When Rita Oldroyd died, Great Britain lost one of the backbones of their women’s team through the 1970s. Her team won two European Championships and a silver at the World Championships. She was also England’s first woman Grand Master.

Although she was almost blind toward the end of her life, she won a big pairs event two weeks before her death, and the Las Palmas pairs in the Canary Islands shortly before that.

Oldroyd was both an outspoken and entertaining character, never afraid to speak her mind, but capable of subtle and sophisticated play, as shown in today’s deal from a teams event.

Where Oldroyd’s teammates were East-West, their opponents reached three no-trump on a diamond lead. Declarer ducked twice, took the third, cashed the heart king, then played the club ace and king. When the queen failed to drop, South could not afford to cash dummy’s heart ace, so played a third club, stranding the winner in dummy. West won, cashed the last diamond, then got off lead with a spade, and declarer had to go one down.

In the other room, Oldroyd was partnering Alan Hiron, and they also reached three no-trump. After the same opening lead, Oldroyd also won the third diamond and cashed her heart king, but then played the ace, followed by a low club.

She had set up the game-going tricks, but, unlike the other declarer, was able to access her winners, since she had a club entry to dummy and spade entries to hand that could not be disrupted.

In today’s deal, South initially decided to play for penalties against one heart, but West naturally introduced his spades. North might have complete with a call of two clubs, but he was not enthusiastic about his wasted major-suit honors. However, South had enough to balance into clubs, and when West repeated his spades, North produced a strong raise, after which South could not reasonably stay out of game.

If West had led the spade ace and given his partner a ruff, declarer would have gone down, but the heart opening lead seemed more obvious. When dummy won the first trick with the heart queen, South took a little time before making the obvious move of playing on trump.

East’s double could have been based simply on a diamond stack, but what if he had a singleton spade? It could cost virtually nothing to take precautions. Accordingly, declarer cashed the diamond ace (since surely nobody could have a diamond void) and ruffed a diamond to get to his hand. Then he led the heart ace, planning to discard a spade from dummy.

West sensibly ruffed in, and dummy had to overruff. South returned to his hand again by ruffing a diamond and led the heart king. West could not trump this, so dummy was able to discard a spade. Now nothing could set the contract.

If declarer had carelessly led trumps at the second trick, East would have put up the club ace, led to the spade ace, and then ruffed a spade to defeat the game.

South elects to rebid one no-trump over one heart, since if he rebids one spade it would tend to suggest real clubs. North no longer has any interest in a grand slam. His jump to five no-trump offers a choice of slam, and South can see no advantage in playing hearts as opposed to no-trump, so he re-raises to six no-trump.

After West leads the spade jack, South starts by counting his tricks. He expects to win two spades, three diamonds and three clubs. This means that he needs only four heart tricks to make the slam.

South can almost guarantee his slam if he plays the hearts correctly. He wins the first trick with the spade king and leads a heart to dummy’s king. The next step is to return a low heart from dummy.

The logic here is that South does not mind surrendering a heart trick to the doubleton queen. After all, four heart tricks will be enough to bring home the slam. But South’s real concern is to guard against a bad break in hearts. His chosen line is safe, no matter which opponent may have started with four hearts to the Q-10.

When East discards a spade, South plays the jack and West wins his queen. South can win the next trick with the spade ace and take the proven finesse in hearts against West.

Note that if East had the length in hearts, he would not be able to stop South’s heart jack from winning a trick sooner or later. Either way, therefore, South has guaranteed the success of the slam.

At both tables in a local teams match, South declared three no-trump, and each West led a fourth-highest spade, the two. The first declarer took the trick with the spade king and played the ace, king and another diamond. West won the trick with the diamond 10 and cashed the diamond queen, East discarding a low heart and a low club.

Declarer took West’s exit of the spade queen with the king, then cashed the club queen, ace and king. Next, he led the heart two toward his hand. East played low, and declarer’s heart queen won the trick. Alas, with only king-six-four of hearts left, declarer was endplayed to lead hearts from his hand, and he lost the last three tricks to finish down one.

At the other table, declarer counted seven top tricks, with another available in hearts. He judged that the best chance of making the contract was to play West for the heart jack.

Accordingly, this declarer ducked the first trick, won the second spade and led a low heart at trick two. West rose with the heart jack and played the spade queen. Declarer took this with the ace and continued with the heart six. Dummy’s 10 forced East’s ace and declarer claimed nine tricks: two spades, two hearts, two diamonds and three clubs.

Had the first heart lost to East’s jack, he would not have had a spade to lead, and at worst declarer would have been able to use his club entry to dummy to pick up an original ace-jack-third of hearts in East.

For anyone who hasn’t already wasted far too much of his or her life wondering why Deep Finesse (a program that analyzes bridge hands) never makes a mistake, some of its conclusions can initially be jaw-dropping. What do you think is par for North-South on this deal from the second qualifying session of last November’s Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs? A quick check of losers suggests that it should be easy to score plus 110 in diamonds, clubs or a major-suit part-score — or plus 400 in three no-trump.

Nothing, however, is ever as easy as it looks. Sure, there are nine tricks (five diamonds, three hearts and a spade or a club), but try taking them on the Garozzo play — an opening diamond lead to disrupt the communications. If you win the diamond ace and cash the hearts, the defenders will have a heart and four black-suit winners to cash.

