"The bidding is 1D - 1S - 2C - 2H - 3D - 6NT (NS Vul). Bird leads CJ. I won in hand and played three rounds of diamonds, discarding a spade - West has QJx. He exits with a second club to dummy. On the 4th round of diamonds,
East (Lee) throws a small spade, S and W throw hearts. On the 5th D, East throws a small heart. Over to you ....."

........ CONCLUSION .............

The auction was similar in both rooms. North opened 1¨ and South responded 1ª. When North rebid 2§, both Souths continued with 2© (4th suit forcing). At our table, North continued with 3¨ and then South, unable to think of
anything better to do, simply punted 6NT. Not one of my more scientific bids, I have to admit!

West (David Bird) led §J against 6NT. I won in hand with the Ace and played three rounds of diamonds from the top. West, who'd started with ¨QJ7, won the 3rd round (while I discarded a spade) and pushed back another club.

I was forced to win this in dummy (otherwise I will be stuck in hand). When I now led one of the established diamonds, East (Stephen Lee, the former Oxford University player) casually discarded ª3 while South and West off-loaded hearts. What do you make of that spade discard and (without looking at the EW cards) how do you plan to make the contract from here?

The two most obvious options are to pin all your hopes on the entire spade suit coming in for no losers or to try for successful finesses in both major suits. East's early spade discard did not look like good news. Surely he would not do so from ªQxxx, ªQxx or even ªxxxx? It would be much safer from (say) ªQxxxx or ªxx.

Hoping that he had something like a 5-3-3-2 or 5-2-3-3 shape with ªQ and ©K, I continued with dummy's last diamond. As expected, East now threw a heart. Decision time. In the end I decided to play for extra tricks in both majors, so I parted with a spade. West also pitched a heart. When I ran the ©Q, West produced the King and I was one down.

Alas, East had ªQ963 all along and his misguided discard had meant that I could have made 6NT without recourse to the heart finesse, simply by taking the spade finesse and making four tricks in the suit.

My poor view did indeed cost us the match. In the other room, after 1¨ - 1ª - 2§ - 2©, North (Julian Pottage) opted for a rebid of 2NT. South raised to 6NT and East (Denis Talbot) led a small spade. Pottage successfully finessed the Jack and played on diamonds. When West (Kathy Talbot) won the third diamond, she judged brilliantly to return ª10. Declarer tested the spades and, when they did not break, resorted to the heart finesse. One off as well, but his team hung on to win narrowly. If I'd made 6NT we would have won. If I'd simply bid 3NT instead, we'd have tied.

Note that if Kathy had not pushed back a second spade but exited with a club instead, declarer's percentage line would have been to cash ©A before playing off all his minor suit winners. On the last one, East will be squeezed in the black suits. It would also work if he'd had ©K instead of §10. But the spade return cut the communications for the squeeze. In fact, Bird's club continuation had the same effect. Both Wests defended very well!