Geoffrey Wolfarth

We're sad to report the death of Geoffrey Wolfarth, a regular tournament player who represented England at the 2005 Camrose Trophy. Geoffrey's family have confirmed the following funeral details for those that wish to attend. The chapel service is limited to 30 members due to current social distancing. However, there will be a video link provided by the chapel, details below: Date: 17th August 2020 at 12.00 noon Place: The Shoreham Chapel of H.D. Tribe Ltd., 101, Eastern Avenue, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, BN43 6PE Video Link: Shoreham Funeral webcast - password: wolfarth17g. Donations: Geoffrey was passionate about his bridge as a player. He also firmly believed in the huge advantages it brought educationally, so the family have asked that anyone wishing to donate in Geoffrey’s memory make donations to EBED

Obituary by Brian Senior: When the mood took him, Geoffrey Wolfarth could be a right royal pain in the a***, as a fair few EBU tournament directors would no doubt testify. Geoffrey was also a generous man who would help anybody who needed it, and was highly intelligent with a sharp sense of humour. Geoffrey read classics and history at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, before eventually settling on Law. His speciality was property law, but during his many years working at Reynolds, Porter, Chamberlain, in High Holborn, London, he also became highly adept at solving the problems created by the less competent and less honest members of the legal profession. Geoffrey was deep into his forties when he met the love of his life, Ros. They were in many ways quite different people but the combination worked perfectly. They were married in 1998 and lived in Hove, along with two much-loved cats. Bridge was one of Geoffrey’s other loves, of course, and he had a number of major successes in his long playing career. He won the Premier Life Master Pairs three years in succession in partnership with my wife, Nevena. He and I won the EBU Spring Foursomes together, and also the Camrose Trials, with the not inconsiderable aid of teammates, Gary Hyett and Alan Mould. That led to Geoffrey’s proudest moment in bridge, as he represented his country in the Camrose Trophy. From that time onwards he would often wear his England blazer to other EBU competitions. However, for me, our best performance was in reaching the last eight of a European Open Teams Championship in a very strong field. While playing in another European Championship event, Geoffrey partnered Nevena. On one board she opened 3♣ on ♣QJ108xx and it didn’t work out too well when Geoffrey took her seriously. ‘Too much testosterone!’, accused Geoffrey. In the very next session he made the same opening on ♣QJxxxx, without the intermediate cards. That didn’t work out too well either. Away from bridge Geoffrey was interested in history and played war games, particularly based on the Peninsular War. He also loved to watch cricket and wave bye-bye to opposing batsmen (particularly Australians) as they were dismissed. Geoffrey was my friend, and I will miss him.