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RITA OLDROYD
The bridge world lost one of its best-known
characters when Rita Oldroyd died on Monday.
Rita, who lived in Pudsey, West Yorkshire, was probably known to every
tournament player in Britain. Her bridge career was legendary.
In 1976 she was part of the British Women's Team beaten in the finals
of the Venice Cup by the United States. The rest of the team are also
legends - Nicola Gardener (now Smith), Sandra Landy, Fritzi Gordon, Rixi
Markus and Charley Esterson who was Rita's regular partner at the time.
The same team won the European Women's Championships in 1975. In
1979, with Nicola Gardener, Sally Sowter (now Brock), Sandra Landy, Michelle
Brunner and Rosemary Hudson, Rita again won the European Gold.
Rita Oldroyd was England's first woman Grand Master, only the third
player in the country to reach that ranking. Just two weeks ago Rita
and partner Liz Rees won the main pairs event at the Blackpool Year End
Congress. Before Christmas she flew to the Canary Islands and, with partner
Brian Jackson, won the Las Palmas Pairs.
In the 1960s and early 70s, Rita was a key player in Yorkshire's
top team with Joe Bloomberg, Eric Newman, Alf Finley and Irving Manning.
A young Tony Forrester and Roman Smolski replaced Eric Newman for the
last couple of years.
"Rita's greatest ambition was to win the Gold Cup," Tony Forrester
told me. "She never did, though she reached the final three times."
In recent years her appearance often lulled opponents into a false sense
of security. Her trim, slight figure, neat grey hair and Yorkshire
accent did nothing to prepare the unwary for her ferociously competitive
play, and many a pair left the table reeling under the shock of the
onslaught.
"Who was that?" one such pair at Blackpool were heard asking, and on being
told that they had just encountered Rita Oldroyd, remarked that they thought
she was dead - a story which Rita found very funny.
When her son Michael looked at Rita's home for trophies and records of
his mother's bridge career, he found nothing at all except a rather dusty
silver medal from the 1976 World Championships. Rita didn't want the silver
cups and trophies she won - too much dusting, she said. Rather than
look back at triumphs gained, Rita always looked ahead to the next match.
The same fierce competitive spirit was brought into play as much at her
local club as at an international event.
Rita Oldroyd was taken into Leeds General on Saturday with suspected food
poisoning, but by Monday morning, meningitis was diagnosed. She
died the same evening, at 8.30 pm on Monday January 10th. She was 78.
Rita Oldroyd's funeral took place at 1.30 pm on January 21st at Pudsey
parish church.
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