Did you know that an 8410 hand is called an albatross? I didn’t until Paul Barden, commentating in the Vugraph room, used the name for just such a hand on board 8 of match 6. (It’s a coining of Jeremy Flint’s from Back In The Day it seems – see this NYT article for details.)
At the table we were watching Mike Scoltock (London) opened 4 clubs with his albatross. North (Nick Fitzgibbon) doubled and south (Adam Mesbur) bid 4 hearts to end the auction. Ace of clubs led and club follow-up. Declarer ruffs, plays two rounds of trumps and tries the queen of spades. It’s very hard but E needs to hop up immediately with the ace of spades. Sadly for the defence, East ducked the ace of spades which went away and the contract is now cold. At the other table EW took the insurance and played in 5CX-1 for a swing to Ireland.
Lederer Trophy 