Three pairs reached game on the East-West cards, West opening 1NT, North overcalling 2 or 2 to show both majors, and East ending the auction with 3NT.

Martin Garvey (Young Chelsea Champions) led the K and John Matheson (President’s Team) won the second round, South showing an odd number. Declarer cashed two diamonds and North followed twice. Matheson now knew that North had at most two clubs and that South was a strong favourite to hold the Q. He lacked the diamond entries to be able to play South for Q9xx, so had to decide whether to play for North for 9x or Qx. He realised that by choosing the latter he would also gain whenever North held Q9. That was just enough to tip the odds in favour of playing the ace of clubs and then small to the king.

The other two declarers in 3NT played for North to hold 9x, finessed South for the Q and were three down. One of the unsuccessful declarers was Zia, playing for the All Stars against The A Team. The clues from the defence were different in that North had led A and then switched to the K and J. Zia reasoned that North might just have doubled 1NT if he had held the Q as well as all those points in the majors, or that South (holding Q9xx) might not cover the 10 when it was led from dummy.