There was a time when it was all pretty simple at the Bridge Club ... all duplicate games were in the evenings with the Open events on Monday/Friday nights and the Juniors on Wednesday nights.

All that has changed as the club tries to cope with an ageing membership and a change in social habits where people are not as ready to give up a full evening away from family, etc as readily as they were a few years ago.

As such the club is experimenting, rightly so, with different game times, etc in order to find something approaching an optimal solution.

One new experiment is starting the evening games at 6.30pm commencing May 9 ... I think this might work but the change has taken a few people by surprise and for that reason the Non-Life Master Pairs scheduled for May 11 and 18 has been postponed to a future date yet to be determined, so make a note of that! I’ll keep you advised as all these changes play out.

Today’s hand can be described as “simple”, but I guarantee you that 90 per cent of declarers at the club will get it wrong!

Dealer South Both Vul

S J53

H 832

D AK32

C 654

S AKQ108

H A6

D 85

C AKQ10

The bidding was over quickly — South opened a strong 2 Clubs, North bid a “waiting” 2 Diamonds, South bid 2 Spades and North made the nice bid of 3 Spades showing support and some good cards without which he would have jumped to 4 Spades — Bad hand Fast arrival, Good hand Slow arrival.

South now made the very practical bid of 6 Spades and West led the Heart King — over to you!

The slam is dependent on the Club suit and if Clubs are either 3-3 or the Jack comes down the hand makes, losing just a Heart. So, the 90 per cent of declarers win the Heart, draw trumps and play out all their winners in some sort of phantom squeeze and eventually play the Club suit.

Down one! Here is the full hand

N

S J53

H 832

D AK32

C 654

E

S 74

H J754

D QJ1064

C 87

S

S AKQ108

H A6

D 85

C AKQ10

W

S 962

H KQ109

D 97

C J932

The correct play needs a little bit of bravery and is actually a case of “go down now or go down later”!

Declarer should draw just 2 rounds of trumps before testing the Clubs — when the Ace and the King do not produce the Jack declarer must cash the third club!

If Clubs are 3-3 all is well and declarer can draw the last trump and claim ... if, however they are 4-2 and the hand with the four Clubs also has the last Spade, as above, declarer can now ruff the 4th Club in dummy and claim 12 tricks!

And what if the third round of Clubs is ruffed?

Well, you were going down anyway, just a little later in the hand!

Take a good look at this hand because this is a recurring play in bridge.