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An interesting and subtle hand?

Leicestershire have an annual "George Taylor" sims and annually my partner and I swear "never again" because the selected hands are so vicious. This time however, one of the hands was described in the booklet as "interesting and subtle":

Board 18. N/S Vul. Dealer E	K 2 9 7 5 2 J 9 7 4 8 7 5
Q 9 4 Q 6 4 3 K 8 2 Q T 3	N   W E   S	8 6 K J 8 A Q T 3 A K J 9	East	South	West	North
	A J T 7 5 3 A T 6 5 6 4 2		1 2	1 -	X 3_NT	-

The bidding was in line with the book, but the play wasn't.

The book says that originally, North obediently led his K, 2 and West with 8 tricks off the top had to play four rounds of clubs to check South's discard. When S discarded the T (rather than a subtle winning spade) West (assuming S had the A) had a count and finessed the diamonds correctly.

At our table, sitting North, I "knew" that with strange hands you should sometimes do strange things (not always with success). Hence, I led the 2! Partner won, & not sure what was going on, returned the Jack. Poor East tried the Queen but my now-bare King took it and the obvious switch to partner's Ace gave us the first seven tricks.

That top was so enjoyable, we may play again next year.