We are into the summer doldrums at the Bridge Club and the some pairs will be preparing for the ACBL Summer Nationals at the end of July … I’ll bring you any success stories! Locally, the highlight of the week was the email from Richard Gray asking us to settle our bar bills … so, onto the hand!Bridge, as we know, consists of three main areas - bidding, declarer play and defence. At the top level of the game there is no doubt that bidding is by far the greatest factor in winning or losing, as the top players are usually almost card perfect in declarer play and pretty close to that in defence. At the Club level, however, the standard of declarer play is so varied that it becomes a major determinant in the results.A huge part of declarer play is in the planning and the approach, and too many declarers are just too lazy to spend time on that, and that usually proves costly.This hand is a great example of both:Board 1. Love All. Dealer NorthS-AQ964H-K3D-K92C-542S-J1075 S-noneH-J10954 H-8762D-none D-108654C-K983 C-Q1076S-K832H-AQD-AQJ73C-AJI’ll give you the bidding …..it is complex as this was clearly a practised pair, but while you may not learn a lot from it, it is worth admiring !NORTH SOUTH1S 3D4D 4NT5S 5NT6H 7NTThe 3 diamonds showed a suit but also showed spade support, 4 diamonds was natural, 4NT was two-suit Roman Key Card Blackwood in spades and diamonds , 5 spades showed two key cards and a key queen in diamonds/spades, 5NT asked for specific kings, 5 hearts promised the heart king but denied the club king! And 7NT was … to play! Great, great sequence !When dummy comes down it all looks too easy and this is where “approach” comes into play when it looks like you need a miracle play the hand as if it is going to happen. And when it all looks too good? Look hard for what can go wrong!Now to the planning - clearly on this hand it is all about the spades and diamonds. Spades first … if they break, fine, but if one player has four you can only handle it if that player is West - so play for that. King of Spades and East shows out … another spade to the 10 and Queen and the spade suit is now well positioned.Now to diamonds … East having a spade void he is more likely to hold the long diamonds so again the King is played from dummy and West shows out !! Now nine of diamonds to the 10 and jack, a spade to the nine, cash the spades pitching a club, a low diamond to the 7 and now claim 13 tricks !!The sort of hand that one can lie awake dreaming about …great system and great bidding backed up by just solid declarer play …. can’t ask for much more than that!