19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

OPENING LEADS
Sir:
Bridge a sport? Really? My reaction to your lead article (Bidding with a Kick, Feb. 10) could perhaps aptly be summed up by the expression shown on the face of "foot soldier Zucchelli" on page 11. Although you occasionally rise to the heights of artistic sensitivity with articles like the Jan. 27 one on Bill Walton, my one complaint is that you carry versatility to an extreme.
JIM FEHR
Bagdad, Ariz.

Sir:
Re the excellent story by Walter Bingham on the Bermuda Bowl bridge tournament, you really came through—the lead article! We in this family are keenly interested in all sports, but I must admit I first look to see if you have a bridge article, and you have one all too seldom.

After bridge officials had devised what all hoped would be a cheatproof game, it gives one a sorry feeling to realize that what we thought was the best team—Italy—was playing footsie. Morally, I think the U.S. won.
MRS. KENNETH KREIDER
Hebron, Ohio

Sir:
I found Walter Bingham's article incredibly one-sided. While I will not say the Italians did not cheat, there are some points to ponder.

I don't agree that if someone hit my foot in a high-level bridge game I would automatically move it, as Bruce Keidan suggests. I would certainly do so in a restaurant, but concentration is too intense in a game like that to assume normal reactions. After all, didn't Billy Eisenberg try to light his chewing gum?

North American teams have been beaten badly by the Blue Team for quite a few years, and the Americans' prima donna attitude won't allow them to admit that the Italians bid better, play better and have more spirit. Instead, when things go the wrong way, they cry "cheat."
GREGORY J. LAMOTHE
Cornwall, N.Y.

Sir:
It seems that American sportsmen participating in international competition have an automatic disadvantage. They don't cheat.
RAY THOMPSON
South Bound Brook, N.J.

CLYDE
Sir:
Fantastic! Jerry Kirshenbaum's story about Walt (Clyde) Frazier (And Still a Classic of Cool, Feb. 10) is by far the best that this Frazier fanatic has ever read. It showed not only his supremacy on NBA backcourts but his warmth as a human being. Thank you for what I feel was a perfect tribute to a perfect man.
PAUL FISCHER
Staten Island, N.Y.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Sir:
After having seen a few seconds of the Immaculata-Maryland game on TV (On and Up with the Mighty Macs, Feb. 3), I still feel that there are three things that should be done in private: prayer, lovemaking and women's basketball.
DAVID COX
Woodland Hills, Calif.

PEAK INTEREST
Sir:
Congratulations on the excellent mountaineering article First You Have To Find K2 (Feb. 10) by Robert F. Jones. It gives an extraordinary insight into that adventuresome activity the author aptly describes as something simpler than sport or romantic masochism. Thanks.
EDWARD PAULTER
President
United States Mountaineers
Paterson, N.J.