If you win the diamond ace and play a club, planning to unblock the high clubs from dummy to create a low-club entry to hand, then West plays low, and East takes the club queen and can exit with anything but a spade. When declarer plays a second club, West wins and shifts to a spade. Declarer puts up the spade king, and East plays low. Now declarer is locked in dummy to lead a black card, and the defenders can cash out.

The same basic variations apply if declarer wins the diamond king at trick one to play a high club. West wins to play a spade, East plays low and declarer cannot unscramble his tricks.

The field reached three no-trump or four hearts on this deal from the first qualifying session of last fall’s Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs, and both contracts offered interesting play on a spade lead.

In three no-trump, after the lead of the spade six to the seven, jack and king, one declarer tried a diamond to the queen after cashing the heart ace. East won and shifted to the club jack, and that meant 10 tricks for declarer.

Let’s say you play four hearts after the same start. When you put in the spade seven, East can lead you astray by playing the spade queen. Now declarer will surely draw trumps, then finesse against the spade jack and go down without a struggle.

But if South avoids that trap, he will strip out the spades and trumps, then lead a diamond toward one honor or the other. Whether he leads a diamond toward the king or queen, West will have to unblock his jack early on to let East win the third diamond and shift to clubs.

Whichever club is chosen, South must decide whether East started with J-10-2, J-8-2 or 10-8-2. So if East shifts to the two, declarer should put in the seven, unsuccessfully, because that caters to two of the three positions.

If East shifts to the club jack or 10, should South play him for both honors? Probably yes, because shifting to an unsupported honor might give declarer a winning option when none would have existed on a shift to a low card.

At last year’s Nail Life Master Open Pairs, the combination of a bad trump break and a 4-2 spade break meant that West could have defeated three hearts with the lead of a club. However, Agustin Madala made the natural lead of the diamond jack, and Francisco Bernal made a nice play when he ducked this as East.

Declarer won, drew three rounds of trumps, and played a spade. Bernal took the spade king and shifted to a low club. When declarer played low, Madala could win and revert to spades, letting Bernal cash out for down one and a decent score.

At the next table, Andrew Russell and Ranald Davidson held the North-South cards and gave their opponents a much harder task after stopping in two hearts. Here, too, East ducked his diamond ace at trick one. Declarer, however, won, played the heart queen and a second heart, then led a diamond from dummy. East had to take his ace, but what now? He cashed both spades before they got away, but now declarer could pitch dummy’s clubs on the spade and diamond winners, to register plus 140.

A better line is for East to shift to clubs before cashing a second top spade (he can take one spade if he likes), but he must play the club queen. If East plays the low club, South takes the ace, pitches a spade on the diamond king, ruffs a spade, and lets East win the club queen. Now a trump is fatal, and a high or low spade will see declarer get rid of dummy’s remaining club loser, one way or another.

In the daily bulletin from the North American Bridge Championships last year, a tongue-in-cheek article appeared in which the author commented that the late Rixi Markus had penned a volume titled, “Bid Boldly, Play Safe.” By contrast, Marty Fleisher, who was fresh off his world title in Lyon, had jokingly suggested that if ever he wrote an autobiography, he would title it “Bid Boldly, Play Like a Lunatic.” He suggested that this deal, from the first semifinal session of the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs, would be a candidate for the title page.

Here, Fleisher, playing with Chip Martel, managed to bid the spots off his cards and then had to justify his approach after a top heart lead. He ruffed, then decided West was favored to hold the singleton spade king, so he laid down the ace. It turned out that he had the wrong idea, but it is results that count. The king duly put in an appearance, albeit from an unexpected quarter.

Since Fleisher still had all his entries to dummy, he could cross to the club ace to ruff a heart and then play a low club from hand to West’s king. Fleisher won West’s diamond shift with the ace, ruffed a third heart, ruffed a club, ruffed a heart, then drew the last trump.

When Fleisher played the spade queen, East was forced to surrender his guard in one minor or the other, and Fleisher had his 12 tricks. Martel consoled the opponents: “You were lucky he didn’t bid the slam.”

Today’s deal is derived from a hand from a North American Bridge Championship match in San Diego. The defenders’ sidesuit holdings have been edited to make my point more clearly.

When North hears his partner respond one heart, he might believe his hand is too strong for a splinter raise to four diamonds, because slam is almost cold facing nothing more than five hearts to the queen and an ace. Some people would prefer a jump shift to spades before jump-raising hearts. Regardless, South ought to reach six hearts today. Plan the play on a diamond lead.

Here’s what you should not do: Draw trumps. If you win the diamond and play the heart ace and king, maneuvering to get that diamond ruff has suddenly become just a little awkward. You can come back to hand with a third heart, but now if you play the diamond king and ruff a diamond, you will expose yourself to a force in diamonds. And if you play on the black suits, a bad break in either suit might prove fatal.

Instead, simply ruff a diamond high at trick two, then play two more high trumps from dummy. Finish drawing trumps if they break, but when East turns up with length, simply play on clubs. You will succeed unless one hand has a singleton club and four trumps.

If West turns up with trump length and the club ace is ducked for one round, you may have to guess whether to play on clubs or spades. However, East’s early discards will probably help you decide.