It is with a true sense of sadness that we have to announce that Mary Higson died on Tuesday morning, 30th March 2004 aged 88. Mary was a wonderful friend of Manchester Bridge; she was involved in administration from the late fifties for 40 years and for some of the time in the sixties she virtually ran the county single handed. Together with her late husband, Roy, she was ever present at North West events, Mary undertaking the administration, while Roy directed. She was a fine player too, winning the Manchester league and cup and many congress events as well as the Silver Plate of the Whitelaw Cup on one occasion. For many years she was a regular player at the Manchester Bridge Club Wednesday duplicate partnering Henry Huggill. She provided a lot of information and background for the history page of this site and many interesting anecdotes. She was awarded a Dimmie Fleming Award for services to bridge by the EBU. She moved to Surrey a couple of years ago to be near her son when increasing frailty meant that she was unable to remain in the Manchester area. Our condolences to son Nigel, daughter Chrystal and their families.