John Collings 1933-2005 by Barnet Shenkin prev/next

John Collings

Collings was both a wonderful player and a great personality. He played the cards both quickly and well. During the bidding he was very imaginative and he often liked to psyche. On one occasion he psyched a preempt 4 playing on a British team holding 7 solid clubs but was raised to 7 by his partner Jonathan Cansino who could not take a joke! It was not a success after Cansino bid 7 going down 10 doubled! Collings playing with Cansino were one of Britain’s best and most exciting bridge partnernerships...

Michael Rosenberg and I played against Collings in the final of the 1976 Gold Cup. We were up with one set to go and Collings bid 3S. I remember having a bunch of spades and thinking he was psyching. Finally I passed and that became the final contract. He did have spades and they went down 1. We held on to win the match. We had Priday and Rodrigue an English pair on our team and it was the first time ever The Scots had joined an Alliance with the English in the main British Championship. Our other pair was Victor Goldberg playing with Patrick Jourdain. One Scot and another Englishman who sometimes masqueraded as a Welshman.