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Today's hand was played in 1933 in a USA-
England match, featuring Ely Culbertson, who
described the 4 bid as bad and the 4NT bid
as a brilliant rescue bid! South was Colonel
Beasley, for England. It's recorded that he won
the lead in dummy, cashed four diamonds and
three spades, and then led the king of clubs
and a club. West won two club tricks and had
to lead the ace and queen of hearts at tricks
12 and 13. Making four.

This hand appears in an article by Tom Dawson
in the enjoyably new book Northern Lights, edited
by Ray and Linda Lee (Masterpoint Press,
$16.95 + shipping, orders accepted by email
at granovetterm@gmail.com).

No doubt you spotted a better play at trick one:
Duck the opening lead. This protects against
West holding three clubs, and East can't
get the lead. Personally, we prefer South's
bidding to North's. North should hold a more
distributional hand for his 3 bid; he should
simply have rebid 3NT over 2NT.

Have a nice weekend!