Ostend Open, Seven

Two tough matches to start with and we got 14 against Bulgaria and 12 against Italy. It's critical we score well tomorrow in our matches against Latvia, Switzerland and France.

You hold (against Italy):

A 5

Q 8 7 4 2

K 4

9 8 7 6

It goes pass pass to you and you open 1, next hand doubles and partner raises pre-emptively to 3. The opponents bid 3 raised to 4 which is the final contract. It's your lead. David Gold earned 13 imps for England by leading the K reasoning that a heart lead was unlikely to generate enough to beat the contract. Partner held x x 10 x x x Q 10 x x K x x so if declarer won the diamond a ruff was coming and if he ducked there were two diamond losers. Well worked out and 13 imps to England.