Evening star., 1937-07-18


i fectly or even nearly perfectly.
And there is no player who can ex-
rect to so through fourhour ses-
SION of the game without making mis-
takes seereeatine several thousand
rnjnts. Of course, by mistakes we
mean anything that costs points,
Every once in while. when the
experts get together for private
bridge game of their own, they decide
to keep what is known as crime
sheet This consists of a record Of
all errors and the points lost thereby.
1t might be thought that keeping
such a sheet would show Just who
are the best bridge players, much
more clearly than tournaments or
other results which depend upon the
actual points obtained. However,
even when a crime sheet is kept by
sides. not by players, it is impossible
to find any two experts who agree on
exactly what should be charged.
As matter of fact, many of their
ideas are ridiculous. For instance,
about a year ago, in the course of a
certain match, the dealer East
opened with a bid of three hearts.
South overcalled with three spades,
West passed Now North bid four dia
monds, which East doubled, and
South bid four spades, which was
doubled in turn and set 500 points.
But perfect defense would have set the
hand 100 points. At the same time
East and West could not make any
game However, on a crime sheet
kept by South, the following showed
up: North and South-600 points
Bad defense"
On that particular hand, East and
West got a pretty good result, since
they picked up 500 points where they
had no game, and South. keeping the
crime sheet, cot a very bad result,
since he went down 500 for no par
ticular reason.
IN THIS same match, East and West
reached a grand slam on hand IN
Which declarer held six trumps to the
ace-ten and dummy king jack-small
The PLAYER on lead SOUTH opened
one of his two small trumps, lmme-
dlately removing any guess from the
trump suit and allowing declarer to
spread the hand Easts crime sheet
now showed a charge against South,
who had made the bad lead, of 1910
points for bad lead" representing
500 points for the grand slam, 500
for the rubber, 2lo below the line, and
100 that East would have been penal
!7ed if he had gone down one
We remember discussing this matter
with East and asking, But how can
you possibly charge the man on lead
anvthing?" He said. We'll. if he
hadn't opened trumps I would have
played him for three to the queen.
fnessed on the second round and
lost the hand" Of course We don't
think our readers will see any logic
to Easts reasoning. Yet after three
hours of argument he still was con-
vlnced that ne was perfectly just-
fed in charging his opponent 2,31o
points.
The crime sheet is also about the
greatest "goat-getter" We know of
Some years ago George Reith and
Howard Schenken played lo-sesslon
match against Mr.. and Mrs Ely Gull
hertson at the Knickerbocker Whist
Club A week elapsed between ses-
SONS Of the match, which was even
tuallv won by Messrs, Schenken and
Feith. Mr.. Relth and Mr.. Culbertson
each kept a crime sheet A few hours
before each session Of play Mr.. Reth
would arrive at the club and post his
CRIME sheet for the preceding session
on the bulletin board. just as play
vas scheduled to start, Mr. Culbertson
would arrive, look at the bulletin
board, see Mr.. Relths crime sheet. and
practically turn purple with rage. He
would then produce his own crime
sheet and the start of the match would
he DELAYED some time while the two
vent into a lengthy argument about
their respective crime sheets. which
differed radically. One must have
been wrong, because invariably Mr..
Reith's crime sheet. which was item
lied by players, would show that he
tReith) had made the fewest mis-
takes, Mr.. Schenken the next few
est. Mrs Culbertson considerab bly
more than Mr. Schenken, and Mr..
Culbertson would be decidedly the
worst of the four; while Mr.. Culbert-
sons crime sheet would show Mr..
Feith as the worst player, Mr.. Schen-
ken next worst Mrs. Culbertson's
would be very good and Mr.. Culbert-
sons game practically errorless.
INCIDENTALLY, even though
crime sheet should be kept per-
fectly, It could not tell the whole story.
But ue Will say this-anv time
bridge player boasts that he has played
perfect game he has probably
played very poorly. since the only way
he can play perfect game Is to take
no chances: hence, the perfect PLAYER
picks up no points and is very easy
to play against.
Furthermore, when keeping A crime
sheet no effort should be made to seq
regate errors between partners. It
may be very gratifying to find that it
was your partners fault that the op-
ponents got away with slam contract
against you; but you pay for the slam
contract, too. Accordingly. here is
our suggestion to any PLAYER who
wishes TO And out whether his bridge
game is effective or not: Keep crime
sheet with both pluses and n1inuses,
taxing plus any time you get away