Another column starts by announcing the departure of a valuable and popular Bridge Club member as Annelies Scheland is moving to England after a long association with the club. She signs off on a real high after her great success in the Worldwide Pairs with Heather Woolf and she will be missed greatly on every level — Annelies, bon voyage !

A reminder that the Friday games start next week so put that in your diary. And before I get to the hand congratulations to Richard Keane and Delton Outerbridge who recorded a plus 70 per cent game on August the 18 with an excellent 72.78 per cent score – well done!

One of the keys to successful declarer play is recognising when to give the defenders the lead so that they can help you out — and they will do that often, sometimes through bad defence but often because they have no choice … today’s hand falls into the second category. The hand is the simplest example of a straightforward elimination play but it turns up so often that I make no apologies for putting hands like this in the column, as knowing how to handle them will yield bushels of points over the years.

Board 3. E/W Vul. Dealer South.

NORTH

S 874

H K874

D J92

C KJ10

WEST

S QJ10

H 10 3

D A753

C 8762

EAST

S 9652

H 652

D K108

C 543

SOUTH

S AK3

H AQJ9

D Q64

C AQ9

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

2?

Pass 2? Pass 2NT

Pass 3? Pass 3?

Pass 4?

I am not sure I would have looked for a major suit fit with North’s shapeless wonder and as you can see there are 9 easy tricks available in 3NT … on a likely spade lead however, declarer will probably only make +400 so our current declarer has a chance to be a hero and grab +420!

West led a spade and declarer has to recognise two things … there is one unavoidable spade loser so the diamond losers must be restricted to two.

Some players will draw trumps and try a diamond to the 9 hoping West has the 10 but this results in a one trick defeat.

The correct line of play is in fact very easy … win the spade, draw trumps, cash the clubs (essential ) and play the other top spade and then exit with the losing spade, leaving this position:

NORTH

S NONE

H 8

D J92

C NONE

WEST

S NONE

H NONE

D A75

C 8

EAST

S 9

H NONE

D K108

C NONE

SOUTH

S NONE

H Q

D Q64

C NONE

No matter which defender wins this they either have to open up the diamonds in which case declarer cannot lose more than two, or provide a ruff and discard allowing a diamond to be thrown away … either way it is plus 420!

Take a good look at this hand.

Notice the need to cash all the side suit winners to leave the opponents with no safe exit cards, and that is the key to this play.

Also really important is recognising the absolutely unavoidable spade loser and using that as an exit card to get the defenders on lead.

Bet you now can’t wait to get to the table …!