Evening star., 1938-04-03
In Local Bridge Circles
Five.Suit Bridge Assailed as Useless.

trled various innovations, such as
royals" "lillies," pirate bridge" or
"cut-throat bridge" and widow
bridge" none of which ever reached
first base, much less first bid. but
now he announces a new book on
the greens"
The objections which Washington
players offer to five-suit bridge are
many and varied, but all of them log
ical. 1t upsets the calcula tions and
skill Of the 100000 bridge players
OF the country and places them back
where they were when they abandoned
auction and took up contract. II the
players cannot gets sufficient relax
alton, recreation and amusement out
OF 52-card deck, how are they to
obtain either from a 65-card deck,
unweildy and difficult to handle?
Auction bridge is still played in the
provinces, and from them millions of
contract recruits have been obtained.
Will these auction players now hurdle
contract for the purpose Of jumping
into the "greens?"
The attempt to establish the
greens" Is q serious breach Of faith
with the American Contract Bridge
League which, after its consolidation
Of the two national bridge associ-
ations, has placed the game on a high
plane, somewhat akin to national
baseball. 1t adopted the bridge rules
promulgated three years ago by the
recognized national bridge authorities
of France, England and the United
States, which promised there would
be no change before 1940 All that
Is upset by the fve-suit deck. Also
it is breach of faith with the Ma
tional Committee on Standardization,
an organization comprising 80 ma
tlonally prominent bridge players, in
cluding 26 bridge editors and repre-
senting AZ States, of which F.. Dudley
Courtnay Is chairman, chief promoter
and codif1er. This code Is applicable
to any system and its sponsors guar
anteed to the bridge players that it
would remain in effect for period OF
five years. The five-suit deck puts
it at naught.
In order to win game in a minor
suit at greens" it is necessary to
make six-odd, IA tricks. A six bid is
small slam, consequently there can
be no such thing as minor suit
game A minor suit contract must
either be slam or a part score. The
slowing up of the game which results
from part scores is much greater
under the five-suit plan than in con-
tract bridge. In playing five-suit |
duplicate it is almost necessary, at
least in IS or 80 per cent of the deals. |
that the hand should be played at no.
trump
Two factors which have greatly
contributed to popularize contract and
make 1t a national game have been
the national and regional tourna-
ments and the duplicate games played
IN hundreds of localities, sponsored by |
the American Contract Bridge League.
Greens is not practical in either. if
Tor no other reason than that a suffi- |
clent number Of players cannot be |
educated in the game and corralled |
to play it. The league owes it to itself |
for its own protection as well as for
the protection and enjoyment of the |
millions 1t Is weaving away from auc-
ton to contract. to turn thumbs down |
on the greens" The five-sut deck
Is as useless and as impractical to
bridge as the fifth wheel would be to |
an automobile.
HE final pair and team games in |
the winter series of duplicates of
the Washington Bridge League will be
held at the Shoreham Hotel on the
first and third Wednesdays of April. |
the pair game next Wednesday and the
team game on April 20. In order to
qualify for the Big May team and the
Big June pair games members are re-
quired to have played in four of the
corresponding games of the winter
series.
The following are announced as ad-
ditional qualifiers for the team of four
May game: w. R. Bullion, Mrs. John
M. Evans, j. D. Granger. Mrs. c. r. |
Kavanaugh, w. r. Lewis, Mr.. and Mrs. |
NJ. E. Myers. Mrs. Dora Schwartz. Al |
Stidham, Lewis Tubbs. Carle Turner,
Mr.. and Mrs, M. H. Voss, G.. H. War;
then and Mrs. Evelyn Woodside. Ad- |
ditions to the June pair games are Mrs.
j. N. Barber, Mrs. Alma Byrne, Mrs. |
w. L. Clark, Miss Edith Cooper, 1t. |
Comdr. w. A. Corley. j. A. Dawkins, |
Miss L. A. Ehringer. D. C. Elliott, Mrs. |
w. S. Frisbie, Bruce Gore, j. D. Gran |