Remembering John Armstrong

Early in July when John Armstrong unexpectedly died the world lost not only a great bridge player, but also a most gentlemanly one. The Times obituary can be found here.

John Armstrong 1952-2007

The last time I played John was in the 2006 Commonwealth Games bridge tournament. It was in the Swiss Pairs component and of course Armstrong-Hackett were the number one seed. My partnership not only reached table one and got to play them but as luck would have it we had an extraordinary win after a series of monumental disasters for our esteemed opponents. It was a moment of glory for us, not so much the win itself, nor even overtaking them for a while, but the fact that such great players were interested in our scorecard for a few rounds….It was really only fitting that despite their setback against us, they nonetheless won by a country mile.

The win was unusual for me, having been beaten up by Armstrong more often than I care to recall. One such occasion was the NEC, held in Yokohama each February. I wrote up the 2002 tournament for the now defunct Bridge Today. Here is the article as it appeared.

How we beat the team that came second in the 2002 NEC

Cathy Chua

‘That’s it, I’m not playing any more, I’m going home.’ We’d just scored up round two of the NEC. Darren Wolpert III (aka The Kid) had lost to Australia and he’d had enough. Actually we’d blitzed our opponents in round one as well, but they were Japanese and already home. They had nowhere to run.

Then Sweden, and we were holding our own until the last couple of boards. Let me explain that my partnership couldn’t get to the tournament until 35 minutes before play started, straight from an overnight flight from Sydney. By the end of match three I was out for the count. I picked up two nondescript hands, did nondescript things with them – utterly relieved that I’d had nothing to do. And so PO Sundelin and Johann Sylvan picked up two fine slam swings and it was my fault. If only I’d read the next day’s Bulletin before this match. Kokish declined to feature our encounter, even though it was on the top table, because of the Swedish bidding methods. I could see his point. There are things I’d rather do with Sundelin than watch him relay. More or less anything, actually. If only I’d known, I would have done anything to stop him.

Still, a third sensational set in a row by our teammates Bruce Neill and John Roberts saw us keep 14 VPs, just a couple off the pace. It was enough to make you go down to breakfast and hope people had noticed your score. I had enough VPs under my belt to saunter up to the table where John Armstrong and his teammate Pablo Lambardi were sitting. We had one of those chats you can have when you are winning. ‘Beat Canada I see’. ‘Beat Canada I see’. It was a bit repetitive. England had played Canada in round 3 and maxed them as well.

‘How do you like that Jurek Czyzowicz?’ I think it was me who’d asked that. I’d been relying on the sheer momentum of the physical process to keep me awake during that first day but Jurek made mincemeat of that plan. Never mind bridge. If they had world pausing championships he’d be Canada’s man. ‘Yes,’ said Pablo plaintively in agreement. ‘All the time he thinks, thinks, thinks. What’s he thinking about? I don’t understand. Maybe in the middle of a difficult contract you think. But he thinks all the time. He’s on lead, he thinks. What’s there to think about when you are on lead? You just lead a card.’

It took me aback a bit, I must admit. It’s not the sort of thing you expect a good player to say. I began to wonder if the next match – against England – would be a piece of cake. Evidently their main strategy was not to think. Perhaps some members of the Canadian team thought too much. But surely those English had understated the case for thinking all the same.