BRIDGE

Lonely. heart

Andrew Robson

SOUTH cannot have envisioned making a slam after his partner had passed as dealer and then responded in his singleton. But North reckoned differently — his accurate bidding is worthy of study.

Dealer North Neither side vulnerable *A K J 6 V 10 9 6 4

• —

49 3

Q 10 9 82

47 5 42

W E

VA 03

• Q 9 6

5 4 K J 8

• K J 2 7 2 +J 7 3

+5 4 Q 108

5

• A 108 7 3 • A K 6 4

The Bidding

South

West North East

pass pass 1* pass 1V pass 2NT pass pass 24 pass pass pass pass North was correct to respond 1V — preferable to 2+ because majors should not be bypassed — and preferable to 14 because four card suits should be bid 'up the line' by responder. Over South's 24 rebid showing at least five • s and four 4s, North's hand had improved sufficiently to warrant game being bid. His 24 'fourth suit forcing' bid showed a game-going hand and asked for further information (showing nothing about 4s). South's 2NT reply showed a 4 stopper which (from North's perspective) had to be three cards headed by 40. Hence there was only room for a singleton V. The hands clearly fitted per- fectly and North's 6+ bid was far from being the wild punt it first appears.

West led 49 and declarer won 410 and led his V. West won VQ and correctly led his second 4. Winning in dummy, declarer trumped a V. cashed •A discarding dummy's third V, trumped a • and trumped the last V. He cashed 4A and 4K, trumped a third • , drew West's 4J with 4Q and took the last two tricks with dummy's winning 4s.

A neat `dummy-reversal' — if declarer had drawn trumps immediately he would have finished a trick short.