Hand of the month - Blackpool Sour

I enjoy playing the Year End Congress at Blackpool, where we meet new faces, some of them famous.
In the Swiss Pairs we got off to quite a good start, with the result that on round five we found ourselves against two famous names. We really felt we were holding our own, but with no travellers it was hard to be sure. Then came this board (rotated for convenience):

N/S Vul.

Dealer N

	A J 7
	A 9 8 6
	A 7
	Q 10 8 4

	10 8
	K Q 7 5 2
	9 4
	A 7 6 2

	N
W		E
	S

	K Q 6 4 3 2
	-
	J 8 6 3 2
	9 5

North

East

South

West

	9 5
	J 10 4 3
	K Q 10 5
	K J 3

1
X

2
3

-
3

-
X

Partner was dealer and opened 1

(playing 5-card majors). East overcalled 2

. We do not play negative doubles, so I passed and partner doubled protectively. East now bid 3

and I bid 3

, fairly confident we had them. Before partner could raise me to game West doubled and led the

9. East played the J, so my only real concern was the bad trump break foretold by the double. Accordingly I won and played the

3, and West split his honours as I won with the A. I then played the

4 to 9, K, and A and West exited with his

10. I won and unblocked the

A, came back to hand with a club and played winning diamonds through West's trumps; so he threw his cards on the table, conceding an overtrick. West asked East what on earth he was bidding on, and East asked West why he had to double and expose the trump position; and having done so why he didn't lead a spade to begin with. Things got a little heated, then a couple of boards later West put East in 7NT which relied on a finesse. East complained like mad until he led ace and another heart for the finesse and my doubleton Queen appeared on his left.
When we got the results, my 3

+ 1 doubled was a complete top. The 7NT was a shared top for them, and three of the boards we felt were ok were in fact bottoms, and they beat us 20-0. During the break, I passed West in the lounge, and he was saying to somebody "... if he talks to me like that again, I'll knock his head off". They finished the event in second place, but next day they had different partners and my partner heard East telling someone "we won't be playing together again". We can't be sure what they were talking about...

N/S Vul.

Dealer E

	-
	K 10 9 8
	J 6 4 3
	K J 8 5 4

	K 10 9 7 3 2
	A 7 5 2
	5
	10 7

	N
W		E
	S

	J 8 6
	Q J 6 4
	10 8 7
	Q 9 3

	A Q 5 4
	3
	A K Q 9 2
	A 6 2

East passed, and I opened 1

, soon arriving in 6 after partner admitted support. How do you play on the lead of

A followed by

2? Well, I could throw a spade on the

K, then if the clubs behaved the others could go on clubs. Accordingly that was the line I took and of course the club finesse failed for yet another bottom. Idiot! The finesse was a 50% chance but all I really needed was for the clubs to break 3-2, a 68% chance. What I should have done was to discard a club on the

K. Then I could draw trumps and ruff the third round of clubs, dropping the Queen wherever she was.