It's often said that leads are the most difficult part of the game — my partner certainly finds it difficult as he's often so deep in concentration that he has to be nudged out of his meditative state and told it's his lead — but we can make it easier for ourselves by remembering some simple rules. Like, lead the correct card according to partnership agreements so that at least one of you will have some idea of what's going on. And only lead when it's your turn. Some people aren't fond of stifling rules, though, and prefer a more free-wheeling approach to the game, as Cambridge's John Haslegrave shows.

This hand came up at an Eastern Counties League match, Cambridge University vs Essex.

The bidding looks sensible through 5, West judging that she was too strong to overcall 4. The Cambridge wheels came off at this point; I decided that Bruce's pass was forcing so he would have doubled with two heart losers. Maybe pass should be non-forcing (as looking at all four hands suggests), or maybe I should just double anyway, as I don't have much playing strength, and the five level belongs to the opponents. But I bid 5.

Things could now get very bad for us. West might double, and cash a club and some hearts. If East wants to try for a telephone number*, she can ruff the second heart without any risk of the contract making, switch to a diamond expecting to give a ruff, receive a second heart ruff and give a second diamond ruff. I would then have to explain yet another -1100 at the post-mortem.

Fortunately, this isn't exactly what happened. 5 was passed out, and West led the A. Seeing dummy, she decided to switch to a heart. The Queen, to be precise. East failed to read this as bottom of a sequence, and ruffed.

At this point, the contract could still go four off on the obvious diamond return. But West, oblivious to her partner's ruff, attempted to cash the K. I chose not to accept the lead, and although East did return a diamond to my ace, her partner had to play her major penalty card. I now drew trumps, overtook the 10 and ran the suit, making the contract and winning the beer!

* [An expression that's always amused me. It may have made some sense in the twenties when four-digit telephone numbers were normal, but nowadays you'd really have some explaining to do to your team-mates! —Ed]