Before returning to Australia about a decade ago, Michael Courtney spent several years playing high-stake rubber bridge in London. Those of us who occasionally kibitzed him will never forget his sheer brilliance at the table. Michael has the pleasingly shambolic look of a mad professor, and his imagination seems to operate in a different dimension: he always has his eye on the deceptive card, the one to throw his opponents off the scent.
In the intervening years, he’s clearly lost none of his prowess: his team has just won the Australian trials. Hearing this news prompted his former wife Margaret — also a talented player — to post a message on Facebook saying that she had been reminded of the most amazing hand she’s ever watched, played by Michael at the rubber bridge table all those years ago.
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