I see there is still activity down at the Club over the summer and it’s not a bad idea for all players to set some time aside over the summer to work on their game — read a bit, learn some card combinations, and sit with your partner and go through your convention card and conventions and perhaps even do some bidding practice! The benefits are enormous.Alan Douglas has been doing a few things down at the Club, with some discussions on the convention card, a talk on Precision and now the ‘Ask Alan’ feature on the website.What he will also now be doing is helping me out with my column over the summer when I am travelling a fair bit — Alan will start with the July 27th column and go right through August.It will give me a chance to relax a bit without grappling with technology whilst travelling, and I hope the column readers will enjoy a new perspective for a few weeks.This week’s hand shows that there is more than one way to skin a cat — or beat a contract!Dealer East N/S VulnerableA10954Q5853103286 KQK4 J108762KQ92 J764AKQ98 5J732A93A10J764In both rooms in a Team game East opened a slightly off-colour weak 2H (only 1 point in the suit and 6 outside!) and both West’s raised straight to 4H. Remarkably, both South’s started the same way but only one recovered!The contract looks doomed with two Aces and two trumps to lose but ... Bridge is a strange game!In the Open Room South started with the Diamond Ace and continued with another diamond … declarer won this and quickly discarded two spades on the clubs, ruffed a spade in his hand and led a low heart ... when South played low the King won and now all the defence could make were two more heart tricks.In the Closed room the first six tricks went exactly the same but when declarer led a low heart David Bakshi from England sitting South, who teaches at the Andrew Robson Bridge Club, rose with the Ace of Hearts, led a club for partner to ruff with the queen, and partner David Gold now led back a diamond which was ruffed — down one. What an elegant way to recover!