Duck Soup by Foxymoron

The phrase "duck soup" first appeared in a newspaper cartoon drawn by T.A. Dorgan in 1902, and showed up again in a work by someone named H.C. Fisher in 1908. It means that something is easy to perform and should be second nature but its origin is shrouded in mystery,

In the immortal words of Chico Marx, “Why a duck?” Groucho was asked to explain the title of the 1933 Marx Brothers film “Duck Soup,”. I’ll leave the last word to him: “Take two turkeys, one goose, four cabbages, but no duck, and mix them together. After one taste, you’ll duck soup the rest of your life.”

Nobody found the right play in Four Spades here, and the winners benefited from a misdefence to be the only pair to make the cold contract. When South leads the king of hearts it should be duck soup to duck as East, as there can be no benefit in allowing the defenders communication in hearts. If East had the ten of clubs there would be some end-play chances, but here there is not. Liz Clery won, drew two rounds of trumps to find they were 4-1 and now played ace, king and another diamond. North winning. Now South has to discard the ten of clubs. Then North can put South in with a club, and South can underlead the  queen of hearts to get a club ruff. Unsurprisingly this fine defence was not found, but ducking the first round of hearts would have prevented it. Then the contract makes when you play South for Ax of clubs, the best chance in view of the overcall. Making 4S was, surprisingly, worth 100% of the matchpoints. The last mistake was the fatal one, as ever.

Martin Baker rebid 3NT after his partner raised spades. I think he was wrong as his hand is better for a suit contract. Anne Catchpole led the king of hearts, and David Schiff, North, should play the jack on this after which the heart continuation scuppers the contract. He played the five, presumably normal count, and East ducked. South was worried about a Bath Coup, and switched fatally. Not easy, but if North plays the jack on the first round it would be Duck Soup for the defence even if East does duck. As the advert said: