Nicola SMITH

Born: 28th April 1949 in London, England
Current home: London, England
Profession: Business administrator, bridge teacher

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

Nicola Smith (née Gardener), MBE, has been a mainstay of the British and then the English women’s team for more than thirty years. A WBF World Grand Master, Nicola’s first victory in a major tournament came in 1975, when she was on the winning team at the European Championships in Brighton. Since then, she has won two gold medals and one silver in the Venice Cup, and added five more gold medals and one silver in European championships. She has four silver medals and two bronze medals in the Olympiad – the gold continues to elude her, but she has vowed that this will not be the case for much longer!

Nicola won the second Generali World Masters’ Individual championship in 1994, and collected bronze medals in the same event in 1992 and 2004. She has won Britain’s most important events, the Gold Cup and the Spring Foursomes, more than once, together with every other major tournament on the domestic calendar. In 1998 Nicola and Pat Davies achieved what she considers among her finest achievements in bridge by finishing second in the Macallan Invitational Pairs tournament in London – one place ahead of Sabine Auken and Daniela von Arnim; a result that emphatically demonstrated the ability of the top women players to compete on equal terms in an Open field.

Nicola Gardener’s parents, Nico and Patricia, both represented Britain in international bridge. She was eleven when her father considered that she was old enough to cope with both bridge and homework, and sixteen when she played her first international tournament at Deauville, winning the teams in company with her father and a young Paul Chemla. She made her representative international debut in the European Championships in Estoril, 1970, where she played with Dorothy Shanahan and finished fourth. She has played twice for England’s Open team in the Camrose Trophy, and twelve times for England’s Women’s team in the Lady Milne.

In 1983, Nicola married Jonathan Smith, who manages a family business in the King’s Road, Chelsea, where Nicola ran the highly successful London School of Bridge for many years following her father’s death. Nicola and Jonathan have two children, Katherine (born in 1984) and Joshua (born in 1987). Katherine, an accomplished linguist, hopes to work for the United Nations. Joshua is studying Chinese, though not in an attempt to help his mother decipher the bidding systems of the players from that country.

In 1995, Queen Elizabeth II created Nicola a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to bridge.

Major achievements

Won European Union Teams 1973

Won European Championships 1975 (Charely Esterson, Sandra Landy, Fritzi Gordon, Rixi Markus, Rita Oldroyd, Nicola Smith, Jon Cooke npc)

Won European Union Teams 1975

Won European Union Pairs 1975

2nd in Venice Cup 1976

2nd in World Team Olympiad 1976

2nd in European Championships 1977

Won European Championships 1979 (Michelle Brunner, Rosemary Hudson, Sandra Landy, Sally Sowter, Nicola Smith, Rita Oldroyd, Chris Dixon npc)

3rd in World Team Olympiad 1980

Won European Championships 1981 (Pat Davies, Nicola Smith, Maureen Dennison, Diana Williams, Sandra Landy, Sally Sowter, Derek Rimington npc)

Won Venice Cup 1981 (Pat Davies, Nicola Smith, Maureen Dennison, Diana Williams, Sandra Landy, Sally Sowter, Derek Rimington npc)

2nd in World Team Olympiad 1984

2nd in European Championships 1985

Won Venice Cup 1985 (Michelle Brunner, Gillian Scott-Jones, Pat Davies, Nicola Smith, Sally Horton, Sandra Landy.)

2nd in World Team Olympiad 1988

2nd in World Team Olympiad 1992

Won European Union Teams 1993

Won European Championships 1997 (Pat Davies, Nicola Smith, Heather Dhondy, Liz McGowan, Michele Handley, Sandra Landy, Jimmie Arthur npc)

Won European Championships 1999 (Pat Davies, Nicola Smith, Heather Dhondy. Liz McGowan, Sandra Landy, Abbey Walker, Jimmie Arthur npc)

Won European Championships 2001 (Sally Brock, Margaret James, Michelle Brunner, Rhona Goldenfield, Heather Dhondy, Nicola Smith, Jimmie Arthur npc)

3rd in European Championships 2002

3rd in World Team Olympiad 2004

3rd in Generali World Masters Individual 1992

Won Generali World Masters Individual 1994

2nd in Macallan Invitational Pairs 1998

3rd in Generali World Masters Individual 2004