S. J. Simon

rdf:langString S. J. Simon

rdf:langString Editor's Note

rdf:langString Maurice Harrison-Gray, (contemporary British bridge professional)

rdf:langString The Bridge World, The American View of the Acol System, Part 1, by Alexander Spencer. January 1951, page 14.

rdf:langString Hasenson, p. 135.

rdf:langString He taught his team-mates to play and to laugh ... Skid lived to the age of 44 – by a series of miracles. He crossed the busiest street, nose buried in a book. He dismounted from buses travelling at full speed, nose still buried in a book. He once walked through a plate glass window during a Telegraph final ... In his books, on the radio, at the bridge table, he guyed everybody. Most of all he guyed himself ... He was the greatest character to adorn the bridge world.

rdf:langString Through the efforts and the bridge acumen of a dozen or more British nationals or residents, among whom the late S. J. Simon was notable, British bridge has earned a place in the very highest echelons, and British bidding ideas are well worth the attention of the world's players.

rdf:langString ... the most colourful, the warmest and by common consent, the most likeable personality to emerge from the world of bridge.

rdf:langString In this [i.e. his obituary in The Observer] I described the television date: :He had a new tie for the occasion, buttercup yellow. "Thought was technicolour", he said. I commented on his distinctive style – the omission of the personal pronoun, the disregard for syntax – and ended: :His humour always touched the human comedy, but never with malice. For example: :At a pre-war a lady who held an ace and was on lead against seven no trumps neither doubled nor led the ace. The contract was made and the story of the double omission quickly went the rounds. It was Skid who pointed out that she must be acquitted on at least one count. If she was not going to lead the ace, he said, she was quite right not to double.

rdf:langString Simon Jacoblivitch Skidelsky (Russian: Семён Яковлевич Скидельский; 4 July 1904 – 27 July 1948), also known as S. J. "Skid" Simon, Seca Jascha Skidelsky, and Simon Jasha Skidelsky, was a British journalist, fiction writer and bridge player. From 1937 until his death, he collaborated with Caryl Brahms on a series of comic novels and short stories, mostly with a background of ballet or of English history. As a bridge expert, he was jointly responsible for developing the Acol system of bidding.