A Defense For Collegians

Last week some 150 American colleges and universities concluded their 1958 Intercollegiate Bridge Championship—one of the annual competitions in the three Bs (bowling and billiards are the others) sponsored by the Association of College Unions. The problem—how to let each college compete with all the others scattered throughout the United States without leaving its own campus—is solved by the device of having them play "par" hands.

Unlike the usual bridge tournament, where the deck is shuffled and dealt at random the first time each hand is played, the intercollegiate decks are stacked. Thus, all over the country, the collegians are able to play the same 16 hands, which have been prearranged by Tournament Director Geoffrey Mott-Smith to include some predetermined point of bidding or play. Some weeks hence, after judging the score cards sent to him by mail, he will decide the various title winners.

While the collegians are waiting to know who won the laurels (captured last year by Cornell's Paul Trent and Frank Goldring at North-South; Oberlin's Danny Klein-man and Dick Recht at East-West), let's look over one of the more spectacular deals which the undergrads and coeds had to tackle this year:

Dealer South East-West vulnerable

NORTH

[King of Spades]
[10 of Spades]
[8 of Spades]
[5 of Spades]
[6 of Hearts]
[Ace of Clubs]
[Jack of Clubs]
[10 of Clubs]
[7 of Clubs]
[4 of Clubs]
[10 of Diamonds]
[9 of Diamonds]
[2 of Diamonds]

WEST

[3 of Spades]
[2 of Spades]
[Jack of Hearts]
[10 of Hearts]
[9 of Hearts]
[5 of Hearts]
[2 of Hearts]
[9 of Clubs]
[8 of Clubs]
[6 of Clubs]
[Ace of Diamonds]
[Jack of Diamonds]
[7 of Diamonds]

SOUTH

[Ace of Spades]
[Queen of Spades]
[Jack of Spades]
[9 of Spades]
[7 of Spades]
[Queen of Hearts]
[7 of Hearts]
[3 of Hearts]
[Queen of Clubs]
[3 of Clubs]
[King of Diamonds]
[Queen of Diamonds]
[6 of Diamonds]