Jeremy Flint


Jeremy M. Flint was an English contract bridge writer and one of the world's leading professional players. He was also a horse racing enthusiast. Flint was born in Leeds but lived in London.

Life and bridge career

Flint was the son of a Leeds surgeon, and was educated at Radley College. He studied to be a lawyer, but soon gave up his legal career. Flint represented Britain in seven European championships, five World team championships and two World pairs. As a member of those British teams he won the European Bridge League championship in 1963, and came second in the world championships of 1960 and 1987. He played rubber bridge and backgammon on a regular basis; this and his work as a bridge correspondent were his main sources of income.
In an extended visit to the US in 1966, partnering Peter Pender, he became a Life Master in ten weeks: this was the record until it was broken by Sabine Zenkel in 1989 at eight weeks. They devised the Flint–Pender bidding system. He was also a collaborator of Terence Reese on the Little Major bidding system, and the author of several popular bidding conventions.
Flint was bridge editor of The Times, author of some significant books, and participant in successful television programs about bridge. His first marriage, to Susanna, produced two sons: Dominic and Noel. His second wife, Honor, was also an international bridge player. His early death was caused by cancer.

Boris Schapiro's opinion

In 1962, Boris Schapiro gave this view of Flint:

Buenos Aires affair

Flint was a member of the British team at the Bermuda Bowl in Buenos Aires, early 1965. Later he gave an account of the accusation of cheating made against Reese and Schapiro. The results of the BBL trials was: 1 Reese—Flint; 2 Konstam—Schapiro; 3 Albert Rose—Ralph Swimer. The BBL then announced the team, omitting Swimer and substituting Maurice Harrison-Gray. Controversy ensued, and eventually Swimer had to be content with being non-playing captain. Reese and Schapiro were hardly on speaking terms at the time; Reese played mainly with Flint, the pair using the Little Major bidding system.
Flint made two main points, over and above those made by Reese in his book:
1. The bitter quarrel between Reese and Schapiro "was surely not the perfect background for alleged dishonest complicity".
2. When Flint was playing with Reese in the closed room, Geoffrey Butler and Waldemar von Zedwitz came to watch. After the session Flint said to Reese:
"Reese is considered a fool by no-one according to his accusers he continued to exchange signals for the next seven days".

Publications