The Bridge Club is already in its summer slumber and what players have to look forward to competition-wise are the Summer Nationals in Chicago in July and for the Youth Team the World Youth Teams Championship in Salsomaggiore in August.

I’ll bring you more on the latter in my July columns and will also cover the results during the event.

I believe the players are practising hard for what will be a real learning experience as many of the players they will come up against will be hardened veterans in comparison. It should, however, be an exciting time for all concerned and will hopefully be a catalyst for youth bridge on the island.

Today’s hand is a lot easier in a bridge column that it will be at the table, as most players will think long and hard at a column hand which they know by definition is not straightforward whereas at the table they will do what they usually do — play without much thought.

Dealer South. N/S Vul Teams

North

S ? ?A9876

H ? 85

D ? A6

C ? 10863

EAST

S ? Q53

H ? A2

D ? J975

C ? QJ97

SOUTH

S ? 4

H ? KQJ1097

D ? K2

C ? AK54

The bidding:

NORTH

1S

4H

South

1H

3H

South bid well by emphasising his strong Heart suit and overall strength, as opposed to introducing the Club suit.

West led the two of Clubs, and when declarer played low from dummy, East played the 7 won by the King.

Can you see any dangers here?

The alarm bells should be ringing a bit at the play on the first trick.

Declarer now played the King of Hearts won by East’s Ace and the Queen of Clubs came back covered by the Ace and ruffed by West.

Now there was no way to avoid two further Club losers. Down one!

As I said, the alarm bells should have gone off when East played the 7 of Clubs at trick one — think about it — and there is really no distribution other than the Club 2 being a singleton.

Once declarer is clever enough to have come to that conclusion, he now has to be brave enough to make the right play and duck the Club Queen at trick three. West shows out, but now East has no good return; if he returns the Club 9, declarer plays low and West ruffs a loser, and if he plays the Club Jack, declarer covers and gets ruffed but the 10 in dummy is now good.

Either way, there are only three losers.

There is no doubt that this is an easier play at Teams than at Pairs, but once one concludes on the distribution of the Club suit, ducking the Club is the correct play in either format.

Yes, yes, I know there really is so much that we need to learn in this game.