When England play the Netherlands it is always an enjoyable encounter for both teams. The Dutch speak English as well as we do, and their exciting bidding makes for interesting auctions.

In Beijing the English Under-21 team faced the Netherlands in the round robin towards the end when England were securing their place in the top two and the Dutch were struggling to make it into the top eight.

On the deal below it was the English pair who created the swing, with a calculated risk in the bidding.

Ed Jones, sitting East for England, opened one diamond after two passes and the Dutch South, perhaps surprisingly, overcalled one no-trump. Tom Paske, West, made a disciplined pass, and North transferred to spades by bidding two hearts. When South completed the transfer by bidding two spades Tom sprang to life and doubled for take-out. East now had a tricky bid to make but he reasoned that his partner would not have four diamonds since he had not supported the suit, and that consequently his A-K-Q would pull their weight in defense. So he decided to pass the double, converting it into penalties.

Tom kicked off with a diamond, and after cashing three rounds Ed switched to the club jack, to the queen and king, and Tom returned a club. South could now draw trump (losing two tricks to Ed’s ace and 10 in the process) but he had nowhere to put his fourth club and ended up losing three diamonds, two clubs and two trumps for two down and 500 points to England. Since the other table had played peacefully in three diamonds and gone two down that was a good swing of 12 IMPs to England.

Plan the play in a team game if you declare three no-trump on the lead of the club six.

The only danger to your contract is if the clubs are 5-2. If the suit is 4-3, you should be able to survive almost any misguess. But if clubs are 5-2, there is a chance that you may lose four club tricks and the diamond ace. If you put in the club jack at the first trick, then, if East wins the trick with a doubleton queen or ace, he can simply return the suit. Now, whenever West has the diamond ace, he will get in and cash out his five winners.

Much better is to go up with the club king at trick one. Now, if East has the doubleton club queen, the defenders’ club holding is completely blocked, and declarer can set up the diamonds in comfort. But as the cards lie today, with East holding the doubleton club ace, this play would not succeed. East would capture the club king with the ace and set up the suit for his partner, so long as West overtakes the club nine on the second round.

The only way to be certain of avoiding that fate is to play low from dummy at trick one. Play it through and see for yourself. East can win the first club cheaply but cannot continue the suit effectively, and declarer has time to set up the diamonds.

A few years ago a charity bridge event was held at Mosimann’s Restaurant in London in aid of the Variety Club. The total raised for the charity was £30,000.

On the morning of the event Zia Mahmood was sick and couldn’t play. His replacement, Nicola Smith filled in, and she and her partner won their section. The following slam caused her no problem. While the play should be straightforward, it floored a number of players.

Although South has only 10 high-card points, his hand is strong in distribution and well worth an opening bid. (A two diamond opening would be wildly misleading.) After that start, there would be no stopping North, and the final contract would be six diamonds after the obligatory use of Blackwood.

On a spade king lead, declarer needs to set up dummy’s hearts, using trumps as entries. The simplest line is to win the lead, play a trump to dummy and ruff a heart, play another trump to dummy and ruff another heart. Now ruff a spade and try the ace and king of hearts (discarding a spade and a club). If hearts break, declarer can claim the rest. On the actual layout declarer ruffs another heart, setting up dummy’s 10, which he can reach with a second spade ruff. The remaining heart winner allows declarer to discard a second club, and the slam is made without needing to guess which opponent holds the club ace.

Here is another example of how well computers can play, given the right circumstances. The computer known as GIB can generally find the best line when it understands the constraints imposed by the bidding.

Today’s deal comes from Deauville, in 1996. Herve Mouiel won the prize for the best-played hand here, declaring six no-trump on a spade lead. So how do you make two diamond tricks in your slam? You can play for a stiff honor somewhere, or a doubleton honor in either hand, but you may well have to guess which defender to play for shortage.

The chances of a 5-2 diamond break did not seem especially good, with both opponents having shown a long suit, so Mouiel played East for both diamond honors. Since he had opened a weak two with such a feeble suit, he rated to have some side-values. Mouiel cashed two spades, then all five hearts and both his clubs.

At this point dummy was left with a small spade and three diamonds, South had the master spade and three diamonds. West was irrelevant, and East had to come down to king-queen-third of diamonds and thus just one spade.

Now declarer played the spade king, stripping East of all but his three diamonds, and next led a diamond to the 10 to endplay him. Nicely done! At the other table, the French defender found the devastating lead of the diamond nine. GIB duplicated Mouiel’s line, but no one gave it a prize.

In today's deal North's second-round double promised three-card heart support. When North decided to leap to game in hearts, you passed, despite knowing that you would have only a 4-3 trump fit. West begins with two top spades and East follows up the line to indicate a three-card suit. How do you plan to make 10 tricks?

If trumps are 3-3, then 10 tricks will be easy. If the trumps are 5-1 or West has four trumps, then there will be no way to make four hearts. So the crucial case is when East has four trumps, as here.

