Broadcasts For Bridge-Players

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 426, 22 August 1947, Page 7

Broadcasts For Bridge-Players

OME time ago the BBC had the idea of running a series of broadcasts in Britain on bridge for learners at all stages of the game. Nearly a year later Bridge on the Air was still running merrily, as popular as ever. Through the NZBS, listeners in New Zealand will shortly hear recordings of six of the original broadcasts. Much of the appeal of Bridge on the Air lies in its variety. Specimen hands played in the BBC studio are described card by card, and there are demonstrations of how to do it and how not to do it, Many front-rank players take part in _ this programme, including Terence Reese and M. Harrison-Gray, both international players and teachers of the game, who are heard singly or together in each episode. To act as hést, watching what happens through the eyes of an average player, is Stewart MacPherson, BBC commentator. MacPherson, who looks at life through large-lensed glasses, comes from Winnipeg. After a

short time in business in Canada, he worked his way to England on a cattleboat. There he landed a job as a shoe-salesman-never having sold a shoe in his life-and made a success of it. Then he became involved in reporting and publicity: of ice-hockey, which started him on a broadcasting. career.

Listeners tg, Station 2YN Nelson, among whom there are bound to be many contract bridge players, are to hear the first broadcast of this new feature. It will start on Tuesday, August 26, at 8.10 p.m., and will continue on succeeding Tuesday evenings. The first programme will pose some questions to the experts on a what to do in a bidding match. In the second episode Terence Reese will invite MacPherson and Prudence Neill to tackle some questions about the first response to opening bids of one. Reese and S. J. Simon will discuss queries put by the BBC’s home listeners in the third programme, and the fourth and fifth will contain discussions on various aspects of play. In the sixth and last episode, Colonel" Chinstrap will wander out of his native Itma into Bridge on the Air. The Colonel’s views on the game are somewhat clouded by his preoccupation with doubles, but a lot of sound advice to the average player will come from Reese and Prudence Neill. In due course Bridge on the Air will be heard from other stations.