BRIDGE MASTERCLASS CRYPTIC CROSSWORD
No 17,339
West ♠ AKJ3 ♥ 4 ♦ KQJ975 ♣ 74 East ♠ 1096 ♥ AQJ10 ♦ A108 ♣ AK5
YOU are West, declarer in 7♦, and North leads ♣Q. What is your best line of play? THIS is a nail-biting contract, with no certainty of success. You need to find either ♠Q or ♥K, which will inevitably involve taking a finesse. The spade finesse looks simplest, because you can only lead hearts once from hand and, even if successful, it will only take care of one of your losers. The best percentage chance is to combine two options in both spades and hearts.
Win the lead and draw trumps, then cash ♠AK, in case you’re lucky and find the queen doubleton. We’ll assume this play fails — you then must play South for ♥K and take a ruffing finesse against him by crossing to ♥A and running ♥Q unless South covers; then you ruff, return to ♣K and discard your spade losers on ♥J10. This line gives you a slightly better than 50 per cent chance.
ACROSS
1 Sprained toe sadly
giving one anguish (11) 9 Dismiss from office one
handling payments (7) 10 Regularly occurring objective with English male in charge (7) 11 Negligent learner given
a sign of being wrong (3) 12 A small group hear about fine
site when discovered (7) 13 In the morning, university
allows mascots (7) 14 Henry stopped getting
50 per cent off (3) 15 By the sound of it, dress up association of craft workers (5) 17 Vulgar course of action
shown by Yankee (5) 18 Boring husband with signs of
surprise and hesitation (2-3) 20 Make a rhythmic sound? This
is absent before drink (5) 22 Woman in steamy room
lacking appeal (3) 24 This person’s seen to be wrong about money of huge proportions (7) 25 Try to obtain standing order
permitted under rules (7) 26 Cut line introducing work (3) 27 Greek character carrying
sphere and old instrument (7) 28 Evergreen set boarding
a European ship (7) 29 Items to give one a
genuine bounce? (11)
DOWN
1 U.S. writer possibly led this team round lake with poor actor (8,7) 2 It could be plain
maritime sport (7) 3 Aristocrat on eastern side of county is ahead of schedule (5) 4 Philip’s son, a learned eccentric carrying cross (9) 5 Undecided, describing
Thomas’s expertise? (2,5) 6 Maybe, one key point here essentially with society for statisticians? (6,9) 7 Stamp out drink in
the Highlands? (6) 8 Occasion in old yard
for dramatist Sean (6) 16 Photo Neil reproduced making one aware of information? (2,3,4) 18 Elevates entertainers
touring India (6) 19 Child caught on a
Spanish island (7) 21 Chap embracing partner, nothing less, in Worcestershire town (7) 23 Most suitable part in American establishment (6) 25 Actor Timothy is special
ahead of everyone (5)