Today’s deal occurred in the Lady Milne Trophy (the British women’s home international series). Lizzie Godfrey of the English team took advantage of a defensive inaccuracy here.

After the Welsh East had stretched to open three clubs at unfavorable vulnerability, NorthSouth found their way to the normal game of four spades.

Godfrey won the club lead in dummy and played a spade to her king. West won the ace and continued with another club. Declarer ruffed in dummy, as East suggested an original seven-card holding, then played a spade to her eight and West’s 10. Yes, if declarer had decided to play for 4-1 trumps, a diamond would have been the right play now.

Can you see the danger of continuing with a third round of clubs, as the Welsh defender did? Declarer seized her chance: she ruffed in hand and cashed three rounds of diamonds. Then she played off the spade queen and exited with another spade. West had to win and exit with a heart, and now declarer could not go wrong.

That third round of clubs was the crucial defensive error. Had West exited with a diamond instead, she would have preserved her exit card at the critical moment. Declarer can wins the diamond and cashes her other top diamonds and the spade queen before exiting with a spade; now West would win and play the third round of clubs. Although declarer could ruff, she would not be able to avoid a heart loser eventually.

The combination of a two club opener and two no-trump rebid shows a balanced 22 to 24 points. North should happily raise to game without looking for more.

After a heart lead South must count his tricks before playing from dummy. He can reasonably expect to win two spades, two hearts, and one diamond. The simplest way to bring home the contract is to take four tricks in clubs. He must win the heart ace to preserve dummy’s entry; what now?

It might look normal to cash the club ace and queen and then enter dummy with the heart king in order to continue the clubs. This will produce all five club tricks if the suit breaks threethree. But it will produce only three club tricks if either opponent holds four clubs to the jack (or 10) since there is no re-entry to dummy after establishing the suit.

South can give himself an extra chance by cashing the club ace, then overtaking the queen with the dummy’s king. This will work if clubs are 3-3, although in this case South will take only four club tricks instead of five.

However, South’s extra chance lies in the fact that East’s initial club holding may have been the doubleton jack or 10, as in the diagram. If declarer has overtaken his queen he can now lead the club nine to force out the remaining high club. This way the rest of dummy’s clubs will be established, with the heart king as a sure entry.

The auction may look bucolic — essentially South drives to slam facing an opening bid. But it is admittedly difficult for declarer to judge exactly which cards his partner has, and gambling on slam seems reasonable. After all, it is unlikely to be worse than a finesse.

What would you lead with that West hand? Normally one should lead actively, but here surely declarer has the diamond king to bid like this. A trump seems sensible; it is unlikely to take a finesse for declarer that he cannot take himself. My second choice would be a club, my third choice the diamond ace. Now on a spade lead it is up to South to count the tricks. Six spades, three clubs two hearts and….?

There are three plausible ways to try for the twelfth trick, in that you could take either red suit finesse or you could try to ruff out the hearts and establish a long heart in dummy. Since you can try to ruff out hearts before risking a finesse, but not vice versa, let us try the following.

Win the trump in hand, play the heart ace and ruff a heart high. Now play a spade to the 10 — you did not waste that card at trick one did you? Ruff another heart high, noting that both opponents follow, then draw trump and cash dummy’s clubs and hearts. You can throw three of your diamonds on the long hearts and master club, losing just one diamond at the end.

In Chennai last year this deal helped Poland defeat Sweden in the Bermuda Bowl finals. In one room the Swedish West was doubled in three spades. He ruffed the diamond lead in dummy, to run the spade queen successfully. Then the heart three went round to North’s queen. A switch to the club jack ensured a penalty of 800.

To limit the damage, Frederick Wrang had to make three notrump here. He took East’s spade queen with the king and played the diamond nine. West put up the ace, and when East pitched a discouraging club, West switched to the heart seven, for the two, jack and ace.

Declarer played back the spade six, letting West win the ace to return the spade nine, declarer winning with the jack as East pitched the heart three. Now what?

At the table South cashed the top clubs, then ‘exited’ with the spade five. Not so fast… West astutely ducked the trick, to avoid being endplayed. When declarer tried the club 10, East won, cashed the heart king and exited with a club. Declarer had to surrender trick 13 for down one.

After taking the spade jack declarer needed first to play the club 10. East must duck or afford declarer an entry to dummy. So now declarer cashes a top club, then plays his last spade. Again West cannot afford to win, but declarer next plays a heart to the queen and king. He can later endplay East in hearts, forcing a club return into his tenace for the ninth trick.

In the Bermuda Bowl qualifying match between Australia and Poland the two declarers reached quite different contracts – and with differing results.

In one room, as North Nye Griffiths overcalled three spades over three hearts and Liam Milne drove him to slam. Griffiths won the club king lead with the ace and led a spade to his ace then took the diamond finesse. When the diamond queen scored he left the spade king in dummy, instead playing the diamond ace, pitching a club. Now he led a third diamond, ruffed and over-ruffed, and East had a club to cash for down one.

