The Worst Lead of the Decade

I seem to concentrating lately on the most horrible plays at Dante's Infernal.  If someone were to make a good bid or play at the table, though, I would write about that.  Meanwhile, in the Wednesday Open Pairs...

When North opened the bidding with a strong 1NT, south wasted no time.  After transferring to Spades, a Key-Card Gerber sequence told her that opener held the queen of spades and the two missing aces.  That was plenty enough to chance a slam.

Having a relatively safe diamond lead available, east nevertheless opted for an inexplicable Deuce of Spades!  I kid you not, for I was there when it happened.

The lead of any other card in the woman's hand would have worked out better.  As it was, declarer won the first trick with the 5-spot and took all the rest as well — six spade winners, five diamonds, and two aces.

The most unfortunate part of this fiasco is that it went totally unpunished!  The overtrick proved immaterial, because no one else in the section bid a slam.

I can hear the likely postmortem:

"Why did you do that?"
"Fourth-best from longest and strongest, partner".