Board 6 of the main event provided opportunities to gain from good play or good defence.
Board 6
Dealer E
S 872
H Q974
D K82
C Q52
S J54 S Q1063
H KJ6 H 52
D 10976 D J54
C AJ9 C 8763
S AK9
H A1083
D AQ3
C K104
At four of the six tables, the contract was 3NT. Usually, South opened 2NT and North raised to 3NT, recognising that, with 4333 distribution, the 4-4 major fit, if any, probably wasn’t relevant. But at one table South opened 1H, and rebid 2NT over North’s raise to 2H – so they reached 3NT knowing even better both that they had a heart fit and that the flat hand made it irrelevant. On a diamond lead, three declarers won in hand to play ace and another heart. It didn’t matter whether or not West won this trick; declarer had time to force out the CA to establish the ninth trick. However, one declarer took the wrong view by wining the diamond lead in dummy and running the HQ. After this, there were two heart losers and no way back and the contract duly went one-off.
There was greater interest at the two tables where North bid an enquiring 3C over the 2NT opener and duly raised 3H to 4H. West still led the D10 and South won in hand. David Coe, for the Royal Ashdown Forest Golf Club immediately led a small heart. Can West be blamed for not seeing the need to rise with the King? When he ducked, Coe won the HQ, returned a heart to the ace (presumably breathing more easily when they broke), then cashed his remaining winners in diamonds and spades before exiting with third round of spades. East correctly overtook the SJ with the SQ to switch to a club, but declarer had not come this far to go wrong. He played low from hand and won West’s 9 with the Q. Now a heart endplayed West; he could set up declarer’s CK or concede a ruff and discard.
At the other table where the final contract was 4H, declarer won the diamond lead and played ace and another heart. Now it was easier for West to rise with the K and exit with the third heart. Play then continued as before with diamonds and spades cashed and a spade exit overtaken by East to lead a club. At this point, the contract can still be made double-dummy – South puts up the CK and West has to lead into the split tenace in clubs (or concede a ruff and discard) – but this is far from clear and South can hardly be blamed for hopefully finessing the C10 and duly going one-off.
Since the match in which 3NT went off was the one in which 4H also went off, the total swing on this board across three matches was just 20 points (4H making 420 vs 3NT making 400 in the Plate final).