Summer has never been a good time for the Bridge Club — a lot of members are away and others find a few other things to do in the fresh air, so attendances suffer.

One thing one can do on a lazy afternoon or evening is read a bit of bridge and even practise bidding with partner online so that you are ready for the fall tournament season.

One aspect of the game that is worth working on is your mindset, especially when playing or defending a hand. So much of it is about looking ahead, developing a plan, and then, if things don’t go according to plan searching for a good plan B.

South on today’s hand was clearly not a planner and “played by feel” or “reflex”, or some other word for “carelessly”!

Take a good look at the hand, map out your plan ahead of time and then see how it all went once you see the recommended play. See the hand in Figure 1.

The bidding was easy – South opened a 15-17 NT and North, with no four-card major, had an easy raise to 3NT.

West led the Queen of hearts. Declarer took this with dummy’s Ace, then crossed to hand with a low club to his Ace to run the Queen of diamonds. Alas for him, East produced the King of diamonds.

Declarer ducked the heart continuation to West’s Jack. On winning the continuation of the nine of hearts with his King, declarer ran his four diamond tricks and then led a low club to dummy’s ten.

East won this with his Jack and shifted to a spade. Now declarer decided that nine of hearts was a signal that he held a spade card and cut his losses by winning the Ace of spades for his eighth and last trick.

South bemoaned his misfortune but North was having none of it. “Yes, if the King of diamonds had been onside or East held the King of clubs without the Jack you would have made the contract.

“However, instead of focusing on what could go right (the diamond finesse) you should have turned your attention to the best option for developing a ninth trick if the diamond King was offside.

“Once you think along those lines you should recognise that the best hope for an extra trick outside of diamonds is in spades. So, after winning the first trick with the Ace of hearts, you should lead a spade to the ten. As the cards lay, West would take this with the King and likely shift to a club as he cannot continue hearts.

“Now, after winning this with your Ace of clubs, you run the Queen of diamonds to East’s King. Then, after winning the heart return with the King, you would cross to dummy with a diamond and take a second spade finesse. After that wins, you have nine tricks: two spades, two hearts, four diamonds and a club.”

The hand, as North explained, is all about looking ahead and making a Plan B when Plan A fails – declarer did not do that and deservedly paid the price.

• Congratulations to Diana Diel and Elizabeth McKee for finishing first overall in a 202-pair event on BBO – Diana’s second first place finish in a week! Well done ladies, keep it going!

If any of our members finish top five in a 100-plus pair event, let me know for the column.

• David Ezekiel can be reached on davidezekiel999@gmail.com

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, July 21

1. Charles Hall-Diana Diel

2. Joseph Wakefield-Molly Taussig

3= Tony Saunders-Margaret Way

3= Aida Bostelmann-Heather Woolf

Monday, July 24

North/South

1. Jane Smith-Molly Taussig

2. Charles Hall-William Pollett

3. Sheena Rayner-Magda Farag

East/West

1. Patricia Siddle-Diana Diel

2. Barbara Cerra-Pat Cerra

3= Martha Ferguson-Judy King

3= Lorna Anderson-Heather Woolf

Tuesday, July 25

North/South

1. Tim Mardon-Richard Hall

2. Jamie Sapsford-Jane Downing

East/West

1. Malcolm Moseley-Mark Stevens

2. Sharon Andrews-Dorea Grant

Wednesday, July 26

1. Linda Pollett-William Pollett

2. Charles Hall-Tony Saunders

3. Martha Ferguson-Judy King

Thursday, July 27

North/South

1. Charles Hall-Magda Farag

2. Rachael Gosling-Benjamin Stone

East/West

1. Miodrag Novakovic-Margaret Way

2. Wendy Gray- Richard Gray