Opening leads against slams can turn out to be match winners or match losers. Why just the other day I was involved in a team of 4 ( aggregate scoring ) knock-out match......... and despite my first half heroics we were well down at the break. Then came a succession of very flat part-score boards, where very little was clawed back. However, when the penultimate board came along the miracle happened. Sitting South I was declarer in a vulnerable 6H contract....doubled and redoubled. East, who made the double had already competed with his two suited diamond/spade hand ). I held Qx....KQ9xxx....Kx....10xx, while my partner had been bidding on AK10x.....AJ10x......(void).....KJ9xx. East of course had made a lightner double for an obvious club lead, but my redouble was a pure gamble, because instinct told me we needed a really big result here to win this match.
Everything now depended on what card emerged from West's hand for the opening lead. Had my redouble somehow added confusion to an already foggy mind. Who knows ? But what did emerge from this inept defender was the 6 of spades !! The miracle of walking on water was about to unfold. I naturally took the trick in hand, ruffed a diamond, came back across to my trump queen, for a another diamond ruff with the Ace of hearts. I then played a heart from dummy to run out 5 heart winners in hand. Nine tricks were safely in the bag.
Poor East was squeezed. He couldn't guard spades without having to pitch the queen of clubs, and so a simple throw in with a club resulted in him being end played in spades. Reading his hand required simple logic and deduction, but the walking on water always required a great big dollop of help from The One above. That bumbledog lead resulted in a gain of 3220 points ( +2220 as opposed to -1000 ).......and so the " walking " continued as we sneaked home to an improbable victory by a mere 140 points.
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