of 22 - 2#; 24 - 2NT; 3! - 4!, had plunged (rather rashly) into the heart slam.

At one table, South had an easy run when West led a low diamond. He ruffed, drew just two rounds of trumps, then played on spades to discard two clubs from dummy before the defenders could come to anything save their trump trick.

The aggrieved South, after rather surprisingly reaching the same contract, had to contend with the more worrying lead of 29 which went to the 10, jack and ace. The only chance now, it seemed, was that the trumps were 3-2 and that the defender with three trumps would also have to follow to three rounds of spades. However, South saw a deceptive way of improving his chances.

He cashed !A and crossed to !K. Then came a spade from dummy, won by the queen. South continued with the ace of spades and 47. This created the firm impression in West's mind that declarer had taken a successful spade finesse and was engaged in establishing the suit with a ruff in dummy. Instead of ruffing, West discarded. One of dummy's clubs went away and another spade left West with no resource.