Ralph Swimer (14 October 1914 – 28 February 1998) was a British

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

player. He is best known as , or npc, of the 1965 Great Britain Bermuda Bowl team. During that

World Bridge Federation The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the international governing body of contract bridge. The WBF is responsible for world championship competitions, most of which are conducted at a few multi-event meets on a four-year cycle. The most prestigiou ...

championship tournament in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, the British pair Terence Reese and Boris Schapiro were accused of cheating.

Alan Truscott Alan Fraser Truscott (16 April 1925 – 4 September 2005) was a British-American bridge player, writer, and editor. He wrote the daily bridge column for ''The New York Times'' for 41 years, from 1964 to 2005, and served as Executive Editor for th ...

—bridge editor for ''The New York Times'' from 1 January 1964 until his death in 2005—covered the January 1965 tournament, where he helped develop the allegations, convince Captain Swimer, and testify for the WBF hearing. Decades later, his ''NYT'' bridge column in obituary of Swimer featured the affair. "In England", Truscott summarised, "Swimer was hailed as a hero by some but targeted as a villain by others." Swimer was a member of the 1960 Great Britain open team in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, which finished second to France in the first quadrennial World Team Olympiad. His partner there was

Jeremy Flint Jeremy M. Flint (30 August 1928 – 15 November 1989) 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 ...

, who also played on the 1965 Bermuda Bowl team that Swimer led as npc. Swimer was born in Poland and came to Britain in the early 1920s. He died in London, England, after a short illness.

Notes

References

External links

*
"Sensational Scandal in Buenos Aires full story"
at Shenkin's World of Bridge, by Barnet Shenkin (28 May 2010) – originally published as "Scandal in Buenos Aires" in four parts (17 March to 28 May) {{DEFAULTSORT:Swimer, Ralph 1914 births 1998 deaths British and Irish contract bridge players Place of birth missing Polish emigrants to the United Kingdom