Or: How careless do you handle your trumps?

When you end up in a 21-point slam, you either have to have an enormous freak hand or you need a very generous opponent to succeed. In the deal shown below, it took two defensive errors to make up for more the missing 10 hcp. So here's the story of a fairly ambitious slam from the 1st session of the ladies pairs qualification:

Board 22. Dealer East. EW Game ª A 10 8 4 © — ¨ K J 10 6 5 4 § Q 5 3 ª K J 6 5 ª 9 7 © A K 6 4 3 © Q J 10 9 7 ¨ 3 ¨ Q 9 8 2 § 10 6 2 § K 9 ª Q 3 2 © 8 5 2 ¨ A 7 § A J 8 7 4

Fella - Gromöller from Germany, sitting North/South, agreed to play a 12-14 1 NT-opening, so after East's pass, South was in a dilemma. Unwilling to pass but afraid of harsh critizism about the missing hcp, Fella chose a "compromise bid" and opened 1 §. West overcalled 1 © and a couple of rounds later, North had pressed on to 6 § (!) - not quite what South had in mind, when she opened the bidding.

Anyway, West lead the ace of hearts and North spread her dummy. The lead was ruffed and a diamond was led to the ace. When South continued with a diamond towards dummy, West erred and ruffed in. Back came another heart, which was ruffed again in dummy. Now declarer ordered the queen of clubs and this time it was East's helpful hand not to cover, which finally gave declarer a chance to bring home her contract.

And she did! She ruffed a small diamond with the jack of clubs and cashed the ace of trumps. When both opponents followed suit, she was able to re-enter dummy with the ace of spades and cashed her diamond winners.