A lot of the hands in this column have recurring themes, and one of them is to force the opponents to help you when you are playing a hand. Often the cards will be placed so that you can do that quite easily, but more often than not you will need a little preparation.

See the hand and bidding in Figure 1.

This deal came up in a team game and both sides reached the heart slam on similar auctions – since South’s one heart bid guarantees only five points North must have 18 plus to jump to four hearts – recognising this, South drove to the slam which needed some playing.

The opening lead was the Queen of clubs.

The first declarer won the opening lead with the Ace of clubs and, as he was a straightforward “eight ever, nine never” sort of player, he continued with the Ace and King of trumps.

When West showed out on this trick, declarer eventually had to rely on the diamond finesse. This failed too, and the slam was down one.

At the other table, after winning the first trick with the Ace of clubs, declarer realised that he could improve his chances of making by playing to eliminate the black suits.

So, declarer cashed the King of clubs and ruffed dummy’s last club, eliminating that suit. Next, he took the King and Ace of spades then ruffed his remaining spade in dummy, eliminating that suit too.

This was now the situation (see Figure 2):

After this preparation, declarer played the Ace and another trump, and when East followed low he knew it was safe to insert the Jack of trumps. If the finesse lost to an original doubleton Queen with West, that player would find that he was end-played.

West would then have to play a diamond into declarer’s King-Jack tenace, or concede a ruff-and-discard. In the latter case, declarer would ruff in dummy and throw a diamond from hand. As the cards lay, the trump finesse succeeded and 12 tricks were guaranteed.

What often stops players from making these plays is the ever present fear of an opponent ruffing or over-ruffing, and to be a good declarer one must get over that.

Once in a while it will happen, but to play the hands well one must overcome that fear, especially when there have been no fireworks in the bidding.

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, August 8

North/South

1 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2 Jane Smith/Margaret Way

East/West

1 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2 Gertrude Barker/Betsy Baillie

Monday, August 11

North/South

1 Jack Rhind/Judith Bussell

2 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

3 Judy King/Martha Ferguson

East/West

1 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

3 Caroline Svenson/Jane Clipper

Tuesday, August 12

North/South

1 Malcolm Moseley/Finn Moseley

2 Ross Cooper/Desiree Woods

3 James Mulderig/Kim Simmons

East/West

1 Tracey Pitt/David Leach

2 Andy McComb/Jacques Bonneau

3Vivian Pereira/Sharon Andrews

Wednesday, August 13

1 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2 Jack Rhind/Judith Bussell

3 Sheena Rayer/Magda Farag

Thursday, August 14

1 Judith Bussell/Gertrude Barker

2 Gareth Cooper/Maximillian Santiago

3 Miodrag Novakovic/Margaret Way