Nicola Smith

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Nicola Smith MBE (born 28 April, 1949 in London; née Gardener) has been a leading English bridge player for over thirty years, with many successes in international competition to her credit. She was a member of the British teams which won the Venice Cup, the women's world championship, in 1981 and 1985, and which finished second in 1976. She has played in eight successive World Team Olympiads, which are held every four years, winning the silver medal on four occasions. She has won the European Women's Teams on six occasions (1975, 1979, 1981, 1997, 1999, 2001). She won the Generali World Women's Individual event in 1994.

She was only sixteen when she played in her first international tournament, at Deauville, winning the teams event in a team which included her father and the young Paul Chemla. She made her representative international debut in the European Championships in Estoril in 1970, partnering Dorothy Shanahan and finishing fourth.

She won the premier British domestic competition, the Gold Cup, in 1984 and 1991. She has played twice for England’s Open team in the Camrose Trophy, which is competed for by the national teams within the British Isles. In 1998, partnering Pat Davies, she was second in the prestigious Macallan Invitational Pairs (previously known as the Sunday Times Invitational Pairs). She considers this one of her finest achievements.

She has played with the following in longstanding successful partnerships:

1967–1973 Rita Oldroyd
1974–1977 Sandra Landy
1978–1979 Rita Oldroyd
1980–1999 Pat Davies
2000– Heather Dhondy

She comes from a notable bridge family, her parents, Pat and Nico Gardener, both having played for Britain. She ran the London School of Bridge, which her father had founded in 1952, for many years. She still teaches bridge.

In 1983, she took part in a televised match arranged by the BBC between teams representing Britain and the United States. The British team was Tony Priday, Clause Rodrigue, Nicola Gardener (as she then was) and Pat Davies. The US team was Neil Silverman, Matthew Granovetter, Jacqui Mitchell and Gail Moss. The British team won by 32 international match points over 78 deals in seven sessions. The match subsequently formed the basis of a book, in which she was described as follows: "...one of the finest women players in the world. Not only is she an excellent technician - truly, the daughter of her father Nico Gardener - but is equally aggressive and imaginative both in bidding and defence."^[1]

She was awarded the MBE in 1995 for her services to bridge.

Outside bridge she has worked as a business administrator, but has recently been training to be a healer. She married Jonathan Smith in 1983; they have two children.