Quinn's Triple Play

by Mark Horton

In baseball, an unassisted triple play occurs when a defensive player makes all three putouts by himself in one continuous play, without any teammates touching the ball. In Major League Baseball, it is the rarest of individual feats and in the long history of the World Series (which started in 1903) there has been only one such occurance, when Bill Wambsganns became a baseball legend during the 1920 World Series, when as a second baseman for the Cleveland Indians he completed an unassisted triple play against the Brooklyn Dodgers. During the fifth inning of Game 5 with base runners on first and second, a sharp line drive was hit to Wambsganns who caught it, stepped on second base and then tagged the runner coming from first.

In bridge terms a simple squeeze is common and a double squeeze is reasonably frequent. But a triple squeeze is simply not an everyday occurrence, especially in the rarefied atmosphere of a World Championship.

However, when the opportunity arose in the Venice Cup bronze medal decider between France and USA 2, Shawn Quinn was able to demonstrate her considerable talents on this deal:

Dealer South. All Vul
	♠ A J 3 ♥ J ♦ K J 10 7 6 ♣ K J 8 7
♠ 10 8 4 2 ♥ 8 6 2 ♦ Q 8 5 ♣ 6 4 2		♠ Q 9 7 ♥ Q 9 7 5 3 ♦ ♣ A Q 10 5 3
	♠ K 6 5 ♥ A K 10 4 ♦ A 9 4 3 2 ♣ 9

Closed Room

2♦ Inverted

West led the two of clubs for the jack and queen and East switched to the three of hearts. Declarer put up the ace, cashed the ace of diamonds, East discarding the five of hearts, played a diamond to the jack (this time East pitched a club), ruffed a club, ruffed a heart, ruffed another club to reach this position:

	♠ A J 3 ♥ ♦ K 10 ♣ K
♠ 10 8 4 2 ♥ 8 ♦ Q ♣		♠ Q 9 7 ♥ Q 9 ♦ ♣ A
	♠ K 6 5 ♥ K 10 ♦ 9 ♣