[lamford]

---

"What do you make of this traveller?", asked Holmes, arriving at the Baker St Bridge Club, 221b Baker Street.
"Very odd," replied Watson. "It must have been misboarded, I presume. EW made slam (6NT, 6H or 6D) at all tables except one in which NS made 7NT and one where 6NT went one off."
"On the contrary, the result was correct." "But did you not notice that EW were Lord Dunsany and his wife Lady Beatrice Child Villiers?"
"Good gracious, how did you deduce that?", responded Watson.

"Elementary," responded Holmes, "Lady Villiers has a bad habit of showing her hand to her partner before the opening lead. Also the writing of 7NT= is of one who is an expert in Calligraphy, and a writer of some 90 books would have that skill. And he always scores, whichever seat he is in. They clearly reached 6NT by East and West showed her hand to her partner before the final pass. Now South, a chap called Charlie, bid 7NT and was entitled to treat every West card as a major penalty card, as they had been "exposed" during the auction. It is a simple matter now, Watson, for you to construct the whole deal. 7NT cannot be beaten even by best defence. And East does not have any penalty cards; Lord Dunsany is always very careful! And 6NT was one off on best defence, which I think makes West's hand unique."

So, over to you. Solution after Xmas. As ever, post "solved" rather than the solution.

[Cyberyeti]

solved

[DavidKok]

Solved. That Sherlock is a sharp fellow!

[mikeh]

Solved, though my solution suggests that E-W had a very strange auction, lol

[lamford]

mikeh, on 2025-December-12, 11:23, said:

Solved, though my solution suggests that E-W had a very strange auction, lol

I wonder then if you have solved. It is important that there was a 6NT-1 on the traveller, which rules out a large number of plausible layouts. It might be useful to reveal the different scores on the traveller: 6H=, 6D=, 6NT= and 6NT-1 all by East-West and 7NT= by South. Cyberyeti certainly found a solution if 6NT needs poor defence to make. For clarification, on the actual hand, 6NT by EW is either one off or makes depending on the opening lead.. 7NT by South is cold (in the given situation).