A little tea, a little chat

Norma Borin died a couple of days ago, alone, and almost forgotten. I so wish this had been different. She took knocks on the chin in a way one could only hope to emulate as she was dealt one terrible situation after another.

Right now I want to remember her for the things that were great about her. Her bridge achievements were remarkable. She declined to play women's bridge and was the first woman in Australia to demonstrate how good that was for your game as she twice placed third in Open World championships. I rather think a US woman has recently won the Bermuda Bowl, bridge's zonal world championship, but until then Norma's thirds were the best a female had done in this event, a record which stood since the mid 1970s.

When she did eventually decide to play a little women's bridge, she asked me to play with her and we dominated the national championships for a couple of seasons as well as winning an international championship. She was one of the very best players I've ever partnered and in defence I'd place her second only to Tim Seres. Her defence was fantastic.

If you look at the NLA catalogue and, I imagine the book itself, though it isn't in front of me, it names Jim, her husband as first author. I can assure you that this book was Norma's baby, not Jim's and I have therefore declined to put the author's names in the goodreads approved manner.

It's almost the only good system book I've ever read, it's a tour de force of a bidding method and deserved to stay in fashion longer than it did. I'd played Precision for ages before I played with Norma, but in reading this book as it formed the basis of our partnership, I have to say that it made me realise how little I had previously understood about Precision.

Norma. It was an absolute honour to play with you. I very much wish you were still here.