This
was the penultimate deal in the Manchester Congress
Pairs.
Rodney
Lighton (South) and John Currie (North) played
Michael Byrne (West) and Kay Preddy (East).
These two pairs had been leading the competition
from an early stage with Michael and Kay having a
small lead going into the final round.
Rodney
reached three notrump on the above deal, a contract
that looks fairly precarious. Michael led a
heart to the jack and queen, Rodney played a club to
the jack and the spade ten to the queen and ace
followed by a second spade which Michael
ducked. Rodney now erred by playing the club
king. Michael could have won this and returned
a club to beat the contract, but he ducked
again. Declarer now cashed the top diamonds
and exited with a club. Michael won and cashed
his club winner before returning a heart. At
this point declarer held the ace and ten of heart
and two spades. He won the heart (his eighth
trick) and, happy to make his contract, cashed the
heart ace. However, he should have played a
spade after winning the heart ten which would have
given him an overtirck and an extra twelve
matchpoints. This would have been enough to
win the pairs event and leave Kay and Michael as
winners of the Mixed Pairs (the only major
Manchester event that Michael has not won).
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