Stamford Bridge Club receives support from other clubs to continue playing

The club uses nearly 500 boards per week, writes Trevor Thrower, of Stamford Bridge Club.

These are random deals produced by computer so that we can all look at the hands after we have played them to see how we could have improved our bridge.

Recently both of our dealing machines broke down in the space of a week. We would like to thank Oakham and Rutland Bridge Club for the loan of their dealing machine whilst our machines were repaired.

Hand of the Week

This month's hand comes from an inter-club match involving Stamford. The contract of 4H and first trick of the queen of clubs covered by the king and won by north with the ace were the same at both tables. The Stamford north switched to his singleton S5, declarer played small, south won with the king and gave partner his ruff. The contract failed by one trick. Declarer should have viewed the spade switch with great suspicion and won with ace, drawn trumps and played south for the spade king.

The play was more interesting when north return a small club to south's knave. South will play either a diamond or a trump. Declarer should win and draw trumps in three rounds assuming they break 3-2. Declarer now needs to play for at most one spade loser. The only problem that could arise now is a 4-1 spade break and we lose to both the King and 10. There is a play to ensure the contract against all bad spade breaks. Declarer should play all the diamonds ending in the west hand so that he holds only 4 spades and one trump in each hand. Declarer now plays the spade queen. If north holds the king then if they cover we will only lose at most the spade 10. If south wins then they will have to lead a spade which will give up the spade 10. Alternatively they could lead a club or diamond, we can discard a losing spade from one hand and ruff in the other.

If the queen of spades was allowed to hold then declarer should play a small spade to the S9, if north has four spades we will now only lose the king, if south has four spades then they will have to lead from the king or give a ruff and discard.

Tips of the Week

(1) Beware of a seemingly helpful lead from the defence (e.g. The S5 switch above) – it may be singleton.

(2) Sometimes it is best to play all your cards in side suits so that if the defence lead them it will give you a ruff and discard.