Sometimes a results sheet comprised of very similar scores is shaken by the appearance of one far-fetched score that seems to have come from the fourth dimension. Did the scorekeeper make a mistake? Did someone misclick? Or did one pair simply outplay the rest of the field?

One this deal the scoresheet begin to fill with almost identical results. Every North bid and made nil and every South bid and made a 3- or 4-bid. East/West settled for making their 9-bid. a 130-90 score was typical. The final entry, however, was a score of 0-230 favoring East/West. No, there was no craziness involved. This result was achieved rationally when a strong E/W pair achieved a rare double set against capable opponents.

6 J762 Q9865 852 AKQ9842 103 K Q64 J75 94 107432 AJ7 103 AKQ85 AJ K1093 East South West North 2 4 7 nil South led the A

South won the A, collecting the K, Q, and 3. Her Jack was now boss (but watch how East handles the diamond suit.) South now played the AK and was 3/4 of the way home to her solid 4-bid. When she tried to cash the J, West trumped with a middle spade. After cashing the A, West led the 2, not knowing what would happen. When North discarded the 8, East stepped up with the J.

"Unbelievable!" was North's comment as he was forced to eat East's 2 return. North got off lead with another diamond, but East cashed his boss 107 to enable his partner to discard his last two clubs (one had gone on the 2 trick). Down to only spades, West won the remainder. Let's see... that's 90 points for the E/W bid, 100 points for the nil set, and 40 more for beating up on South. Yep, 230 points. The scorekeeper was right, as usual.