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

North-South generally reached either Four Hearts or 3NT. This is how the action went at the leaders' table:

North bid his two suits naturally and South settled for 3NT. Jason Hackett kicked off with ©4, which went to the nine and ace. A club to king won and declarer took the losing spade finesse. Hackett continued with ©7, won by Mossop's ten, and the heart return allowed Jason to cash his king-queen. Hackett then exited with a diamond and when declarer also guessed that suit wrong he was two down. N-S -100.

Another British East-West pair defended Four Spades. Lacking second sight, Ed Foster did not find the diamond lead and chose instead ©K. Not unreasonably, declarer played a club at trick two. Foster rose with the ace and switched accurately to a diamond and duly collected his diamond ruff to defeat the contract. N-S -50.

At our final table, a well-known German female pair were East-West defending the same Four Spade contract. A diamond lead was found at this third table, but thereafter the defence was less than optimum. Declarer captured ¨K with his ace and played a club. West allowed dummy's king to win and declarer took a spade finesse. West took her king and exited with a second spade. Now West suffered the ignominy of being squeezed in the red suits for the eleventh trick. N-S +450.

East-West failed to qualify by a mere handful of matchpoints.