83yo and 21yo to represent New Zealand at Bridge Championships

RNZ News

08-05-2025

Leon Meier, 21, from Canterbury will be teaming up with Jan Cormack, 83, for the World Bridge Teams Championships in Denmark.
Photo:
Supplied
Jan Cormack, 83, has been representing New Zealand in Bridge since 1977. Card carrying prodigy Leon Meier is 21; together they are taking on the world at the Bridge Championships in Denmark later this year.
Leon's been playing Bridge since he was just 16 after being taught by his calculus teacher.
Bridge is a partnership game about working out information and solving puzzles. It's played with a deck of cards with four people at the table, with two partnerships often played with teammates.
Meier told
Checkpoint
he and Cormack are bridging the gap between the two generations.
Cormack became Meier's Bridge partner after finding out his first partner was ineligible to represent New Zealand.
"I was entered for the Open team trials with my regular partner. But we found out that one of our teammates was ineligible for representation. So, then we didn't get to trial in the open section," Meier said.
"By one month he had played for Ireland two years ago. He has to have played two years and one month ago in order to trial for New Zealand. So, he was one month short."
Meier then decided to try out the mix category, where a male and a female play together in a partnership.
"I was wondering who would be a good woman player and then my regular partner suggested asking Jan Cormack. Now, she didn't come to the top of my mind immediately because she's been retired from International Bridge for so long," he said.
"But as soon as I heard her name, I was like, that's a great partner. I would love to play with her. Let's see if she wants to play with me because she's an absolute legend."
After calling and telling her what had happened, Meier asked her if she wanted to be his Bridge partner at the World Championships.
"She said that she'd love to play with me and that, she's a bit flattering here, when she said a player of my calibre deserves to represent New Zealand and she would be happy to do anything she can to make that happen, even if it means playing with an old lady like her," Meier said.
"I've got some good results, but I'm always trying to get better, aiming to one day be a world champion."
Jan Cormack playing bridge.
Photo:
Jan cormack
He said it is a myth that players need to be good at mathematics to be good at Bridge.
"Even though there's maths underlying, you don't have to work out the maths at the time. It's all about logic, deductions and inferences and then solving puzzles. The probabilities in the maths, even though those probabilities are there, you don't have to work them out," he said.
"I did do some did some maths competitions when I was younger and in school, I've always enjoyed maths, and my calculus teacher thought that I would like Bridge because of because of this and he was right."
Having a similar style and idea of how the game is played to the person they're playing with helps, he said.
"That actually did cause some difficulty playing with Jan because the game has changed so much since she started playing 50-60 years ago," Meier said.
"The style that I have coming in as someone who's just learned, not very long ago and someone who's played for a long time, was pretty different, so we've tried to bridge the gap."
Leon Meier, 21, from Canterbury (far right) will be teaming up with Auckland-based Jan Cormack, 83, for the World Bridge Teams Championships in Denmark.
Photo:
Supplied
Meier lives in Christchurch and Cormack lives in Auckland, creating a physical gap, he said.
"We've both travelled to play some practise tournaments together. We can also practise online together and call each other and send each other documents with information."
He said to help connect with Cormack; he's also researched how Bridge has been played in the past.
"I just love the game, so I spend a lot of my time reading about it. I've seen a lot of how Bridge used to be played it in back in the day and having an understanding of that does help."
He said he believes he and Cormack may be one of the strongest Bridge mixed teams that New Zealand has sent.
"I think we've got a good chance at making it to the knockouts, maybe the quarterfinals even. Our chances at winning the gold medal probably not very high. There are so many good players in the World Championships from loads of different countries.
"We'll go there, and we'll try our best and I believe that anything is possible."
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