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Bridge
 You
would have bid 7S on those South cards? So would I! Still, it’s
a Golden Oldie and declarer’s target was just twelve tricks. He won
the heart lead and saw that thirteen tricks would be easy if trumps
were 2-1. He could draw trumps in two rounds and cross to dummy’s
third trump to score the two heart honours. When he cashed the ace of
trumps West discarded a heart. Declarer’s next move was to lead a
cunning ten of trumps. If East takes this, perhaps thinking that he
has a diamond trick to come, declarer can cross to dummy’s nine of
trumps for his discards. No, East was not born yesterday and he
allowed declarer’s trump ten to win. The contract would still be
easy unless clubs broke 5-1 or 6-0. Declarer next tried his luck with
the ace and king of clubs. Suppose you had been East. What would you
have done when the second top club was led? If you ruff, declarer will
be able to enter dummy in the trump suit. East knew exactly what was
going on. He refused to ruff the king of clubs and looked the other
way again when the queen of clubs was played. It was the end of the
road for South and the small slam went one down.
What will you say now?
Answer
 A second-round 1NT by
responder suggests around 8-10 points, rather than the 6-9 that would
be normal for a first-round response such as 1S — 1NT. Here you have
a 16 points, a good diamond suit and two potentially useful tens. You
should suggest game with a raise to 2 NT.
AWards:
2 NT — 10, 3 NT — 8, Pass — 4.
David Bird
— Knight Features
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