Alan Hiron -1933-1999

ALAN HIRON, Bridge Correspondent of The Independent on Sunday, has died. He was 66. He had been writing for the IoS since its launch in 1990.

Educated at Latymer School, Edmonton, and University College London, he lectured at the London School of Bridge, where he was known affectionately as "the headmaster", for 29 years.

Hiron won many British events, but perhaps his most dramatic was in 1964 when he won the British Premier team event, the Gold Cup, when he turned a substantial deficit into the narrowest of wins by one point. His partner was Albert Dormer. They teamed up again in 1990 to play in the first ever World Senior Pairs Championship and won the Gold Medal for Great Britain.

Hiron married Maureen Berman in 1983. She also represented Great Britain and England at bridge, and they often played together. In 1982 they formed Hiron Games to market the game Continuo; they also wrote quiz books and were question consultants on the Channel 4 quiz show Fifteen To One, first screened in 1988. In the early 1990s they moved to Spain, where Alan died on Monday.