I love today’s hand, which ended up being a battle between an expert declarer and a super expert defender - I’ll let you enjoy watching it.

At the heart of it all, no pun intended, is simply the ability to count points and recreate declarer’s hand - and then defend accordingly. And for declarer the key was to stay awake, stay alert and plan the play trick by trick.

The bidding was not great, but the final contract was a good one – South’s opening showed 20 to 22 points and North transferred to spades. South’s four-spade jump was a vast overbid with only 20 points and a balanced hand – anyway, partner checked for Aces and bid the slam and now South had to make it.

West led the Queen of clubs and when dummy came down with 12 points added to his 8, West quickly saw that declarer had to have every other honour in the deck including the two red Jacks! With that as a hint, now follow the play and pay attention to the spot cards.

Declarer took the opening in hand with the Ace and drew trumps in three rounds.

After crossing to dummy with a club to the King, which eliminated the suit, declarer led the five of hearts to his Queen.

West, however, based on his early hand reconstruction, was ready for this play and he followed low smoothly because he knew that he would be end-played into leading a red suit or conceding a ruff-and-discard for declarer’s twelfth trick. This was the best defence, hoping to draw an error from the declarer.

After the Queen of hearts held, declarer led the two of diamonds to dummy’s King to lead another heart from dummy.

After East followed with a low heart, declarer was about to play his Jack when he paused to consider the merits of doing so.

If that finesse won, there were chances for an overtrick. Declarer now asked himself when that play would lose and he realised it would scuttle the contract when West began with K107x (and this West was good enough to have started with this and ducked the Queen of hearts).

In that eventuality, West would take the Jack of hearts with his King and exit safely with the ten – leaving declarer needing a successful finesse in diamonds for his twelfth trick - declarer didn’t fancy that possibility!

Instead, he saw that the way to guarantee the contract was to play his two of hearts, rather than the Jack, on the eight. West now won the trick with the ten and was caught in the end-play he had done his best to avoid, and declarer claimed his contract.

Great play and thinking by declarer, who got the better of a superb play on this left – the sort of hand you live for at the table .

• David Ezekiel can be reached at davidezekiel999@gmail.com

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, April 10

1 Betsy Baillie/Heather Woolf

2 Jane Smith/Sancia Garrison

3 Allyson Eadie/Aida Bostelmann

Monday, April 13

North/South

1 Elizabeth McKee/Margaret Way

2 Stephanie Kyme/Magda Farag

3 Elysa Burland/Aida Bostelmann

East/West

1 Gertrude Barker/Caitlin Conyers

2 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

3 Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

Tuesday, April 14

North/South

1 Ross Cooper/Patrick Cooper

2 Stuart Clare/Sarah Bowers

3 Felicity Lund/Linda Manders

East/West

1 Veronica Boyce/Carol Eastham

2 Andy McComb/Jaques Bonneau

3 Vivian Pereira/Jean Schilling

Wednesday, April 15

1 Louise Rodger/Margaret Way

2 Charles Hall/Molly Taussig

3 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

Thursday, April 16

1 Linda Pollett/William Pollett

2 Hee-Juah Moon/Kristen Svenson

3 Charles Hall/Stephanie Kyme