John Matheson: GP and bridge champion, who put his success down to a combination of psychology and strategic thinking

John Matheson combined his career as a GP with being an accomplished bridge player, winning the Scottish Cup a record 18 times—the first in 1969, the last in 2022. His achievement was all the more impressive considering that he eschewed major competitions for 15 years to concentrate on medicine and his young family.

Matheson became interested in the game in his late teens through reading the bridge columns by Terence Reese in the Observer and Kenneth Konstam and Boris Schapiro in the Sunday Times. He funded his way through university with his bridge winnings and was so successful that he managed to buy a car. His mother disapproved of the considerable sums he won, considering them “ill gotten gains.”

Matheson played his first Camrose tournament—where England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Ireland compete against each other—with John McLaren in 1963.

Interviewed by Samantha Punch for Bridge: A Mind Sport for All, earlier this year,1 He …