Bridge

North-South did not shine in the bidding on this deal but South made amends in the play when he set a simple trap into which West, rather naively, fell.

North opened One Diamond, South responded One Heart, and West overcalled with One Spade. Hoping to suggest the minimum nature of his opening bid, North passed and East's raise to Two Spades left South with little room to manoeuvre. He tried Three Spades and, with a sure guard in the opponents' suit, North bid Three No-trumps. All would have been well if South had passed (there were 10 top tricks in no-trumps) but, misjudging the situation, he persisted with Four Hearts which North passed uncomfortably.

West led the queen of spades against Four Hearts and, when this was allowed to hold, continued the suit. Declarer won with the ace, ruffed a spade in hand, and played off the ace, king and another heart. He chose the three discards from dummy well, parting first with two diamonds and then a club.

This left West on lead and, having seen two diamonds thrown early from dummy, he formed the firm but mistaken impression that his partner had the suit covered. Of all things, he switched to the 10 of diamonds! (Even a fourth round of spades would have been enough to defeat the contract, if he was reluctant to lead clubs.) With considerable relief, South won in hand with his king and drove out the last missing trump. Finally West tried clubs but now it was all too late and South's remaining losers went away on the diamonds.