Haggis at the Helm

By Maureen Hiron

Board 16. Dealer West. East-West Vul.
	♠ J 9 5 ♥ A Q 8 3 ♦ J 6 3 ♣ A J 7
♠ K Q 8 6 ♥ J 6 4 ♦ Q 9 5 ♣ K Q 10		♠ A 3 2 ♥ K 10 2 ♦ 10 8 7 2 ♣ 8 5 3
	♠ 10 7 4 ♥ 9 7 5 ♦ A K 4 ♣ 9 6 4 2

West	North	East	South
Nissan Rand		Irving Gordon
		(Haggis)
1♣	Dble	1NT	All Pass

South led ace, king and a third diamond, which did Haggis' cause no harm, establishing two tricks for him in the suit. North being marked with most, if not all of the outstanding honour cards, Haggis continued with dummy's king of clubs, and when this held, followed with a low heart to the ten. Then came a spade to the king, back to the spade ace, and the ten of diamonds, on which dummy's jack of hearts was ditched, North parting with a spade. A spade to the queen left this position.

	♠ – ♥ A Q ♦ – ♣ A J
♠ 8 ♥ 6 ♦ –		♠ – ♥ K 2 ♦ –
	immaterial

The 13th spade squeezed North, for Haggis to emerge with two of the last four tricks - nine in total - and 86% of the matchpoints.