ETCETERA BRIDGE

AMONG the teams participating in the Lederer Memorial Trophy next weekend will be the national teams of Turkey and Ireland and the British Juniors team - current holders of the World title. They will be joined by many of Britain's top ranking players and there should be plenty of good bridge. This was a deal from the 1973 event.

One East lost 1,100 points in Three Spades doubled but at most tables, after South's opening bid of One Heart, North forced to game with Two Spades. Now East was not tempted to take any action and North-South had an easy run to Six Hearts. There was nothing to the play when West chose a minor suit lead but twice he tried his singleton spade. One East won dummy jack with his queen and, perhaps a little naively, returned a low spade. Declarer studied this for a long, long time but eventually came to the right decision when he ruffed high and relied on a 1-1 trump break. (Perhaps East had thought for some while over North's spade bid?)

The other East made life much, much harder for declarer. He had no trouble in reading the lead as a singleton, so he won the jack with his ace, not the queen, playing back a spade. Can you really blame South for discarding?

East-West game: dealer South

North

] K J 9 8

_ 10 7 5 4 2

+ A K

[ K Q

West East

] 4 ] A Q 10 6 5 3 2

_ J _ Q 10 9

+ J 9 7 6 4 2 + 8 5 3

[ 9 7 5 4 2 [ 10 8

South

] 7

_ A K 9 8 6 3

+ Q 10

[ A J 6 3