Fife-born John Murdoch, one of Scotland’s most accomplished bridge players who represented his country on many occasions, has died aged 80.
He played over six decades and won the Scottish Bridge Union‘s two premier tournaments, the Scottish Cup and the Winter Foursomes, seven times.
John won ever other major Scottish trophy and in 2006, won the premier UK event, the Gold Cup.
John Murdoch was born in 1943 and initially brought up in Hill of Beath near Dunfermline.
He was the only child of Ron Murdoch, a clerk and storekeeper and his wife, Isa, and he grew up in a row of miners’ houses.
School days
John began his education at Hill of Beath Primary School and when family moved to Menstrie, in Clackmannanshire, he continued it at school in Menstrie then Alva Academy and Alloa Academy.
When he left school, John trained as a librarian at North-Western Polytechnic in London before starting work as a librarian in Glasgow.
This suited his inquiring mind and he took an interest in all aspects of life. He loved poetry and art as well as sport, particularly football.
Towards the end of his career he held a senior position within Unison, where he passionately fought for the rights of the underdog.
He grew up watching his parents and grandparents play bridge and it was as if by osmosis the game got into his blood.
Young star
When John was 10, his dad’s partner couldn’t make a tournament so he called in John. The pair duly won the and his local newspaper wrote an article about this 10-year-old “prodigy”.
John joked in later life that, if he hadn’t won that night, he wouldn’t have been asked back and perhaps wouldn’t have taken up the game at all.
He went on to have an outstanding record with a large number of different partners over the following six decades.
But his greatest success and pride was in representing his country. In the Camrose Trophy, in which the teams of all the countries of these islands compete, he represented Scotland 35 times in 16 different years with six different partners.
In the Teltscher, the senior equivalent of the Camrose, he represented Scotland four times with three different partners.
And in European events after Scotland started sending its own team after 2000, he was in the open team twice with two different partners and the senior team seven times with three different partners
World stage
In the latter event he was a member of the legendary Scottish team that won a bronze medal in Dublin in 2012, and then, having qualified for the world championships in Bali the following year, reached the quarter-finals, only to be beaten by the eventual winners from the USA.
He played in many other international events and was part of the Scottish gold medal winning team at the Commonwealth Nations Championship in India in 2014.
John was known as a wonderful partner, a rarity in the bridge world, always modest, ever helpful, and never blaming. On those rare occasions when he was not on the winning side, he lost with grace.
He will be sadly missed by his wife, Betty, who he married in 1966, his children Malcolm, Kenneth and Alison, nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren, as well as by the entire Scottish bridge world.
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