To paraphrase E.L. Wisty, the late, great Peter Cook’s alter ego, ‘Some people are born lazy, some become lazy and some have laziness thrust upon them.’ If you are any of these, there are going to be some contracts that you could make but don’t. I speak from years of experience!

The more we play, the better we become at recognising patterns and we instinctively know how to play many hands. But even for the best players, hands do come along where the only way to find the right line is to play it through in your head, all the way to the end.

This hand stumped an international player, when he didn’t put enough work in. Would you have done any better? (See Diagram)

N/S certainly didn’t leave anything unbid; when North found out about his partner’s solid Spades and the ♣K, he pushed all the way to the reasonable grand.

West started with a traditional trump lead – and now it’s time to go to work! You can either stop here and work out the winning line or, if you’re feeling lazy, jump to the explanation.

At the table, South cashed the King of Clubs at trick two, and followed up with putting -50 on the score card. In effect, it made dummy’s Clubs good ‘too soon’. The line – as you have no doubt spotted – is a Diamond to the Ace, back with the ♣K, ◆ruff, ♣ruff, ◆ruff and another ♣ruff. Needing a 4-3 break in Clubs, we now have two winners in dummy for our Hearts, and can draw trump and claim.