Patrick Jourdain

Patrick David Jourdain (1 November 1942 – 28 July 2016) was a British bridge player, teacher and journalist. Over six decades he played in more than seventy international matches for Wales, more than any other player. He was bridge correspondent of the Daily Telegraph from 1992 until his death. His World Bridge Federation obituary described him as "the bridge-journalist’s journalist". According to the English Bridge Union's death notice: "Ever the dedicated journalist, he penned his own obituary to ensure that the media would have their copy in timely fashion."

Life He was born in Woking. He was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he obtained a degree in Physics and Natural Sciences.

Bridge During his time at Peterhouse he became secretary of the Cambridge University Bridge Club, and he played in the 1964 match against Oxford. In 1965, a player in the trials for the Welsh bridge team was taken ill. Jourdain (by now living in Wales owing to his job with GKN) was called in as a substitute, and he and his partner won the trials. The selectors had undertaken that the winners would be given a match in the Camrose Trophy, the competition for the constituent countries of the United Kingdom. He therefore made his international debut in a match against Northern Ireland played in Belfast in early 1966, aged 23 and the youngest ever player for Wales. He subsequently became a regular on the Welsh team over a period of six decades.

He achieved a world scoop at the 2002 World Championships held in Montreal, when he was told that an unnamed player had refused to take a drugs test, which had been introduced because bridge was hoping to be accepted as a future Olympic sport. At the prize-giving banquet he spotted that a player, Disa Eythorsdottir, was missing when the American women's team went up to receive their medals. Putting two and two together, he found and spoke to the missing player, who told him that she had been stripped of her medal for refusing to take the drugs test, and asked him to make the matter public. Again the story made the Telegraph's front page. In all he played in seven World Championships and three European Championships. He was President of the British Bridge League in 1995–6 and Chairman of Bridge Great Britain in 2001.

He was principal of the Cardiff School of Bridge, and taught more than a thousand people to play the game.

Publications