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NC opened 1♠, not my choice but I think on 4-4-4-1 hands anything goes really. JW replied 2♦, as in the local system there's no minimum points needed to respond at the 2 level. NC then rebid 2♥, and JW gave preference with 2♠. It could have ended there, but South made a little prod towards game with 3♠, and North couldn't resist.
West found the good lead of a trump. Although it's only a 4-3 fit, 4♠ isn't bad. It's certainly better than 3NT, which is where me and Anna would be (1♥-1NT;3NT). In 4♠ the only immediate losers are one Club and One Heart, with maybe a trump to come. There's two ways to play it. You either give up on trump control, and try and make the hand on a cross-ruff, which is going to be tough after a trump lead, but with this favourable layout might just work. The alternative, which NC went for, is to set up the Diamonds.
He won the Spade lead, and cashed the ♦A. I was sitting East. Whenever declarer quickly cashes an honour then thinks about what to do it's obvious it's a singleton, so in defence I knew that his ♦A was his only Diamond. Declarer then played ♣A and ruffed a club in dummy. He then shrewdly lead the ♦T, and discarded a Club from hand. He can afford this extra loser, but can't afford to start ruffing in hand, as he'll lose trump control. West won the Diamond and played another Club, ruffed in dummy. The Diamond's in dummy are now good, and I can see that if declarer can draw the last two trumps and get back there he's home. Fortunately, for the defence, West had the ♥A, so when declarer played a Heart West could win and play a Club. Since there were now no trumps in dummy I was able to win this with my ♣K and play another Club. Declarer had to ruff this, and then try and draw trumps. Unfortunately for him, the trumps didn't split, so the defence came to a fourth trick. In total we got one trick in each suit.
4♠-1. A good effort, especially seeing as NC was playing today without any carrots.
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