It was the end of three gruelling days of bridge. We had just played the last round of the national swiss pairs tournament in Russell Square, London. Luke Porter and I were triumphant having won the national Under-25 pairs Championship the previous day, but the standard of bridge had fallen - everyone was tired from playing lots and lots of bridge. Polling the pairs from Durham and Cambridge university who were sitting in the imaginatively named "London Pub", I found that Rob Morris and Bryony Youngs were ahead of several more experienced pairs including ourselves.

The most talked-about hand had occured when Luke and I were fighting to get to the pub having given up hope.

Well with none vulnerable at pairs and East dealer, what should happen on this board? East's 1 opening will most likely attract a 2 overcall from South, and unless East-West get too excited about their club fit, a sound 3NT should be making eleven tricks for 460.

I had bettered that auction with some punting.

Pretty "conventional" slam with only 11 tricks, also missing an Ace and King in the same suit.

I received a spade lead and realising that I only had 11 tricks, decided that if the cards lie as they do then I could squeeze south into unguarding the spades in preference to keeping diamonds. However to do this I had to rectify the count. So with diamonds being the only suit to do this in, I cross to dummy and led a diamond to the Q and A. He didn't return a diamond, so my squeeze (which only exists in their minds) was ready.

Sadly, South unguarded spades, but the North player was awake and managed to guard them. I went off one for -100

I was pretty pleased, had an interesting hand with all the makings of poor bridge. Later on I talked to Ryan Stephenson, from the team that won the B Flight. His team was perhaps a little strong for the field they elected to play in, but their choice was justified on this hand. Ryan was defending this 6NT, and on the same line, unguarded the spades and let a no play slam through, to much amusement in the bar.

Still more was made of this board, and poor bridge it was. Even beating the poorness this board had encountered earlier.

While we were finished and in the pub, Bryony Youngs and Rob Morris were playing Charles Leong and Dom Goodwin. Now came a real tale:

This was the last hand and everyone was desperate to get away. The auction was quite surreal.

The final contract was 6 by South! Undoubled, non-vulnerable.

After the usual weak jump overcall, Charles, sat North, made a fit non jump bid as a psyche, and Dom asked him which slam would be the best sacrifice against Rob and Bryony's probable slam.

Charles being happy to play in anything undoubled opted to pass. Rob felt no need to double, but regretted this when the auction got round to Bryony, who (no doubt affected by the time pressure) decided that if Rob didn't have a double, she would rather defend clubs undoubled than spades doubled. Anyway, many excuses were made after the hand, but the fact is that neither, yes neither defender doubled.

Now, 6 by East-West has two top losers on a diamond lead, but with West on lead, twelve tricks can be taken, scoring 550 points. This scores a top against the highest making contract, 3NT. Even if South gets on lead and cashes AK, +500 E/W is still a good score. But it gets worse. Rob led the K. Trumps were drawn ending in East, leaving defenders free to cash out in Hearts and Spades. But no, a diamond switch gave declarer a third trick, letting the opponents thoroughly off the hook. North-South -450, against a par score of -460. At matchpoints.

By only going nine tricks off, South had found a great sacrifice against 3NT.