What does the word “single” mean?

Obviously, it depends upon context. It can be one (not two or more), or unmarried, or a baseball hit that gets a runner to first base. In today’s deal, a single suit caused numerous problems in a duplicate tournament. Every South was in four spades. Each faced the start of three rounds of clubs. After that, though, the paths diverged. What should the declarers have done?

South was tempted to add an extra point (because of his good five-card suit) and open two no-trump. But the low doubleton club was a distinct minus feature. That North hand, as single raises go, on a scale from one to 10, would be rated much closer to one than to 10.

South starts with four potential losers: one spade, one heart and two clubs. He cannot do anything about the rounded suits, so he must hope that East has the spade king and can be finessed out of that card.

The majority of the declarers in this tournament ruffed the third club low, crossed to dummy with a heart, and ran the spade jack. Great, it won. So they continued with a spade to the queen, but West’s diamond discard was a rude jolt. Suddenly the contract had to fail by a single trick.

The few farsighted Souths ruffed the third club with the spade nine or 10. Then, after crossing to the board with a heart, they ran the spade eight, underplaying their four. Then they could pass the spade jack, play a spade to the queen, cash the spade ace to catch East’s king, and claim.

Study this suit combination and its close cousins.