Bridge

Revenge is sweet - especially after a gap of some 20 years. In a Gold Cup match in the Seventies, I had fallen into a little trap set by an opponent and the memory had rankled ever since. To my delight, here was the very same opponent, this time as declarer, in a recent match.

South opened One No-trump (15-17 points) and North, judging that nine tricks might well be easier than ten, concealed his spade suit and raised directly to Three No-trumps. As you can see, both Three No-trumps and Four Spades are perfectly straightforward.

This left my partner, as West, on lead. Neither four-card suit in an entryless hand looked attractive and, bearing in mind that North had not invoked Stayman, West chose 2J in an attempt to find my long suit. Declarer won in dummy and I dropped 2Q. This suddenly created a losing option for South for it was quite possible that West had chosen 2J from 2J,10,4. I held my breath as declarer came back to hand with a heart and ran 29 to my ten, thus converting nine tricks into eight. It was, I suppose, a good example of "playing the card you are known to hold".

My cup of happiness was filled when, three boards later, declarer played a suit of 10,8,6,4 in dummy with A,K,9,7,5 in hand. He led the ten and I covered with the jack from J,2.

Confident that lightning would not strike twice in the same place, declarer later finessed against my assumed queen and again lost a curious trick.