Teammates on fire

Playing in the regional Swiss today, our teammates were on fire. How good were they?

Try bidding out East-West hands. Can you now find the small slam in clubs?

.

Board: 

Vul: E-W

Dlr: West

N

North

♠

Kxx

♥

QJTxx

♦

K10xx

♣

x

.

W

West

♠

Qxx

♥

x

♦

A52

♣

AJx xxx

Lead: ♥Q

E

East

♠

Axxx

♥

AKx

♦

QJxx

♣

KQ

.

S

South

♠

Jxxx

♥

xxxx

♦

xx

♣

xxx

.

And having found the small slam, can you bring it home? What is your line?

The solution that our team-mate found at the table was to realize that he could make on 3-3 diamonds and that a squeeze position existed if the defender with the king of spades also had 4 diamonds. So, he combined the two chances and took the losing diamond finesse, thus rectifying the count. Then, he played clubs from hand until he reached this end position:

.

Board: 16

Vul: E-W

Dlr: West

N

North

♠

Kx

♥

—

♦

109

♣

—

.

W

West

♠

Qx

♥

—

♦

x

♣

A

Lead: ♥4

E

East

♠

Ax

♥

—

♦

Jx

♣

—

.

S

South

♠

—

♥

—

♦

—

♣

—

.

On the A of clubs, North is squeezed.  Pretty good, eh, for someone who's been playing only a couple of years?  (With the calmness of hindsight, simply leading twice to the QJ would also have worked, but that is a boring line!)

Unfortunately, we ran into a team of former partners and team-mates on the last round. It was "Norman A" vs. "Norman B". After 7 boards, the match was tied.  Since we were leading going in, a tie would have won us the tournament.  But ... on the hand that matters, we were both in 3NT. It came down to a guess of hearts. I was declarer; I guessed wrong; the opponents guessed right. And that was the match.  So, 8 gold points instead of 11 on a stupid guess.  My mishap, although I don't think I would guess any differently the second time. It just so happened that the same defender had both missing aces this time ...

Still, if you'd told me that my first-time partnership and our team (the sum of whose points is under 600) would land up second in the Swiss, I'd have been thrilled.  And so, I am!