Bridge

It has been said, a little unkindly, of Over Your Shoulder, Learn From The Experts, by Tony Forrester and Brian Senior (Batsford, £8.99, pp144), that the title is nearly as long as the book, but, to be fair, although only a limited number of hands are discussed, they are analysed exhaustively from the point of view of all four players in an extremely helpful fashion. Today's hand was one of the ancillary deals that struck me as worth noting.

South opened One Club, North responded One Heart and raised his partner's rebid of One Spade to Two Spades. South went on to game and against Four Spades, West led the two of clubs - obviously a singleton.

Love all; dealer South

North

4 Q 5 4 3

! Q 10 8 2

pounds Q 4

2 7 5 4

West East

4 J 2 4 A 10 8

! J 9 6 4 3 ! K 7 5

pounds K J 7 6 3 pounds 9 8

2 2 2 Q 10 9 8 6

South

4 K 9 7 6

! A

pounds A 10 5 2

2 A K J 3

After the opening lead, the play seemed deceptively routine - declarer won and led a low diamond from hand. West took his king and returned a diamond to dummy's queen. A low trump from dummy then went to the eight, king and two and, when South led a second trump, he allowed West's jack to win.

Now it was all over - East could not overtake without sacrificing his second trump trick - and finally all that was needed was a simple cross- ruff to produce 10 tricks.

The author's winning tip was "Unblock useless honours". Do you see the point? If West drops his jack under the king on the first round of trumps, declarer is finished. Leading another trump would allow East to win and play a third round, leaving South a trick short. And failing to lead a second round of trumps would mean that West will score a club ruff with his two of spades.