In my Christmas Competition, you had to plan the play in four hearts after West led the diamond 10.

You win with the ace, draw trumps, and lead your remaining diamond.

If West plays low, put in dummy’s seven. Then you cannot go down! Suppose East returns a diamond. You discard a spade from hand, cash the spade ace, ruff a spade, return to dummy with a trump, ruff the last spade, and play a club to the jack. You must either get a club trick or benefit from a ruff-and-sluff.

If West puts up the diamond eight or nine at trick four, win with dummy’s king and lead the diamond seven. If East covers, discard a spade. Here, again, you make the contract by eliminating spades and endplaying East in clubs. Or, if East plays a low diamond, you ruff and continue with the spade jack. If West does not cover, you play low from dummy and once more will get home. Or, if West covers with the spade queen or king, you win with the ace and lead back a spade. If East wins that trick, you are safe. At the worst, West takes this trick and shifts to a club. Then you must hope that West has one of the high clubs (as you must if hearts are 3-0).

For the second question, giving a bidding sequence after East opens one diamond, please refer to the diagram (but I accepted anything sensible). In my auction, North’s two-diamond cue-bid shows heart support and at least game-invitational values.

The winner will be announced in the column of Saturday, March 19.