THE trials to decide the five pairs to receive sponsorship in 2007 to travel to a National / Regional were held at the Bridge Club last week. The pairs qualified in different categories. The five successful pairings were Alan Douglas and David Pereira, Marilynn and Delmont Simmons, Charles Pearman and Ernest Paynter, Cliff Alison and Steve Cosham, and Dan and Jane McCleary.

Congratulations to all the pairs and we wish them the best of luck when they travel.

I’ve often spoken about the usefulness of trump leads and today’s hand is a good example of the type of auction which calls for a trump lead and how a declarer has to sometimes change plan based on what he sees.

Dealer South.

E/W Vulnerable

North

[spade]J 9 4

[heart]9 4 3

[diamond]A 6 5 2

[club5 3West East

[spade]8 5 3 2 [spade]6

[heart]J 8 6 [heart]Q 10 7 5 2

[diamond]Q 10 [diamond]K J 9 8 3

[club]K Q 9 7 [cl10 6South

[spade]A K Q 10 7

[heart]A K

[diamond]7 4

[club8 4 2West North East South

— — — 1[spade]

Pass 2[spade] Pass 3[club]

Pass 4[spade] Pass Pass

PassThree clubs in this auction is usually a long suit game try as in this case, or some players play this as a start suit game try — I prefer the former.

There were nine top tricks and without a trump lead the play would be straightforward. For example, on a heart lead, declarer takes his three suit winners before playing ace and another club. The defence returns a trump, wins in hand and South plays a third club. No matter what the defence does he ensures his tenth trick by ruffing his last club with dummy’s jack of trumps.

The average player might not find a plan to make a tenth trick after a trump lead, but it is simple to do so once you have seen this type of deal before. The important thing for declarer to recognise is that he is unlikely to be able to ruff a club in dummy — the trump lead suggests either a pathological delight in leading trumps or, more probably, some fear that clubs may be ruffed in dummy.

What can be done? Well, the idea is to score as many trumps as possible! So, with this in mind, declarer cashes the ace and king of hearts at trick two then plays a diamond to the ace to ruff dummy’s remaining heart with the ace. A diamond play follows.

Suppose West wins the second diamond and exits with another trump. South wins with dummy’s nine and ruffs a diamond. After a club to the ace and another diamond ruff, declarer has made five trumps in hand, two heart tricks, the minor suit aces and there is still the good jack of trumps in dummy to make his the tenth trick on a dummy reversal.

Good defence and a good counter by declarer.