Suspecting Stuart might have a singleton heart and a quick trump entry, I thought about leading ©6. Unfortunately, worried about spades disappearing on ¨AK, I changed my mind and led ªA. Stuart now had a difficult decision as regards which spade to play - should he encourage a spade continuation (with a high spade), or should he discourage and hope for a heart ruff at trick two? Stuart decided that Michelle would probably pick up his trump holding for no losers following the ruff, and I might give away a natural heart trick by my switch, so he chose to encourage a spade continuation to force declarer. This works well if I have a heart stop - but I didn't, so declarer now made easily. Since there is only one (diamond) entry to dummy, declarer cannot pick up the trump suit, so a heart switch from me at trick two would have defeated the contract.

At the other table we gained 200 from defending 5ª doubled.

Holding 4 spades and 6 hearts, Boris decided against opening a weak two with the South hand, but John Armstrong surprised his partner by overcalling Stephen's Precision club with a four card heart suit. I gave a positive response (8+ hcp) in diamonds. At his next turn, Stephen wasn't sure whether to double 4© or bid 5¨, so he found the master bid of 4¨. When opponents bid 4© again, he would double to get both bids in! Unfortunately, John spoilt the plan by refusing to accept the insufficient 4¨ bid, so Stephen corrected to 5¨. (I'm only joking of course - 4¨ was just an honest mistake ..... "honest".) With Stephen marked as having predominant values in the black suits, I felt sure the slam would be odds-on.

In the other room Stuart didn't let 4 spades stop him opening the South hand with a multi 2¨ - he hates using those horrible little green cards. The opponents then had a catastrophic bidding misunderstanding involving Lebensohl, and landed in 3NT with the East-West cards. Stuart and Marian cashed 6 heart tricks to collect a much needed 200.

I thought for a long time (as always, some would say!) about whether to move over 4NT. I could imagine several West hands where the slam would make - e.g. ªKQ and ¨KQx, with ¨KJx reducing chances to a finesse, and ªKQxx with ©Kx giving me chances on a heart lead. If the clubs fail to run then we might not even make 4NT, so I felt on balance that I should bid the slam - but dummy was not the perfect fit.

Boris led ©3, and John's ©Q forced my Ace. I cashed AK of clubs and then §J, with South discarding the 6, 4 and then 2 of diamonds (the card says they play natural discards). This convinced me that South held ¨K. I led dummy's last heart, and North won with ©K (South playing ©8). But now John returned ª10!

To exit with a spade, North must hold ¨K. South's discards mark him with at least 6 diamonds, and his failure to bid ©4 over 3NT (holding a club void) hints that he has only 3 hearts. So I placed North with a 2-6-2-3 shape. (he could have been 3-6-1-3, but I confess that I didn't consider that!). But has he led from ª10 9 or ª10 x ? I decided that he would lead the 10 from either holding, and therefore I would play the percentages (there are 3 x's to one 9). So I played ªJ, covered by the King and Ace, and returned to hand to finesse the 8. But that was wrong.

First note that the most popular contract would probably be 3NT by South, but this is doomed after ¨J lead - provided West realises he must play his partner for the Ace of Spades.

At our table, I (South) played in five clubs (after opening a Precision one club), and received the Jack of Spades lead. Fearing this was a singleton, I played small from dummy. John Holland did well to snatch ªA and switched to ©2. Now I can make if I play for West having J9 doubleton in spades, but I tried the heart finesse and Boris Ewart cashed ¨A to defeat the contract. Note that if John ducks the spade then I can pull trumps and attack diamonds. Suppose West takes his Ace and returns a diamond. I ruff in dummy and lead ªK. Now the heart switch from East is too late - I cash my diamond and unblock ª10, so I can throw two hearts on the 8 and 6 of spades! Another hand where the spade pips are critical.

Of course, had I played ªK (or even ª10!) at trick one I would have made the contract - the defenders cannot get two red suit tricks in time.

At the other table, John Armstrong played in 4 hearts (©1 - ©2 - ©4), and again the defence had to be on the ball. Stuart led ªJ, and John quickly covered with the King. Martin (East) ducked smoothly - the bidding implies that South will not have 5 spades - and now nothing can stop Stuart getting his spade ruff to defeat the contract.