Evening star., 1938-08-28
In Local Bridge Circles
New Quarters for Federal Bridge League.

diamond support DID 1Ouf 0lomOnoS.
East bid five clubs, West five Spades,
East six diamonds, and Mrs. Wright
then bid six spades. figuring that IN
order to make q slam either In spades
or diamonds . spade finesse must be
made. and 1t was therefore As easy
to make one as the other. The missing
spade king was held by North and
was q doubleton which fell when East's
ace was played. The rest of the play
was lay down for seven spaces. the
same as would have been the case
with diamonds as the contract. In
some instances because East at one
stage had bid five clubs, Vests final
bid was six no-trump. While this
contract was made it did not get top
on the board because an opening lead
of clubs by North enabled South to
make his ace of that suit. Seven
spades were made on q bid Of six,
and the extra trick gave Mrs. Wright
tho spade bidder 80 points more than
were made on the six no-trump con-
tract.
CORDIAL relations are just being
restored among individual families
sojourning for the summer at Sher-
wood Forest, now that the result Of
the much discussed and much dis
puted match between the 20 men and
20 women team has been disclosed. Re-
marks OF husbands and wives are po-
litely received provided they contain
no reference to that bridge game, or,
in fact, to the game in general.
When Paul Golden finally figured
up the score he found that the men
had been successful. not merely sue
cessful, in a minor way. but over
whelmingly 50. The total score
schieved by the men exceeded that
made by the women. by approximately
$4,000 points. stable victory in any
contest Of rival bridge players.
"Oh. that can't be right, Mr.. Golden;
they didn't win by that much Margin"
protested one of the women when the
secretary Of the Washington Bridge
League posted the result in the COM
munity hall, but like the man in Jail
whose attorney told him he could not
be put in prison for the offense he was
alleged to have committed. there 1t was,
and Mr.. Golden insisted the figures
were correct 1t was a source of great
humiliation to the female contingent
at the resort, for they had confidently
expected that the contest would DEM
onstrate their prowess over the males,
SO much SO that some OF the women
talked Of allowing the men players a
handicap. This was overruled. how
ever. by the ma jority, and the men won
handsomely without it.
As the season is nearly over the de-
cision stands for this year with the
women reluctantly accepting 1t. AL
ready there are preliminary plans for a
1889 match which will be upon a little
different basis. A series OF boards
will be played with the male teams
pitted against the female teams. Then
the boards will be sealed and placed
in escrow. and month later they will
be brought out and reversed. so that
the teams will play the opposite set Of
boards from those they played in the
first session. That will be fair
test Of strength and the women con-
tend in such match they will win.
TOMMY" is the polite and efficient
servitor who attends the boys
at the National Press Club when they
gather there for their daily afternoon
sessions Of bridge. He has watched
the playing Of the game SO long and
so carefully that he knows all the
rules. practices and procedure and
could probably give a satisfactory
account Of himself II he were player.
One afternoon last week c. B. Pen
nebaker, an ace player at the game
and one Of "Tommy's" heroes, bid
himself into a vulnerable small-slam
contract which was doubled and re-
doubled. To the interested kibitzers
it looked as il the rubber were in
the bag. as the saying goes in bridge
parlance. The declarer took a neces-
sary finessee and allowed his adver-
saries to win the only trick to which
they were entitled. On the next lead.
however, Mr.. Pennebaker revoked, but
it was quite evident that his ad-
versaries did not note it. At that
moment Tommy" who was standing
behind his favorite and mentally
pulling for his success, suddenly
punched him vigorously in the ribs.
Mr.. Pennebaker calmly turned the
trick. then led another card which
made the revoke complete. and as
he did SO turned upon Tommy" and