The Bridge Gods decreed that there should be no average scores when top French pair Nadine Cohen & Alain Levy met Jette Bondo & Lauge Schäffer, one of the surprisingly few Danish pairs at these championships.

Board 15. Dealer South. NS Game 6 5 3 9 8 5 2 A Q 10 8 Q 6 Q 10 9 8 2 A J 7 4 J 4 3 A K 7 6 K 5 2 7 10 9 A 8 3 2 K Q 10 J 9 6 4 3 K J 7 5 4 West North East South Levy Schäffer Cohen Bondo Pass Pass Pass 1 Pass 1 Pass 4 Pass 4 All Pass

North led a trump. South won her King, returned a diamond to North's eight, and declarer took the trump continuation with dummy's seven. Declarer was at the crucial point.

Clearly, with the Queen of hearts doubleton in the same hand as the singleton spade, declarer can play three rounds of hearts ending in hand, ruff a diamond, ruff a heart, ruff a diamond and concede a club, but that is not a realistic layout to play for.

Instead, Levy gave Jette Bondo a chance to beat him, although not one many players would be capable of taking -- he led a small club from dummy. Can anyone reading this say in all honesty that they would have followed small (thus allowing North to win the Queen and play a third trump)?

Bondo won the King of clubs and returned the suit to Queen and Ace. Now Levy ruffed a club - what could North discard. In practise he threw a heart, and now Levy quickly played the Ace and King of hearts and claimed when the Queen fell.

Let's say North discards a diamond. Declarer ruffs a diamond with dummy's Ace and ruffs another club. Whatever defence North tries, declarer has a counter. E/W +620 was an excellent board for the French, with the majority of E/Ws either failing in 4 or stopping in a partscore.

Could the Danes redress the balance on the second board of the round? You bet they could…

Board 16. Dealer West. EW Game K Q 4 3 K 10 7 Q J 7 A 5 2 A J 8 7 6 2 10 8 4 Q J 6 5 9 8 2 K 10 K 7 Q J 10 9 6 4 9 5 A 9 3 2 A 6 5 4 3 8 3

At every other table I saw, the bidding went:

West North East South 2 2NT Pass 3NT All Pass

East invariably led a club to the King and declarer took the second or third club. The Q was covered by King and Ace and a spade led to the Queen. Next came Jack and another diamond, and when East proved to have no entry to her clubs it was a simple matter for declarer to cash dummy's diamonds and lead towards the King of spades for his ninth trick. N/S +400

The Danes were not satisfied with average-plus though, They wanted revenge for the previous board. This was the auction at their table:

West North East South Levy Schäffer Cohen Bondo 2 Pass Pass Dble All Pass

The defence is fairly straightforward after the Queen of diamonds lead to the King and Ace and a trump back. Declarer duly lost two diamonds, two spades, two hearts and a club - two down and N/S +500.

Honours even, I would say.