Possible Clues:

• * Bridge opponents found after both run away
• Ben-Hur, not surprisingly, a character loved by many women
• 'Patience' or '--'s Bride', a comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan
• The hero of Patience - or a Guardian crossword setter?
• Gilbert's poet carried round translation of Hunt
• Patience won him the potential of the unborn
• Companion lost from group - another ace gone, sadly