Second Lady by Foxymoron

The crossword clue "First Lady" refers to an obvious girl's name. And I am sure that "Riddle is backed by First Lady (5)" will not detain you long. First Lady is often used, particularly in the US, for the wife of the president or leader and one hopes that it will be "First Gentleman" for the first time later this year. Second Lady and Second Gentleman seem to be almost exclusively US terms for the spouse of the vice-president.

Woodberry members Eve Brenner and Martin Baker had an excellent result in the London Mixed Pairs yesterday and Eve nearly lived up to her name as the "first lady" but had to be content with second place. As they say in backgammon, "Second place is no disgrace".

The top placings in a strong field:

One of the most interesting boards was the following. NS bid a thin 6D against you on the lead of the jack of hearts. How should you play?

The declarer won the jack of hearts lead and tried to set up the spades, but this was about as easy as capturing Cerberus, requiring trumps 2-2 and the KQx of spades to come down. Also you need to finesse the diamond to get a third entry to dummy and this fails. The right line is to win the heart, cash the king of diamonds, play the other top heart and ruff a heart, and now cross to the ace of clubs to draw trumps. I don't know whether declarer was trying for the overtrick, but you only need trumps 2-2 and making the contract would have been a top. You have to take such gifts if you are going to do well in an event.