The junior teams concluded last Tuesday at the club and the event ended with a nail-biting finish.

After two sessions and seven matches the winners, by a margin of just one victory point, were the team of Willi Christensen, John Luebkemann, Jean Wolosiuk, Annabelle Mann, Lane Martin and Mary Leigh Burnett.

Finishing in second place, also with five wins but with 85vp compared with the winners’ 86vp, were Richard Hall, James Fraser, Liam Peniston and Ruskin Cave.

Two teams finished with four wins: Claude Guay, Sharon Shanahan, Irma Hodgson and Ken Hodgson, who finished third, and David Pickering, Betty Ann Sudbury, Richard Keane and Delton Outerbridge, who finished fourth.

Well done to the winners for prevailing in such a close contest and to all the placing pairs — elation for some, heartbreak for others, but that is what competition is about and it is good to see the event being contested so fiercely.

Most of the pairs playing here will have much to learn of the differences between teams bridge and pairs bridge, which is what they usually play, and that can be the subject of a whole new book. Next up is the open teams next Monday and Friday.

So, to this week’s hand. It is a gentle game at the club and you are pleasantly surprised to pick up this little beauty, a hand that will soon take you for a little ride but above all will teach you a great lesson about bridge defence.

EW Vulnerable Dealer West

SAK

HAKQ

D432

CAKQJ10

You open a strong two Clubs, partner bids two Hearts, showing a hand with little or no points (two Diamonds by partner will show a little something), RHO opponent bids three Diamonds and you are already in trouble as you have no good bid.

You bid four Clubs and the bidding now goes five Diamonds on your left, pass, pass to you!

You are now annoyed as you know that partner is probably void in Diamonds but that does not help you, so you either a) double or b) try six Clubs.

Let’s now take a look at the full hand:

North

SJ83

HJ1098

D98765

C6

West East

SAK SQ76542

HAKQ H75432

D432 D None

CAKQJ10 C74

South

S109

H6

DAKQJ10

C98532

First to the bidding. Should East try five Spades over five Diamonds or even a double asking you to bid a major?

Looking at the hands, seven Spades is cold while even six Hearts is in trouble on a Diamond lead. Tough hand for East.

Now to your bids. Against six Clubs North leads a Club (yes, yes I know it is cruel!) and you sidle to a one trick defeat and you are not a happy camper!

Now what about the defence against five Diamonds doubled, what do you lead?

This is a total no-brainer (at least from now on). Lead a trump. Declarer will win and lead a Club which you win and lead another trump.

He will now ruff a Club and lead a Heart which you win and lead your last trump.

Declarer is now in horrible shape and will make five Diamonds in his hand and two Club ruffs in dummy for four down and 800, and a good score for you beating all those who did not get to six Spades.

Take a look at what happens if you cash your four winners and then play a trump.

Declarer will now cross ruff the entire hand for nine tricks and only two down and 300 for you will not be great, as all those playing in four Spades will beat you.

I love trump leads, but at the right time. When opponents are sacrificing based on a lot of cards in a trump suit I lead a trump without even looking at the rest of my hand.

Where they have two suits and you have two, you have to be a bit more careful and may need to cash some winners.

I nearly always lead trump (unless there is another obvious lead) if opponents have found a secondary fit — here is a good example of when this happens. RHO opens a Spade, LHO bids 1NT, RHO bids two Hearts and it goes pass, pass, pass.

So LHO has Heart support and Spade shortness, so you must protect yours or partner’s Spade tricks by leading a trump.

I also like leading trump when I know they are in a thin game and any other lead can give something away at trick one … a hand such as xxx, AQx, K10xx, Jxxx and they are in four Spades.

I would lead a trump as another other lead can be costly.

Once in a while you will pick up Qx in partner’s hand for declarer but the benefits outweigh the dangers.

Remember, they are playing in a trump contract because they do not want to be in no trumps and that usually means they want to ruff something, so try to stop them doing that.

This sort of advice is often dangerous because there are no clear cut rules and blindly leading trumps on every hand can be costly.

Use this as food for thought, experiment a bit with trump leads and you will soon get way better at making the right decisions in defence.