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In this series of articles, we will feature hands played well or where there could be, shall we say, a little room for improvement. We will start off with a deal which was played very nicely by a bridge personality more associated with directing.

                                    THE DIRECTOR’S CORRECT PLAY

You are playing Pairs. Therefore, the objects are two-fold, firstly to make your contract and secondly to make any overtricks going, as it is nice to get those extra match-points.

You are West and this is what you see at trick one:

West                                      East

♠ J876                                    ♠ AK102

♥ 10                                       ♥ AJ987

♦ KJ95                                   ♦ A3

♣ 10765                                ♣ A2

                        BIDDING

West              North                        East                South

                        3♣                             x                      Pass

3♦                   Pass                        3♥                      Pass

3♠                   Pass                        4♠                      All Pass

North leads the ♣K. You win with the ace…and, thank you, North, for only having 6 clubs as South follows with ♣ 8.

Plan the play. 

Before we discuss the play, let’s reveal the player, none other than one of our best directors, Caroline Wiggins from Hastings. Along with husband and fellow director, Murray, she was playing all week-end at the Thames Congress. She showed she could play a hand just as well as she can direct.

Dealer North                North

Nil Vul                          ♠ 43

                                   ♥ 6432

                                   ♦ Q

                                   ♣ KQJ943 

West                                                        East

♠ J876                                                       ♠ AK102

♥ 10                                                          ♥ AJ987

♦ KJ95                                                       ♦ A3

♣ 10765                                                    ♣ A2

                                  South

                                    ♠ Q95

                                    ♥ KQ5

                                    ♦ 1087642

                                    ♣ 8

North’s opener warned her that trying to ruff clubs in dummy was not a good idea as South would very likely be able to over-ruff. Thus, she decided to try and set up dummy and ruff some hearts. The ♥A was followed by a heart ruff and a trump to the ace. Next came a second heart ruff which set up dummy’s two remaining hearts as winners. A second trump was played to the king (no finesse since South was more likely to have longer trumps than North and probably the queen, too.)

Leaving the ♠ Q outstanding, she cashed ♦A and got some very welcome news from North. Thus, South had to follow to three rounds of diamonds as dummy’s club was discarded. Caroline then ruffed a diamond to dummy and played her two hearts, leaving the defence with just the ♠Q….making 6, a feat achieved by only 2 out of 16 declarers in the event.

Nicely played, Caroline, but what about North’s opening bid? A six card club suit with four little hearts on the side? Not in good company, maybe, but in the hurly burly world of bidding, it may not be a major crime because:

1. If your side has a heart fit, the opponents may outbid you in spades anyway.
2. Your heart suit is bad. It might keep you out of a heart contract when there is a bad break.
3. The 3♣ opening is a good lead directing bid and some days, may suggest a good sacrifice for the partnership.

So, maybe it is not so bad after all. Were the major suit stronger or were the suit spades and not hearts, then the crime would be “major”. Do you agree? This time, it warned Caroline about the club break and put her on the path to success.

Another play hand will follow next week. 

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