Bridge

A church secretary might have recast this item in a weekly newsletter:

“The ‘Spiritually Spontaneous’ service will begin promptly at 4:30 as scheduled.”

Spontaneity is seldom a winning approach to dummy play. Good declarers plan, then play. In today’s deal, West led the king of hearts against four spades, and South ruffed and took the ace of trumps. He next tried a diamond to dummy’s jack. East produced the queen and led the queen of clubs, and the defense took three clubs for down one.

South’s play was spontaneous but not accurate. He can pitch a diamond at Trick One -- a loser-on-loser -- instead of ruffing. If West shifts to a diamond, South takes the king, leads a trump to dummy’s eight and ruffs a heart. He takes the ace of diamonds, ruffs dummy’s last diamond, leads a trump to dummy and returns the queen of hearts, pitching a club: another loseron-loser.

When West wins, he must lead a club, letting South’s king score, or concede a ruff-sluff.