BRIDGE
Establishment
Andrew Robson
FOR over a decade the two strongest counties in British bridge have consistently been London and Kent. This year's Tollemache — the County Championship — all boiled down to the following hand, a potential Grand Slam.
Dealer South North-South vulnerable 4 A Q 7 6
♦ A K 107 3 • A 9 4 +3
49 8 4
♦ J 2 • Q 107 6 K Q 9 5
4 10 VQ 9 +.1 8 +J 6
6 4 3 2 5 2
W
N
E
4K J 5 3 2 V8' 5
• K # A 108 7 4 South West North East
14 pass 3V pass 4+ pass 4NT pass 54 pass 5NT pass 611 pass 74 pass pass pass How would you play 74 on the lead by West of 44? It looks tempting to establish dummy's Vs, and this was the line adopted by London's David Price. He won the 4 lead with 4J in hand and played a V to dummy's king, cashed VA and trumped a third with 4K. He led a second round of trumps to dummy and would have claimed his contract if the trumps had split 2-2. When East discarded, he was forced to draw a third round of trumps. He trumped the fourth V with his last trump, cashed • K and +A. He trumped a +, cashed the fifth • but was forced to concede a • at the end. Price is one of Britain's finest technicians and it had taken a combination of bad splits in both Vs and trumps to defeat him. In my opinion, however, there is a marginally better line available which relies on establishing declarer's 4s. Win the opening lead with dummy's 4A. Lead to South's +A and trump a 4. Cross to • K and trump another 4. Trump a • and ruff the fourth round of +s with dummy's last trump, the queen. Now comes the exciting but essential move: trump dummy's •A. Draw West's two remaining trumps, cash the established fifth 4 and lead to dummy's two top Vs. And so Kent won the Tollemache Trophy.
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