Trick 1

Last night was the final Buchanan Lockdown Teams, as the club now has proper pair's evenings organised. I played with Ted, and our team won 36-7. Of the seven IMPs we lost, six were on the board below:

I open 1♦ and rebid 2NT showing 18-19. Ted bid Checkback Stayman to check for a fifth Heart, and we finished in 3NT. North lead the ♣5.

I have a certain two stops in Clubs. Given time I have plenty of further tricks, likely four Diamonds, two Hearts and a Spade to get me to nine. The problem is I'm missing three Aces, so the defence have plenty of time to set up their Clubs.

On trick one I played the ♣2 from dummy, South the ♣9 and I won in hand with the ♣J. I've still got one Club stopper, but that's not enough. I forced out the Heart Ace, lost my last Club stopper, forced out the Diamond Ace, then South did well to play a Spade across to North, to cash a few more Clubs. In the end I lost three Clubs and three other Aces.

If I play the ♣Q on the first trick it holds. Now my remaining ♣AJ is worth two more stoppers, if I lose the lead to South. As it happens South has the Aces in both the suits I'm going to play, so I'm still down.

My play of the ♣2 on the first trick would only gain if North had lead away from ♣T9xxx, which is much less likely.

The other table played 2NT and made it.