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“Badley” Done

The title hardly literally reflects the theme of what follows because in this case, the defence can reflect on a job well done. The hero for the defence was, of course, Duncan Badley.

So, let’s put you in Duncan’s North seat and see if you find the correct defence, too.

 

West valued their hand as a strong no-trump (15-17) after which you bid naturally. East tried a take-out double and continued to show five hearts after getting the 3 response.

Your partner leads 4 (3rds and 5ths) which is won in dummy. Declarer plays a low heart to their ace and a second to the jack and your king. Your partner discards 5, giving count in that suit. So, over to you?

While you are thinking, it seems just about every time West will end as declarer, that the contract will have been wrong-sided. 3NT might well be the correct contract but played with the hand with holds in the major suit. West was fortunate, this time, that East ended as declarer in a major suit. The West hand seems to me a perfect 1 opener to be followed by 3 next time round, if appropriate.

So, back to Duncan, North, who cashed the Q (everyone followed with South playing 8 from an original holding of 854). What seemed certain was that his partner was not going to contribute much to the defence. If South held the Q, then putting declarer to a guess would not be successful. Since he had bid, he would be marked with the A. For all Duncan knew, the diamond suit was running. He could not see the J.

Thus, he was on his own and found the best solution…a third round of clubs. If declarer ruffed in dummy, he would be forced to lead a high diamond, which Duncan could ruff, with the A being the fourth trick for the defence. So, declarer, ruffed in hand and played on spades.

Duncan won the ace and cast the killer blow, yet another club. Ruffing in dummy would have the same effect as mentioned above. If declarer ruffed in hand, then they would have one trump left in both hands while Duncan still had two. No escape.. down one.

                                                                  The four hands

 

Declarer should have taken the heart finesse, repeated it and cashed a third heart, leaving North with just one high trump. North can ruff the first or second round of diamonds but declarer still has trump control. If North does not ruff, they lose their club trick. 4 was beaten twice and was made three times.

Giving declarer a ruff and discard is usually not great defence. However, Duncan did well to recognise this deal was an exception to the rule. “Badley”, well done.

Richard Solomon

It is neat to see the two pairs of current/ ex in one case Macleans College students leading this Swiss Pairs event at Akarana. Zachary Yan and Vincent He lead from Yiwei Qi and Eddy Tan. The event has one more week to run.

 

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