Bridge

West had a difficult chance of defeating Five Clubs on this deal but the opportunity came early in the play when he knew little about the rest of the hand; perhaps he should have taken out insurance and saved in Five Spades.

South opened One Club and, playing "inverted minor suit raises", North responded Two Clubs, forcing for one round. Very nice, but it allowed East to get in on the act with Two Spades. South then tried Three Hearts and West upped the ante with a raise to Four Spades. A double by North would not have been a success, but he judged well by going on to Five Clubs. All passed, West somewhat lingeringly.

West led 410 against Five Clubs and declarer ruffed the spade continuation. With his vulnerable opponents bidding their boots off, nothing seemed more unlikely than a 3-3 break in hearts. Perhaps there might be a squeeze.

It was necessary to give up a trick in order to get the timing right, so at trick three South led #2 from hand. West played low and dummy's seven lost to East's queen.

East returned a diamond but the damage had already been done. Declarer won in dummy with the ace and played off five rounds of trumps, discarding #10 from hand. This left him with his four hearts, and dummy with !Q,7,2 #8, while West faced an impossible discard from !10,8,6,4 #K.

Although it is not usually the rght play with K,J,x,x in front of A,x,x, West should have played #J on the first round of the suit. Then his partner would have been able to look after the diamonds with his queen, he could keep his four hearts, and no squeeze would have operated.

European Bridge Championships

The British ladies' team won the gold medals in the Generali European Bridge Championships in Montecatini Terme, Italy. France, Israel, Germany and the Netherlands, who took the next four places. These five teams qualify for the Venice Cup to be played later this year in Tunisia.

In the Open series, Italy hold a comfortable lead with three rounds left to play.

Game all; dealer East

North

4Q 5

!Q 7 2

#A 8 7

2K J 10 7 4

West East

410 9 8 4 3 4A K J 7 6

!10 8 6 4 !J 9

#K J 4 3 #Q 6 5

2none 29 6 2

South

42

!A K 5 3

#10 9 2

2A Q 8 5 3