Hampson won the first trick with dummy’s diamond queen and called for a low club.

East made the expert play of winning with his king so that he could return a diamond. (This would have been necessary to defeat the contract if declarer had had the ace-jack-third of diamonds and the queen-jack of clubs.) South took his ace and cashed three heart tricks to give this position (see Diagram 1):

On dummy’s last heart, declarer discarded a spade. What should West have thrown?

At the table, West pitched a spade. Now, though, South played another club and won the race. West took the trick and led a diamond; declarer won and played a club; West won and cashed a diamond; South took the last two tricks with his spade ace and club ten.

Minus 120 and plus 600 gave the Diamond team 10 international match points on the board.

The result would have been 6 imps the other way if West had discarded a diamond on the last heart. Then, when declarer played a club, West could have won and shifted to the spade king. The defenders would have taken two spades and three clubs.