The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-04-23
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
Top Ten In Contract

Waldemar von ZedtwitZ, veteran campaigner who led everybody in the first full season of contract championships, l930-3l, and Robert A, McPherran, who has made the first ten several times in the last few years.
 Periodically, 1t was a great sea- son for both newcomers and come- backs. Of the twenty-eight players who shared in winning the various championships, thirteen had never triumphed before in Q national event. They hail from eleven differ ent places, whereas the largest number of cities represented here tofore was seven. The greatest of all the comebacks was by the city of New York, which placed seven play CTS in the first ten, including all Of the first four, after being badly worsted by Philadelphians . year ago.
 The first three this season repre- sent three decades of bridge age and experience. MT. Ellis is 33, MT. von Zedtwitz A and MT. McPherran %. The winning of the two most im- portant events, from the standpoint of their bearing on an individuals rank, places MT. Ellis on top, with consent and, in fact, enthusiastic agreement of everybody in contract championship circles. The tie for runner-up among the other two could not be broken by second plac- es, as each had one, but MT. von Zedtwitz finished higher than MT McPherran in the individual cham pionship.
 Fourth place was earned by the partner of MT. Els in the Masters Pairs, Harry J. Fishbein, who also had two second places. Henry Chan In at Atlanta, Georgia, carried Dix ie to the highest position 1t has yet earned, fifth, with team of four victories and two seconds. Mrs Albert M. Sobel, wife of n noted tournament director. led the women by gaining sixth place with top In the open pairs and second in the mixed pairs The next three places went to players with single victories Edward Hymes, Jr,, Charles s. Lochridge and Charles H. Goren, In the order of their finish in the indi- vidual, and Mrs. Young, last years first, is tenth, ahead Of other one event winners, through finishing well up in a large number of con- tests.
 Whereas a woman had led the en- tire list the year before--Mrs. Young of Philadelphia-it looked this sea- son as If there would not be a single victory for woman in open competition. All of the open con- tests except one had been complet~ ed with the men having an abso- lute monopoly. That even was the open pairs, played in Philadelphia. With just one session to go, little Mrs. 6obel and MT. Goren were 40 match points behind the leaders, who had been going like wildfire. But they had Q great game in the closing session and won by Gar riSon finish.
 During the season three new names were added to the list of life Masters who have accumulated 6 grand total of 25C net Master Points in tournament competition. They were Philip Alb. rahamsohn and Edward Hymes, Jr. of New York, and Alvin c. Landy of Cleveland, Ohio. This select group now has twenty-three members.
 The next national championship season is now about to get under way. The knockout team of four championship for the Harlod s. Vanderbilt Cup and the National Individual Masters championship will start the ball rolling. Dixie will hold one of the national tour naments for the first time. It will be at Richmond, Virginia, in December. It will probably be one of bridges best seasons. As for predictions well, for every fine bridge player we had ten years ago, there are q thou sand today,