Posted 2022-August-30, 02:02
Like Paddington Bear, Nigel could rarely be separated from his duffel coat and was often seen at the EBU Summer Congress wearing it when most were wearing very little. It was not particularly scruffy and he wore a suit jacket under it.
The unstoppable force met an immovable object during one of our matches in the county league. This was an era where head to head matches were played in people's homes and, to many, the tea was more important than the bridge. We were playing in a lovely house and, while the rest of us were dealing the hands, our host was trying to remove the coat in her warm, centrally-heated home.
We were well down at half-time and a lavish buffet was laid out: sandwiches, sausage rolls, canapes and lots of different cakes. It was here that Nigel won us the match.
Having been playing for some time, he was keen to remain standing and loaded up his plate. He then wandered around the living room talking to both us and the opponents about the interesting hands in the first half and how badly he'd done.
This was all done with cake precariously balanced in his right hand as he conducted his post mortem. He was followed around the room by our host with a small dustpan and brush, clearing up all the crumbs after him. I believe it was the mental exhaustion caused by this that allowed us to turn the match around. I should add that Nigel always denied this happening when I told this story, but he was giggling away since he really had no idea what happened save he could probably recall a hand from the match.
I mentioned that Nigel was not a fast player, but the most frustrating part of this was that, more often than not, he was not thinking about the hand he was playing. It would be a previous hand, not necessarily the last one, and he'd spotted some line, defence or position that would have allowed him to do better on the hand. Nigel was the only person I knew who could take five minutes to respond to Stayman; eventually his partner would get fed up and tell him to concentrate on the hand in play.
As others have said, Nigel was a friendly, kind and generous man. One who would greet you warmly and then give you a bridge hand before asking about the family.
The Beer Card
I don't work for BBO and any advice is based on my BBO experience over the decades
1. His unique use of the handviewer diagrams, always ranking all available options rather than just giving a single answer
2. The fact that he taught me that 'pusillanimous' was an actual word
3. In forum challenge events where a round is meant to take 2-3 weeks, he would always have all challenges done within a couple of days
4. His clever squeezes and endplays commentary where he would always minimize unimportant spots to emphasize the technique.