BRIDGE NOTES: Defensive splinter bid shows its merit

Those many bridge experts, who decry the use of conventional bids, do approve of some of the conventional bids, which are very effective and comprehensive and without employing them in the course of bidding the pattern of hand cannot be fully described. One of such conventional bids is splinter raise which is a valuable asset in communicating the hand precisely to partner.
The splinter raises clearly convey three points in one bid. Firstly it conveys positive hand secondly good support in partner's suit thirdly and importantly is a singleton in the nominated bid. Normally a major suit fit is sort to take advantage of this bid.
Generally two-step raise bid in other than partner's opening suit in offensive bidding sequence is a splinter bid as described above. This particular bid ensures a game contract with 90% chance and it can also be stretched to a slam provided the partnership holding is more then average high card points or distribution value. But the splinter bid can be applied in defensive strategy also. Besides that the splinter bid has a wide variety of applications. Suffice it to say that the repeat of the splinter bid shows void in that suit.
Following is the deal, which explains defensive splinter bid, which was played in the quarterfinal of the Spingold National Team Championship played in Minneapolis in 1969 between Jay Becker and Dorothy Hayden.
The complete hand with bidding is noted below.
WEST LED 10 OF CLUB:
Dorothy Hayden, the declarer, took a good look at the dummy and immediately her face glowed with happy expression for bidding a game against the opening bid by opponents and then she being convinced of the merit of splinter bid saw the prospects of making a game with only two losers one in heart and another in spade.
She covered the 10 of clubs with dummy's jack of clubs, which held the trick and led the heart ten from dummy which was covered with the king of hearts by East and returned a club, which the South took with her ace of clubs. Later she played another heart and ruffed in dummy and came back to hand with the ace of spades and ruffed third heart in dummy, with the queen of diamonds and came back to hand with a small club in dummy and ruffed in hand with the ten of diamonds. At this point she was left with the queen of hearts, which was ruffed with the ace of diamonds in dummy and she played jack of diamonds and played the jack of spades from dummy which was won by the West with the queen and the opponent was helpless and moved back small spade which the South ruffed with three of diamonds and then finally she played king and eight of diamonds from hand to claim the contract. The way Dorothy bid and played the hand was a treat to watch and the kibitzers profusely complimented her for good bidding between North and South and good play by her.
DEALER SOUTH
BOTH-SIDES VULNERABLE:

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North          West          East          South

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S J 1053       S Q 974       S K 82        S A 6

H 10           H 8732        H AKJ 9     H Q 654

D AQJ 9        D 754         D 2       D K 10863

C QJ 85        C 107         C K 9642      C A 3

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THE BIDDING:

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West          North          East          South

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S J 1053       S Q 974       S K 82        S A 6

Pass           Pass          1 C             1 D

Pass           3 H           Db1             5 D

Pass           Pass          Pass              -

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