At the end of regulation time Mahaffey & Nickell were deadlocked at 109-109, which meant a tie break.
South led the [S]7and declarer won with the ace and ran the jack of hearts, North winning with the king and switching to the [C]J. Declarer put up the king and South withheld the ace! The convention card says the jack promises ‘Q from 4+ cards, top from 3 or fewer’. Declarer played off his major suit winners pitching a diamond and when both defenders also parted with a diamond declarer had eleven tricks and surely a match winning position?
South led the [S]7 and declarer won with the king and ran the [H]J. Here North won and switched to the diamond jack. Declarer won with the ace, crossed to dummy with a heart and ran the [D]7 which led to an overtrick – again EW must have thought they were in the box seats.
In European Championships play-offs are sudden death, and Mahaffey would have advanced, but here there was a second deal to play:
1NT was presumably 10-12 and South’s 2[D] and West’s 3[H] were transfers.
South led the [H]A and when North followed with the ten he switched to the [D]A followed by the nine. North won and exited with a heart, covered by the jackand king and ruffed by declarer who came to hand with the [S]A.
If he now cashes the [H]Q, ruffs a diamond and plays off dummy’s trumps he executes a double squeeze for an overtrick. Missing this he lost a club at the end, +140.
North led the [H]2 and when declarer played dummy’s three South won with the king and tried to cash the ace. Declarer ruffed, drew trumps, crossed to dummy with a club, disposed of his diamonds on the established hearts and played clubs, taking eleven tricks and a place in the next round.
