ETCETERA; BRIDGE

SOURCES of material in the bridge world are not always reliable. I was recently shown a slam hand and told by my informant that he had been able to claim his contract on a double squeeze at trick 8. I nodded and was given the full story.

A long auction led South to Seven No-trumps. After winning the heart lead in dummy, declarer played off his top diamonds to reveal that West guarded the suit. Next came the remaining top hearts on which dummy threw two diamonds and a spade. When South followed with the Ring and another spade towards the table, West showed out, and declarer claimed - explaining that after he had cashed dummy's two top spades one of his opponents would be squeezed. Very neat - as you can see West had to keep the queen of diamonds, and East the jack of spades. However the suit was first distributed, neither opponent could leave himself with four clubs.

Later I met West. "I made a stupid lead against that Seven No-trump hand," he said, "I chose nine of spades and gave South his thirteenth trick. I'm sure he would have gone down otherwise." I shan't trust South as a source again. He'd had time to get his story straight!

Game all; dealer South

North

] AA Q 7 6 5

_ J

+ 10 8 6 5 3

[ Q 2

West East

] 9 ] J 8 4 3 2 _ 10 8 6 2 _ 9 7 4 3

+ Q 7 4 2 + 9

[ J 9 6 4 [ 10 7 5

South

] K 10

_ A K Q 5

+ A K J

[ A K 8 3