home

Archives

Capt. Ewart Kempson

(The first person in this country to broadcast on Contract Bridge, way back in the 'twenties, was Ewart Kempson. In the two years preceding the war he gave a fortnightly series of Bridge Half Hours on National and Regional programmes. As he represents the views of a great number of listeners, he is eminently fitted to submit this critical survey of the current series of bridge broadcasts.-ED.)

BRIDGE went on the air in a big way on Monday, 29th October, 1945. Starting with a listening audience of a few thousand, this weekly feature has grown steadily in popularity and is at present attracting an audience of more than one million ; throughout the country, bridge players (and many who have never played bridge in their lives) make a point of listening to "Bridge on the Air " at 11.3 every Monday night ; it is hardly an exaggeration to say that it has become part of their lives, and many a rubber is interrupted to listen to the experts, chief of whom are M. Harrison Gray and Terence Reese, who take it in turn to be master of ceremonies.

Before the war the B.B.C. gave occasional running commentaries on important bridge matches, and, more often than not, the commentator was a nationally known B.B.C. personality who, despite his charm of manner and excellent style of delivery, completely failed to convince listeners that he knew much about the game.

Adverse comment was heard in bridge circles and only a handful of people bothered to listen.

In future bridge commentaries, it is probable that the commentators will be experts, and features of this kind will then attract the vast majority of bridge players.

Ewart Kempson was selected to officiate as non-playing captain : at once a Good and a Bad thing. Good because, save for Selby Wraith, his favourite Newcastle partner, there is not a front ranker in England who can play Kempson adequately ; bad because, there are few finer card players in the country than the slim, smart, flippant Kempson.

" E.K.'s " motto is " I call A Spade, ` A Spade' . . . and Two Spades, `Two Spades.' " But half his non Kempson partners think he has a forcing opening ; and the other half think he has 8 playing tricks. In fact, he is likely to have six playing tricks with anything from one and a half to five quick tricks.

Kempson, born at the close of the Naughty Nineties in Worcestershire, collected his commission in the Indian Army he served in a Rajput Regiment of Light Infantry. About him there clings an un mistakable trace of the pukka: a certain unconscious arrogance which his bonhomie saves from offence.

In his own area Northumbria and, to a great extent, Northern Ireland Kempson is the biggest bridge god there is.
His devastating psychics, his spectacular card play have won him golden opinions ; his sensational victories in the old days over various South teams of Internationals have gained him a niche in the hall of bridge fame which` only his absence from major tournaments prevents from becoming a full-size statue.

Ewart Kempson, both in writing he vies with Simon as our most entertaining bridge journalist and in speech has an incurable facetiousness which often rises into wit. His dark eyes gleaming with schoolboy malice, he pulls the legs of the most pompous and his occasional outbursts of under graduate humour give his sub-editors more than occasional headaches.

Even in a needle match, Kempson rags about. Only rarely does he go into a trance, plucking his bushy eyebrows for inspiration.

No sketch of E.K. would be complete without a line of reference to his wife and his dogs: the former, Lyn, a charming and passionately Kempson-minded bridge player from Canada ; the latter a couple of Chow-chows as superb as the Kempson squeeze play.

The 1st local association to be created was the North Eastern with its H.Q. at Newcastle.

The guiding star of this body was, inevitably,
the phoenix of bridge. Ewart Kempson.

EBU 'Contract Bridge Journal' October 1948.