Playing in 1NT (East hand), against Roy Harris (South) and Albert Bayley (North), I received the D3 lead. I played small from dummy and was very pleased when North's jack was played. My king jumped on the jack with two heavy feet and immediately took the diamond finesse - Albert (North) playing sma... the ten! Feeling suddenly dizzy, I recovered thinking that all was not lost.

A small heart was returned, Roy winning with the king. Another heart was returned and Albert put in the ten! Hmm. I can't ditch the HQ now. The only chance now is to win and exit with a heart or play a spade to the nine. I opted for the heart exit. Albert took his two heart tricks and exited with a spade to his partner's ace. A spade return and Albert inserted his ten! Hmm. I won with the spade queen and exited with a spade. Albert won with his king and sent a club through. (Don't they want me to get to dummy?) At least it was a free finesse. I played the queen which lost to the king. A club came back, the 9 forcing out my jack. Now my luck changed - the clubs split 3-3 so I won the last three tricks.

To summarise my tricks I won one spade, one heart, one diamond and three clubs. What a way to get a bottom. Other tables made between 7 and 9 tricks in no-trumps.

Postscript

Perhaps I should have played a club at trick 2, but playing pairs, I give up the chance of a doubleton Kx of clubs to my right.

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