Golden Duck by Foxymoron

The term "duck", meaning zero, is perhaps best known from Test cricket, when you are dismissed for nought. The term is a shortening of the term "duck's egg", the latter being used long before Test cricket began. When referring to the Prince of Wales' (the future Edward VII) score of nought on 17 July 1866, a contemporary newspaper wrote that the Prince "retired to the royal pavilion on a 'duck's egg' "

A golden duck is said to be when you are dismissed for 0 on the first ball you face, and a platinum duck is when you are an opener dismissed on the first ball of an innings, Andy Clery had the misfortune to to score a "duck's egg" on the following deal, which is surprising as I would have expected others to also fail to duck when necessary, but only this table played in game.

I guess this might be called a golden duck in bridge - a failure to duck the first round of trumps, resulting in a score of 0%. In this case, ducking would have resulted in 100% on the board, so maybe that should be a platinum duck. Tony Moloney showed a touching faith in his partner's declarer play by inviting game opposite a weak Two Spades. By Andy's normal non-vulnerable standards he was maximum, and showed this with a bid of 3S, which Tony raised. North led the 9 of diamonds, which does look like it might be a singleton and Andy won in dummy, but now needs to keep control by ducking a round of trumps. Then there is no defence, as there is still a trump in dummy to deal with the third round of hearts. Even if South puts in a spade honour on the first round, which he should do from Hx, declarer must duck and not be lured by the overtricks. This should now be duck soup to all blog readers!

Kevin Robins, North, and Ivan Helmer, South, were grateful for the gift which helped them to a big score of almost 70%. After 8 boards they were running at 82%, and in line for a record score. A number of good players failed to duck the first round of trumps, but they were all in spade part scores. Well done to Bill Linton and "Janet136" who found the right play.