On this hand from recent a Crockfords match my defence was lazy and I let them make 11 tricks – I  pushed them to 5 level and the contract should have gone one off.

I decided to make passive trump lead thinking the Heart winner  would not survive which declarer won. Declarer now drew the last trump and finessed the Club.

At this point in time, I completely “lost it” and passively played a Heart. As expected declarer ruffed and continued with Clubs. Once the clubs broke 3:2 he was able to threw his Diamond loser away on the established clubs and make his contract losing just two clubs to me.

 After winning the Club King I should have woken up and played  a Diamond. and established a trick in this suit before declarer could establish his clubs. Now the defence will take 2 Clubs and a Diamond.

How should I have known to switch? The bidding was very active by South and I should have realized he had a source of tricks, not just from trumps but another suit and I needed to get active too and play a Diamond. Maybe next time I push the opponents to the five level I will indeed be more active.

You can also watch the following movie to see how the hand pans out. To view this programme you will need  to download htttp://www.haroldschogger.com/bridgevu.setup

  alternatively watch the film www.haroldschogger.com/movies2.htm

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