Sometimes I dream about doing something clever at bridge, emulating classic hands in the great books. Usually though, I have to accept almost getting somewhere close...I was West in the following hand from a Crockfords match
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Over 2
it would be nice to have a
natural 2NT available, but that would have been Lebensohl.
Perhaps a quick pass would have been best, but I opted for a
responsive double, showing values and denying 4 spades. I hoped
partner would bid 2
and I could then bid
2NT, but LHO scuppered me with his 3
bid.
3NT is a lousy contract; we could expect to lose 2 hearts and 3 clubs before looking at the other suits. -300 could be a normal result. However, declarer has a big advantage - the defence don't know how dire are our straits, and they often accept +100, and +200 they will regard as a good board.
K was led and ducked, followed by
Q which I also ducked. LHO now switched
to Q. Not so bad now. Surely with
J10 LHO would have continued the suit,
so clubs appear to be breaking. If LHO has Qxx we even have 9 tricks, but the lead of the Q suggests a
doubleton at most, so that North is 2-6-2-3 or 1-6-3-3. Not much
point ducking Q, so I won and led
Q from hand.
LHO won with A and after some thought
emerged with 
Q. to dummy's king. I
continued the suit to 9 and North's
J. If North exits passively in a minor
now I can cash the clubs and diamonds ending in hand squeezing
South in the majors. As North was clearly afraid that I held
KQ10 I had high hopes, but in fact he
exited with a spade. This kills the entries for a squeeze; I
cashed my clubs spades and diamonds and conceded K for down one.
At this point I belatedly recalled a hand titled "A cow flew
by" from Reese's classic `Play these hands with me.' Suppose I
throw 7 on the Q. When North leads Q I win with the
king dropping 8 and follow with
7 to the 9 and
J. Now if North exits with the spade, in
the two card ending dummy has 9
4, and I hold J
3. When 4 is
led, South would have to choose between K and 10, and would doubtless not
have been watching the diamond spots assiduously. If he throws
the wrong one, he could explain he was distracted as "a cow flew
by."
Alas, a missed opportunity for bovine aviation. I didn't
foresee the possibility and threw 2 on
Q. All I have left is a near miss and a
Newsletter article.
But it's worse. I now see that playing K on Q was a bad error. Suppose I'd
ducked - North then has a genuine problem as I might just have
held K10 KQJx xxx xxx. If he continues diamonds I get a genuine
squeeze. Perhaps I could blame that cow.