Bridge

There were several lines of play open to South in his grand slam on this deal and it would have been easy for him to have missed his best chance.

Once South rated his hand as being worth a conventional Two Clubs, there was no way of stopping North and the final contract was Seven Hearts against which West led 2K. After winning with dummy's ace, declarer ruffed a club in hand and West followed with the six.

The ace of trumps was cashed and when the jack did not appear there were not enough entries to dummy to establish a long club. However, more than one possibility remained. One was to ruff two spades, hoping that the defender with !J would hold at least four spades, and another was a simple diamond finesse. The declarer found a line that was better than either.

The last trump was drawn and the third round of spades was ruffed. Then came a club ruff, followed by trump leads. On the last heart West had to retain 2Q in front of dummy and East had to bare #K in order to keep 4Q, while dummy came down to #A,Q.

When West followed to a diamond at trick 12, it seemed sure that his last card was 2Q. As the finesse could not gain, declarer went up with #A, dropping East's king.

Yes, West could have done a little better. As he was marked with 2Q after the lead, he should have dropped this card on the third round of the suit, leaving South in doubt as to the whereabouts of the jack.