Source: http://www.andrewrobson.co.uk/
Jan Barstow, loyal Andrew Robson Bridge Club member, kindly lent me (AR) a fascinating Bridge book of old Times columns, published in 1950. Here is an excerpt…
However hopeless the prospect may seem, a good player does not relax his efforts. He is determined to make every trick he can, and he knows that there are occasions on which what appear to be hopeless contracts can be made. Sometimes the declarer is helped by mistakes by his opponents, but more often he has to rely on his own skill, and there are few games at which skill is more richly rewarded. The following cards were dealt in one of the leading London Clubs:
West dealt and bid 1
. North had no temptation to say anything, for Spades suited him admirably as the trump suit. East on the strength of his two-suiter bid 2
, South bid 2
, a bid which was promptly doubled by West. Holding West’s cards, most players would feel that the penalty was likely to be heavy. This view would be strengthened when the opening lead of K was trumped by East and South’s ace fell. East led a club, on which South played the ace and West’s king fell.
By this time South has obtained a great deal of information. He knows that West held originally six spades headed by the king queen knave and a singleton club, and that East, who had bid diamonds, had six clubs and probably six diamonds and one heart. The lead of a heart taken by West’s nine verifies the count of the hand, and the rest is easy. West’s lead of the queen of spades is ruffed and another trump is led. West takes with the knave and must lead the knave of spades, for any other lead would give the declarer a trick. When South ruffs and leads another trump it is all over. West takes the trick with the queen, but the only other card he can make is the ace of trumps, for he must either give North a trick in spades on which the queen of diamonds is discarded or must lead up to the ace queen of diamonds. An unusual feature of this contract was that the opponents holding five cards of the suit between them made five tricks in trumps and nothing in the outside suits.