OCTOBER BRIEFING
CHELSEA RESIDENT NICOLA SMITH helped win gold for England at the World Mind Sports Games in Lille recently.
She was part of the champion women’s bridge team that successfully defended England’s title at the equivalent of the Olympics for mind sports – bridge, chess, draughts and go – in August. The World Mind Sports Games is held every four years and runs alongside the Olympic Games. “It was the longest thing ever,” she says. “What we’ve just done is an amazing achievement.”
In the heat of the French summer, with a
substantial walk from their hotel to the venue, the competition was a physical challenge as well as a mental one. “Lille was an ordeal because it was 43
degrees quite a lot of the time,” says Nicola. “We had four miles a day of walking… and maybe in true British spirit, that helped.”
She suggested using high-altitude lavender oil as a way to unify the team and help them focus.
“I hit on the idea that we should all kind of sniff this special lavender and each partnership has a bottle,” she says. “Just before we go into the fray, to kind of keep our concentration up.” The six-woman team battled their way
through 12 days of competition, beating Russia in a two-day final to take the gold. It’s their second major title in the past few months – they also became European Champions in June. Nicola, whose parents were also
international bridge players, has competed in 22 European Championships and ten “bridge Olympics” running since 1976. She learnt aged 11, started playing bridge internationally in 1970 and was made an MBE in 1996 for her services to the sport.
BRIDGE CHAMPIONS: Heather Dhondy, Nicola Smith, Jeremy Dhondy (Non Playing Captain), Sally Brock, Fiona Brown, David Burn (Coach), Susan Stockdale, Nevena Senior. Photo: Peter Hasenson
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