Wet Grand Slam

The grinding monotone of competitive bidding filled the ballrooms of Washington's Mayflower Hotel. For nearly two weeks, 3,000 bridge players had been fidgeting, frowning and fussing with their cards while they sat through 10,860 hands and struggled for six national titles at the 26th annual Summer Championship of the American Contract Bridge League. The tension was enough to drive strong men to drink. Eventually, it did.

The final matches were getting under way last week when one of the tournament directors blew a police whistle for quiet and rose to make an embarrassing but necessary announcement: "Any player having a bottle of liquor in his pocket or on the table will be barred from the tournament." (Tentative applause swept the room.) "Any player who is unpleasantly drunk, bottle or no bottle, will also be barred." (More applause.) "If anyone is intoxicated but pleasant, he can play. We're not bluenoses." (Cheers.)

The tension broken. Milton Ellenby and William A. Rosen of Chicago, Lew Mathe of Los Angeles, John Moran of Houston and Cliff Bishop of Detroit went on to take the Masters' Knockout Championship with a string of seven straight victories, won the right to represent the U.S. in next year's international matches in New York City.

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