Poetry in Motion by Foxymoron

 A writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist - Vladimir Nabokov

The above is one of my favourite quotes, and I was reminded of it when admiring a precision auction by Michael Klein and Web Ewell on Sunday. It was poetry in motion, and this phrase I first remember from the Johnny Tillotson number 1 hit single of 1961, but it goes back a lot earlier than that.

In 1813, in Lady Morgan Wild Irish Girl, "I seldom dance,'" said I. "Ill health has for some time coincided with my inclination, which seldom led me to try my skill at the Poetry of Motion."

Precision auctions often cause opponents to run out of pass cards in real life. On the Internet they make it hard to display the full auction as here. South opened a strong club, 16+ and North bid 1D which was any 0-7. Now South bid 1H, his singleton (!) but that was 20+, any shape. North's 1NT was a game-force with spades, and 2C asked about shape, North's 3S showed precisely 7-2-2-2, the precision of a poet. South's 4C asked for controls and North's 4D showed 0-2. GIven that North has 0-7 points, he is likely to have 0-2 controls, so I wonder if an improvement can be made here, so that, say, 4D is 0-1 and 4H is 2.  4H asked again, and North's 4NT showed one ace or one king. South could almost write down the North hand, and leapt to the good 6S. They were the only pair to bid this, unsurprisingly.

On the heart lead the play was not trivial. Declarer won, cashed two rounds of spades and played three rounds of clubs discarding his losing heart while West ruffed with his queen of spades. As long as the person with three spades had two clubs, he was home. An alternative line was to play one round of trumps and then play on clubs, but that would fail if the second round of clubs was ruffed with a small trump, and I don't think it ever gains, so the line chosen by Web was best.