Against six clubs, declarer received the heart king lead and threw her heart loser on the top diamonds. She proceeded to ruff her long spades in dummy, starting with the ace, the king and a ruff, then a heart ruff, a spade ruff and another heart ruff. Declarer retained four trumps in the endgame but had to lose two tricks to East’s Q-10-4.
If declarer intended to pursue the crossruff line, it seems best to ruff a heart before taking any spade ruffs. Then she could ruff a diamond in hand too, reaching a three-card ending with the club K-J-9, and could survive by playing either the jack or nine out of hand at the finish.
A much better line for declarer is simply to ruff one or two diamonds in hand from the get-go, intending to establish dummy’s suit rather than score spade ruffs.
Say declarer ruffs a diamond at trick four. If East were to discard a spade, declarer could cross back to dummy with the club ace, ruff another diamond and cash the club king. She could then force out the club queen and claim. If East discards a heart, declarer might opt for a crossruff instead. If West were to overruff the third diamond trick, declarer could regain the lead and draw two rounds of trumps ending in dummy, in the hope that they were now splitting evenly, and then continue as before. Here, with both defenders following to the third diamond, declarer finesses clubs for 13 tricks.