You hold:

and you work out that you need so little from partner to make a game, that you should open with 2♣ rather than 1♠, for fear that 1♠ will be passed out.

The bidding then proceeds 2♥  from partner, 2♠  from you, 4♠ from partner.

Can you form an accurate picture of partner's hand, and what should you bid next? Send your description of partner's hand, and your next bid, to grahamcox1954@yahoo.co.uk and the best answer will receive a prize!

Your partner has done their best to describe their hand to you as accurately as possible, and you can draw a number of inferences from their bidding:

Inference 1: Partner has shown a worthwhile heart suit. Because you hold the A♥ , their suit must be at least as good as ♥ KQJxx or ♥ KQ10xxx

Inference 2: After a positive response to 2♣ , both partners should appreciate that they will not stop short of game. But partner didn't bid 3♠, they bid 4♠ , which must mean that they have a good heart suit, support for spades, and no aces or controls in the other suits. They must have a spade suit which rates to ensure no losers in the suit, something like ♠Jxx

We can now count 6 ♠  tricks, 5 likely ♥  tricks, and the A♦, bringing our total to 12. We know that partner doesn't have A♣ , so we can bid 6♠ with supreme confidence. Even if the heart suit breaks very badly, we still have the alternative of a diamond  finesse in reserve.

Thankyou to all those who entered, many of whom came close to partner's actual hand, which was:

The runner-up was George Farnan, and the winning entry was submitted by Amalia Jobes- congratulations!