For Poland, Jacek Kalita passed over three hearts, and Michal Nowosadzki as South ended in five diamonds. Nowosadzki won the heart ace and led a diamond to the queen followed by two more rounds of diamonds. West won the third diamond and returned the club nine, overtaken by East with the 10, which Nowosadzki ducked — to rectify the count for a possible squeeze.

When East switched to the spade queen Nowosadzki accurately won the spade king and ran the diamonds, coming down to the bare spade ace and jackdoubleton of clubs in dummy, facing two low spades and the bare club ace in hand.

If East discarded a club, declarer would cash the club ace then cross to the spade to cash the club jack. He actually threw a spade, and declarer cashed the spade ace then came back to hand with a club to cash the small spade – a perfect criss-cross squeeze.

The Bermuda Bowl in Chennai last October saw a deal where only three declarers in four spades or three no-trump succeeded. Curiously, two of them came from the same country, Pakistan.

Four spades is virtually sure to fail – except on a club lead, since declarer will lose three fast tricks in the red suits and has a slow club loser. Three no-trump looks little better, but when Roshan Bokhari received a diamond lead, declarer ducked twice and won the third, leaving East with the master diamond. Then she cashed two spades ending in dummy and successfully ran the club queen. Once it held she ran the rest of the spades, to squeeze both opponents, who each had to keep two clubs in the four-card ending.

On the last spade East could not afford to discard her winning diamond or declarer would play on hearts and she would eventually find herself endplayed to lead clubs. She took what was probably her best shot to mislead declarer by pitching a club, hoping declarer would believe she still had the guarded club king left. But declarer led a club to her ace, and cashed a club winner for her ninth trick.

The other successful declarers had an easier task. After the same start, one East came down to the bare heart king together with his diamond winner, and was endplayed to lead clubs into dummy’s tenace, when declarer exited with a heart. The other East made declarer’s task even simpler when he covered the first club, exposing his partner’s 10 to a finesse.

In today’s deal from last year’s world championships in Chennai, Ifti Baqai was playing with Mirza Hussein on the Pakistani team. It was the penultimate round of the Transnational Teams qualifier, and he first reached a thin game, then threaded the needle to bring it home.

The raise to game was on the sporting side, but the final contract had decent play. West led the club king and East followed to show an even number. West then shifted to the heart seven, covered with the ten, East playing low. Baqai now played the club six to the 10 and ace. Back came a low spade, and declarer won the ace and ruffed a spade, West producing the 10. Next he trumped a club, with West contributing the queen.

When Baqai led a spade off dummy and saw East follow low, he judged very well to pitch a small diamond. West had to win and was forced to return a diamond. Baqai won the queen in hand, and could ruff his winning club in dummy, to take the trump finesse for 10 tricks.

If on the third spade East had risen with the king, crashing his partner’s queen, Baqai would still have pitched a small diamond. Now when East shifted to a diamond, declarer could have gone up with the ace, trumped his winning club in dummy, then pitched the diamond queen on the spade jack. He would thus have remained in dummy to take the trump finesse for his 10th trick.

The French were one of the teams who were invited at very short notice to fill the gaps in the Bermuda Bowl in Chennai last October, after the cheating scandals broke. They not only played well to reach the knockout phase, they very nearly defeated the eventual winners in the quarter-finals.

On this deal from the round robin Godefroy de Tessieres as South had made 11 tricks in three no-trump on the lead of the diamond 10. Declarer had plenty of time to set up hearts for three tricks, and when he cashed out the clubs from the top he could drop the club queen, and lose just the two hearts.

The fireworks went off in the other room though. Here West, Thomas Bessis obediently led his partner’s suit, which went to Frederick Volcker’s 10, as declarer played low. Declarer won the next spade with his queen, crossed to dummy with the diamond jack and played a low heart to his queen. When Bessis followed low without a quiver, declarer ducked a heart to East, who now cleared the spades.

At this point can you blame declarer — who was convinced that East still had the heart ace as an entry for his spades, for falling back on Plan B? When he finessed the club jack, looking for his ninth trick from that suit, this proved to be the entry to East for the spades. Three no-trump was two down, and Bessis’s brilliant maneuver was good for a huge pick-up for France.

At The Venice Cup in Chennai last October the pulsating final of the women’s match between France and USA was decided on the very final deal, with USA needing a big swing to win the match.

Against the contract of four spades both Easts led the club queen, and Benedicte Cronier of France took this with the ace to lead a spade to the jack. Disaster! The defense won and led the club jack, and dummy’s king was ruffed away. Now a heart came through, placing declarer on the horns of a dilemma. A heart finesse would restrict her heart losers to one but allow West to cash a club winner for down one. If declarer rose with the heart ace she could avoid immediate defeat but would eventually be left with two hearts to lose. Either way, the contract had to fail.

That left the USA in with a chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but a few moments later Tobi Sokolow followed the same line of play and France held on to win.

In retrospect one might argue that declarer should either have played trumps from the top to avoid the ruff. Or she could have taken two diamond winners at once in order to dispose of her slow club loser. Either line would have avoided the disaster that took place at the table – but there again, it was only the six-one club break that proved fatal to the line chosen. Had clubs broken in more friendly fashion, declarer’s play would have been the best one.