BRIDGE PLAYERS’ WAR

Evening Star, Issue 21079, 16 April 1932, Page 17

BRIDGE PLAYERS’ WAR

• 4 AUCTION V. CONTRACT tiS MANY PARTIES SPOILED. *] The greatest social upheaval within: memory has broken out in the homes and clubs of Britain, says tho ‘ Sunday, Express.” _ Friendships have been broken, families have been rent in twain; parties at famous London homes have been broken up; leading hostesses have halved their lists or guests. And the cause of all the ferment is tho controversy of contract versus auction bridge. Contract bridge,. which swept Ame-i rica, became popular in Britain. More than half the players in that country, have stubbornly refused to take up the new version of the game, and 250,00 Q of the country’s 1,500,000 bridge, players have given up the game altogether. The chief difference between the two games is simply this: In auction players score whatever tricks they happen to make above their bid. _ In contract they score only the tricks they bid,' irrespective of how many extra tricks they make. Converts to contract, which involves greater risks and the possible loss or gain of far larger sums of money, are so rabid that they have forgotten auction ever existed. When a hostess asks friends to at bridge party to-day she does not specify, which version is to be played, for, devotees of each version despise the other one, and to_ mention its name in their home is sacrilege. Thus it often happens that a, non-convert is innocently trapped in a game involving pounds where she has been accustomed to the loss or gain of shillings. In West End clubs during the last few weeks it has been no uncommon sight to see decollettee debutantes wrangling hysterically with red-faced dowagers over the respective merits of tho two games. In all walks of life the auction loyal section is steadily standing its ground. “ Hundreds of parties have been spoiled,”- moaned a suburban clerk secretary recently. “They sit down and keep quiet for about three minutes and then the place becomes a bear garden. Finally they play backgammon or bagatelle.” But, despite all the dissensions,bridge gambling still accounts for enormous sums, and £10,000,000 a year is estimated to change hands in London alone. One man is now living on tho interest of his invested £25,000 winnings.