West chose a terrific time to lead a trump. This lead prevented South from ducking a spade and then ruffing a spade for his tenth trick, assuming a winning finesse in diamonds. Declarer would now have to find a way to score a club trick in order to succeed.

The opening lead went to dummy’s nine, East’s jack, and declarer’s ace. South led the king of clubs from his hand, won by West, who persevered with another trump. Dummy’s queen won this perforce, and declarer led the jack of clubs from dummy, discarding a spade as West won with the queen. The spade shift went to the jack, king, and ace.

South now drew the last trump and led the jack of diamonds, covered by the king and won with dummy’s ace. When the 10 of clubs appeared on the next club, South ruffed, crossed back to dummy with the queen of diamonds, and discarded two spades on the eight and six of clubs. Making five! Oddly, West might have prevented the overtrick by not covering the jack of diamonds. Declarer would take a third diamond trick, but no club tricks. South could still get the overtrick by overtaking the jack of diamonds with the queen and leading a club, but that would be a bizarre play.

Speaking of strange plays, West could have defeated the contract by leading the king of diamonds after winning the ace of clubs! Readers can have fun following South’s choices after that play.