Ben Heckscher, No. 1 on the varsity squash team, advanced to the semi-finals of the Harry Cowles squash racquets tournament at the Harvard Club of New York last Saturday. If Heckscher wins his semi-final match this afternoon, he will probably face the tourney's top-seeded player, Henri Salaun, who is ranked No. 2 nationally. Salaun has won the tournament twice, in 1954 and 1955.

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The winter sports season reopens this Thursday when the basketball team visits Providence to meet Joe Tebo and his hard-luck Bruin quintet. The annual Beanpot opens on Friday with the sextet opposing B.U. at 7 p.m. in the Garden. This game may decide the Crimson's future regarding national standings.

On Saturday, the quintet will play Chet Forte in the I.A.B., while the hockey team drives to Providence to regain the Ivy League lead against an inexperienced Brown six. The game will be preceded by a Yardling match on Providence's "stuffiest-of-all" rink.

Athletic fans in Cambridge can also watch the swimming team face an excellent New squd, but the wrestlers will be away, at Amherst.

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Statistics-From-All-Over: The Yale Daily News--"Did somebody say that basketball is not a 'gentleman's sport'? Of the 125 players listed on Ivy cage rosters, only 14 are prep school products..., On the other hand, 93 of the 120 Pentagonal League hockey players boast diplomas from prep schools."

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The Crimson's undefeated court tennis team will begin its annual intrasquad round-robin at the Tennis and Racquet Club next week, in preparation for its only match, the H-Y-P intercollegiate tournament in the Racquet and Tennis Club of New York on March 9. Captain Randy Hackett and Ed Harding are nip and tuck for the top position. The team will definitely be favored to take the tourney for the third straight year.

The rest of the ladder includes veteran John Mortimer, promising Enos Richardson, Stanley Youssekovitch, Dave Olyphant, Jack Lapsley, and John Davis, who may get a late start because of an arthritic seizure.

Meanwhile, down in the tropics, Mike Souchak was praying-in the 40-foot putt on the 18th green which clicked the $15,000 Thunderbird Invitational Golf Tournament into a three-way tie.

Souchak, defending champion Jimmy Demaret, and Ken Venturi will play it off today over the Palm Springs California course.