Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-07-07
In Local Bridge Circles
By Frank B. Lord.


Along with the many inviting
features of the Conneaut Lake
bridge tournament, "Dick" Need
ham who conducts 1t has prepared
the most attractive program book
let issued by any tournament man
agement. Copies of 1t have been
received by all of the leading play
ers in Washington. Dick" is very
popular here, from the fact that
he comes down from his Pennsyl-
vania home and participates in the
big events. He has been doing this
for many years, ever since he d.
rected the first bridge tournament
ever held in the Capital.
Local players reciprocate and go
to Conneaut Lake, from which they
have brought back at different times
some of the major trophies. Many
of them will endeavor to repeat
this year. The dates are from July
Is to 81, inclusive. The Tournaments
is Needham's pet, and he spends
much time and effort in making ar
rangements for 1t which largely
accounts for its popularity.
The 1910 tourney will comprise II
separate games and 2 cumulative
contests. There will be four major
championships or trophy games,
each in two sessions, six minor
championship or special feature
games, each played in one session,
and a consolation game or bridge
frolic. This will be played on Sat-
urday night and will stress the
social side of the tournament. One
of the innovations will be game
in which a master player must have
| a non-maSter as partner. An
other feature, recently inaugurated
in tournaments but which was
played last year at Conneaut, will be
the mems and women's pair games
These will be played simultane-
ously in one session on wednesday
afternoon. The same boards will
be played by both sets of players
and interchanged so that oppor-
tunity will be afforded to deter
mine whether the men or the wom-
en- can make the best scores on
them.
Last year the Conneaut tourna-
ment introduced the non-masters'
cumulative contest for the purpose
of stimulating interest in play
among those who have not had as
much experience as some of their
fellows. 1t proved to be highly
successful and will be repeated
The winner will be the person who
has the best average percentage
for any five sessions of play with
at least three different partners
Those who play more than five
times may count only their five
best scores.
In addition there will be the
regular masters pair champion
ship, the open pair championship
the mixed pair game and the team
of-four championship.
Pyramid bridge which was first
| III w q
limited number Of players has now
been perfected by its author, DR.
Fred w. Buck, and offered as a
means of getting new pleasure out
of an old game" AS part of pyra-
mid bridge DR.. Buck has devised q
greatly simplified method of bid
ding which he contends will greatly
reduce the ordinary hazards of play
ing contract because it permits any
partner to be a good partner for
any one can count a hand as to
its value, and when a hand has the
required value the holder is COM
manded to bid the required number
to open and the partner Is COM
manded to respond in a definite
manner, provided he has t re-
quired count"
The system consists of a special
deck of 50 cards comprising five
bidable suits beside the no-trumr
bid. The extra suit which is known
as the pyramid suit makes 1t pos.
sible for more definite information
between partners so that they may
pyramid their bids when reaching