Country Life Book of Bridge [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION by JACK MARX When Maurice Harrison-Gray died in November 1968, he had been well known as a writer on bridge for some twenty years and as a player for more than half as long again. In both these capacities he was an outstanding figure in the front rank. Apart from the acute personal loss naturally felt by his friends, his passing must have produced a sense of deprivation among the readers 6f the newspapers and magazines to which he regularly contributed. To judge from the size of his post-bag, these must have constituted a huge throng. He had a number of outlets for his talents as a writer. The widest circulated was probably a necessarily brief piece appearing daily in the London Evening Standard. Longer articles were also regular features in the press of some of the newer Commonwealth countries, though of course only very rarely seen by British readers. These were all on what might be termed the "popular" level. For the more expert, actual or aspiring, few months went by without a major tribution from him in the specialist journal, _ ! Magazine, and i work at this level wo I more occasional 1 iterpart, the Brid^ :hers now defu lid also appear, though asis, in its American ? World. Somewhe between these two extremes, there was a weekly output that could be enjoyed by players of the most varied ability and standing and this appeared in the columns of Country Life. In this respect Harrison-Gray was the object of envy by his fellow writers on bridge. It is true to say that any bridge hand worth writing about is worth writing about at length. The generous space allotted to him in Country Life enabled him to develop his themes on a scale far ampler than that possible to other writers with access to a readership extending beyond the purely expert. A cause for regret among his friends and admirers was the fact that, for whatever reasons, he had never got round to completing a book on the game, so that with his death they were cut off from access to his writing. It was realized, however, that among the files of back numbers of Country Life over a period of some twenty years was a treasure house of material that would repay disinterment. And so it has fallen to me, as perhaps his earliest surviving friend and associate in the world of tournament bridge, to pres tion of these articles and an appreci nature L them. Althongirof the taleiappeara varied right e an outward -e in fact of a possibly the ament bridge nds described advantage of if the course these 150 articles ha of uniformity, they i ature. Many of his readei majority, had never played tour in their lives, but most of the h; derive from that source, with thi providing more than one versior oewhat out of foi rscovered in some obscure Kensington club someone he described as a "prodigy", who had formed a partnership with a charming young actress named Jane Welch. The two were invited to a gala pairs tournament at the Acol Club in Hampstead, where Skid and I had first met, and won it. It seemed that in some unfathomable way they had taught each other the game by simply playing regularly together, each starting more or less from scratch. Solvitur ambulando! To this day Jane happily still adorns the bridge scene in London, but professional commitments caused her soon to drop out of tournament bridge, and the Gray-Simon partnership was then born. Gray was indoctrinated with the "system" that a little later became known as Acol, and the two of them proceeded to tour the country and gather in shoals of trophies. Skid never ceased to urge me to find a partner so that we could form a congenial team, and some time later I did. As a chance spectator at the first Oxford v. Cambridge match in 1935, I was asked to get a team together to play a friendly match against the losing Cambridge side. I partnered Harrison-Gray, and an incident occurred in which he displayed his characteristic "unflappability". I made the worst possible lead against my right-hand opponent, a future Chancellor of the Exchequer by the name of Iain Macleod, whose contract was Three No-trumps Redoubled. Gray never twitched a muscle at the resultant four overtricks, morale was maintained and we went on to win the match by a fair margin. I was to learn that "Keep icy calm" was one of his favourite slogans. I think Macleod must have been impressed with the "system", for on coming to work in London soon afterwards he sought me out, we found we could play well together, and later joined up with Gray and Simon to form what became known as the Acol team. It was immensely successful and in the course oi 1936/37 it won neariy all the most prized national events. As this had been achieved, at