Evening star., 1940-09-01
BRIDGE
The Game and
Its Players
By Frank B. Lord.

Its Players
By Frank B. Lord.
With the passing of summer and
the approach of autumn, Washing
ton duplicate bridge players are be-
ginning to discuss and consider their
game programs for the fall and win
ter season which generally starts
| about the middle of September.
Rubber bridge players are usually
not so much concerned with season
| and series games, but play when
ever and wherever a foursome can
be brought together.
Interest has been we'll sustained
locally, however, throughout the
warm weather, and the national and
| regional tournaments have been
well patronized. The Washington
Bridge League will continue its pair
games during September, varied
only by one session of team-of -four
game in the series for the second
Clifford Challenge Cup which must
be won Is times by one team before
it passes into their permanent pos
session.
There is now only one foursome
that has won 1t as many as four
times, so prospects are that 1t will
be in competition for another year
or more. The league plans To start
on its regular schedule of pair and
team games the first and third
Wednesdays of each month, begin
ming the first week in October.
The leagues District championship
matches will be held November to
10, inclusive.
The Executive Committee of the
Federal Bridge League has been
called by President H. r. Higgins to
meet Tuesday to formulate It's
schedule of games which will start
about the middle of this month and
continue until next April with
hiatus midway during the holidays.
The series will comprise team-of-
four games exclusively, with the ex-
ception of two or three pair games
! during the Christmas recess. Only
employees of the Federal or District
governments or members of the
Army, Navy or Marine Corps and
their immediate families are eligible
to membership.
There is likely to be some slight
changes made in the plan of award
ing prizes, so that no team will re-
ceive more than one trophy for its
prowess. There will be three sec
tions, as heretofore, and the players
will grade themselves as result OF
their initial encounter. Thereafter
changes will be made in the mem
bership of the sections according to
the ratings made from meeting to
meeting. Approximately 25 teams
are already listed for the season.
At the National Press Club, Ned
Brooks, chairman of the Games
Committee, will get his members
together shortly and lay out the
program for the clubs annual
bridge series. Play will be on alter
nate Mondays, and all matches will
be in pair games except that for
the Ely Culbertson annual trophy,
which will be for teams of four.
The Chess Club, which conducts a
pair game at its rooms in the Cor
don Hotel on Thursday nights does
not anticipate any changes or new
program but will continue its weekly
games as usual.
The Railroad Administration
Bridge Club will conduct class for
beginners and inexperienced players
during September at the Cheeks
Club, 2010 r street NV, in prepara-
ton for the opening of its regular
games the first week in October
These games will be held in several
series of six matches each, for
fixed prize. Players holding master
points will not be eligible for these
| games.
The Atlantic City tournament will
be held next Friday. Saturday and
Sunday at the President Hotel, in
the New Jersey resort. 1t will be
sponsored by the Philadelphia Whist
|
Bridge League, under the direction
of the American Contract Bridge
League. There will be four major
events, women's pair, a mixed
pair and an open pair match and a
team of -four game, the first two
in one session each and the third
and fourth in two sessions each. 1t.
Comdr. w. A. Corley, Tom Hamlin,
president Of the Washington Bridge
League, and James H. Lemon, a
former president of the American
Contract Bridge League, are local
members of the tournament COM
mittee.
Other coming tournaments are
| the Cumberland Valley meet at
Frederick, Md, September 20-21;
the Penn State championships at
Pittsburgh, September 27-29; the
Eastern Penn tournament at Read
ing, October AS, and the Easton
tournament, Easton, Pa, october
$40.
| Washington fans are much disap-
pointed over the fact that Ely, Cul-
bertson failed to win the Democratic
nomination for Representatives.
large from Connecticut, for which he
was a candidate. They had hoped,
regardless of partisan conSdera-
tions, that he would win the election
and join the ranks of local players.
They had anticipated matching him
against Representatiye John G.,
Kunkel, Republican, of Pennsyl-
vania, who is now rated as the
champion bridge player of Congress