West, a passed hand, has the spade ace-king plus either the queen or the jack. So this makes East a heavy favorite to hold the club king. You should make a plan that will produce 10 tricks when East has four trumps, three spades, and the club king.

After ruffing the second spade in hand, you should draw two rounds of trump with the king and ace, then ruff another spade in hand with the trump jack. Next, you will play a diamond to dummy’s king, followed by the trump queen, and continue with your remaining diamond winners. What can East do? If he ruffs at any stage, he will have to lead away from the club king. If instead East discards on the diamonds, you will score just one club trick but four diamonds, again bringing you to a total of 10.

The winners of the Midweek Senior Swiss Teams Championship at the 2010 Brighton Summer Festival of Bridge were Rhona and Bernard Goldenfield, Kath Nelson and Jim Luck. Bernard Goldenfield found a loser-on-loser play here, which produced an extremely satisfying result.

Against three hearts West led the diamond queen, taken in dummy by the ace. A heart to the king was captured with the ace and West returned his last diamond. On winning, East switched to a club. Suspecting from the bidding that this was a singleton and that West must hold six clubs to the king-jack, Bernard rose with his ace.

There are five potential losers; one in every suit and two in clubs. But as you can see, the defenders have no communications in any suit except diamonds, and that lifeline has already been cut.

Declarer drew the rest of the trumps and continued with a low spade to the queen and ace. East returned the spade 10, won by South’s king. A third spade went to the jack, West showing out. Had spades split, life would have been easy, but when they did not, Goldenfield played dummy’s last spade, on which he discarded a club from his hand.

Declarer by now had a complete count of East’s hand, and his club queen was poised to be jettisoned on East’s forced diamond return. The ruff and discard gave South his ninth trick.

This four-heart contract came along in the Championship Swiss Teams, the main event of the Brighton Summer Congress. West, Catherine Seale, had appreciated from the bidding that Nevena Senior, her partner, was likely to have a singleton diamond or a void, so she led a low one (for suit preference) to the jack and queen. South played a heart to dummy's queen and Nevena made the winning play of withholding her ace. Declarer next threw two clubs on the spade ace and king, then played a club. West could win and give East her diamond ruff. Senior next cashed her heart ace, removing dummy's last trump in the process, then played another club for a second diamond ruff. Well defended, for two down.

Despite the fine lead, declarer could have succeeded. Missing the trump ace, South may suspect there is a likely defensive diamond ruff to come, but there is nothing she can do to prevent it, and she needs club ruffs in dummy, so she should accept that fact and play a club at trick two.

This puts the defense in an unenviable position. West can win the club and deliver a diamond ruff. But if the continuation is ace and another heart, declarer is in control. The last trump is drawn; then three clubs are discarded on the top two spades and fourth diamond. And if East plays back a low heart to retain control, one club can be ruffed in dummy and the other two pitched on dummy’s spades.

Since my column started appearing online, my correspondents have been writing to me from all around the world. But I believe today's deal may be the first provided to me by an Indian correspondent. Shantanu Rastogi from Lucknow passed on a deal that arose in the finals of the Indian Senior trials in April this year.

As you can see, six diamonds looks like a very comfortable affair, but North took the precipitous decision to leap to the no-trump slam, and East alertly doubled. This is the Lightner double, named after the American expert Theodore Lightner, asking for the lead of dummy’s first-bid suit.

I could not resist a smile when I read Shantanu’s somewhat acerbic description of the West player as a Godzilla — the same term Zia Mahmood had used to describe a partner more dangerous to his side than the opponents. Be that as it may, West led a club, and declarer won in dummy and advanced the heart queen. East took the trick, and found out to his dismay that after the run of all the minor-suit winners, he could not now protect himself from the spade-heart squeeze whether he returned a heart or a spade.

As the commentators sagely noted, after the event, the slam still goes down if East refuses to take either of the first two heart tricks, since declarer no longer has any communication between his hand and dummy. I’m not sure why this play is hard to spot, but it is.

The concept of par refers to the result achieved by both sides if neither of them makes a mistake. In today's deal, par for North-South is to play four spades, not three no-trump, since eight tricks are the limit in no-trump on a diamond lead. Many Souths might prefer to open with two no-trump or a forcing two-club call, though the lack of aces suggests the one-level opener to me. But whatever the opening, the spade game should be reached.

How should South tackle the deal in four spades? Assume West leads the heart jack and East takes the ace. He must now resist the temptation to play his singleton club — which would facilitate declarer’s task considerably. Instead he returns a low heart, then wins the spade ace to play a third heart.

Able to afford the loss of one club trick but not two, South should now make the safety play of the club king to the first round. When East drops the nine, a low club toward dummy should follow, finessing the eight if West plays small. If East wins the second club, then the suit has broken 3-2. If West discards on the second round, declarer can put up the ace from dummy and lead back a club toward his jack. Most importantly, if West started with four clubs, either the eight will win, or the ace will capture an honor and the eight and jack will be equals against the queen.