put paid to

Last year a study put paid to magical thinking.

If there was any lingering doubt Mikey Lewis would be in contention to start for England in the first Test of the Ashes series against Australia in two weeks' time then his performance for Hull KR on Saturday surely put paid to that.

Philippe Clement started the year overseeing a 3-0 win over Celtic but poor domestic results thereafter, including a Scottish Cup defeat at home by second-tier Queen's Park, eventually put paid to the Belgian's time in charge.

Earlier in his athletics career, Pembroke was targeting the London 2012 Olympics before an elbow injury put paid to that dream.

But later discoveries of rare earth minerals and abundant oil and gas put paid to that label.