Legendary Collings Story

Pages: Page 5 of 5

Dealer: South
Vuln: Love All
Scoring: Rubber
  1. spadeA K J
  2. heart—
  3. diamondA K Q 10 9 7 4
  4. clubA 8 4
  1. spade5 4
  2. heartK
  3. diamondJ 8 6 5 3 2
  4. clubK Q J 3
club diamond heart spade NT
N - 4 5 3 3
S - 4 5 3 3
E 1 - - - -
W 1 - - - -
Green square in centre
  1. spade10 9 7 2
  2. heartQ 10 7 5
  3. diamond—
  4. club10 9 6 5 2

Contract: 7heartx
Declarer: South
Lead: clubK
  1. spadeQ 8 6 3
  2. heartA J 9 8 6 4 3 2
  3. diamond—
  4. club7
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
Pass
Pass 2club Pass 2heart
Pass 4NT* Pass 5diamond~
Pass 7diamond Pass Pass
Dble Pass Pass 7heart
Dble End

* Blackwood
~ one Ace

Declarer over-ruffed the heart ten with the jack and cashed the heartA. With the king and queen dropping together this 101% no-play grand slam had been landed. "Lucky the trumps split" said Collings.

It's easy to criticise East for being naive, not so much for his first ruff (which any good player should avoid), but for the second (which any player should avoid). East should have clung on to heartQ107 for grim death and discarded spades, for even if declarer had started with heartAKJ9xxx it is impossible to construct any trump coup to save his bacon.

West was also to blame for this terrible result - he was too greedy - 7diamond would have failed miserably.
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