My new team of youngsters have been having a tough time in Division 5 of the SBU Bronze League, losing all their matches rather heavily. On more or less every game hand they lose about 10 IMPs. However, this was a rare triumph that made me very proud.
The more experienced neevie14 was substituting in and found herself declarer in 3NT on the hand below (we have more trouble with the play than the bidding).
East led a Heart and declarer had a think. It looks obvious to develop the Clubs, coming to 2 Spades, 5 Clubs and 2 Hearts. And you do have just enough time to develop the Clubs before your Heart stoppers are gone. But what if the defence duck the Clubs? If on the opening lead you make the instinctive second hand low play of a low Heart from dummy, winning the Ace in hand, you could be forever stranded from those Clubs. What did neevie do?
I'm delighted to say she rose with the ♥K, knocked out the ♣A, and collected nine tricks. Bravo - a great hand for advance planning.
On the other table 3NT was played by South, and the defence was not as challenging resulting in 3NT+2 and a loss of 2 IMPs. But we'll take that.
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