Sherlock
Holmes arrived at the Baker Street Bridge Club after they resumed face-to-face
bridge recently. “What do you make of this travelling scoresheet, Watson?”, he
asked.
“Very
strange,” replied the learned doctor. “EW made 7S, 7H or 7NT at every table
except one where NS made 6NT. It must have
been mis-boarded on the last one, I assume.” “What were the NS hands?”
“No it was
not misboarded, Watson,” “But did you not notice that when South made 6NT, East-West were a retired
colonel playing with his disabled wife?”
“Good gracious, how did you deduce that?” came the response.
“Well, it
was clearly a 5-table Howell movement, with 18 boards, and pair 10 was
stationary, allocated to Colonel Cathcart and his wife Lady Cathcart who would
have been unable to move. Also the Colonel always scores, even when he is East
or West, using a distinctive purple ink, identical to his invitation to me to
speak at the Rotary Club Christmas Dinner. Finally, Lady Cathcart, who has
arthritis, uses one of those much criticised cardholders which have a habit of
collapsing. Clearly her hand fell forward during the auction and she then had
13 penalty cards. When she became on lead, the declarer could direct her play
at each trick. And I heard the TD, Professor Pedant, discussing the ruling as
we arrived.”
“But surely
that made no material difference?” pressed Watson rather dimly. “South could
not have made 6NT”
“Not so,
South could claim at trick one on the actual layout.” Holmes replied “Which is
for you to work out, Watson.” He concluded. “And note that while all West’s
cards are penalty cards, they are authorised to all players under Law 50E1 of
the new 1917 Laws of Duplicate Bridge, so East is not constrained at all,
unless he gains the lead. And I find that West can only make 7NT on a club lead, which makes the EW hands unique.
What were the exact EW cards which allowed South to make 6NT against best defence?
Acknowledgements are due to Nigel Guthrie, Paul Barden and Julian Pottage for cooks and corrections to the original composition.
The above is the layout. Clearly 7NT makes for West on a club
lead, but not on any other lead. In 6NT by South, West is directed to lead the
ace and another club. South wins, cashes the nine of clubs and overtakes the
eight and cashes the six, directing West to discard diamonds while he throws
the ten of diamonds and now he leads the two of clubs:
Now, if East discards a major, South discards from the other
major, and directs West to discard from the same major as East. All West’s
major suit winners go way on the top diamonds and South makes four(!) tricks in
the major East unguarded. Note that declarer cannot cash the top diamond first, as he squeezes himself as he has to discard before East makes his choice. A felo de se, in fact. So East discards a diamond and Now declarer cashes
four diamonds, discarding from each major to reach:
Now
the penultimate diamond squeezes East again and West is forced to discard from the
same major while South discards from the opposite major to complete the
denouement.
Several other layouts failed because West either could not make 7NT or because she could make it on any lead. As Holmes observed, only a club lead lets Lady Cathcart make 7NT.
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