ANNA MARIA TORLONTANO 1930 - 2016

She studied Law at Rome University and livesdin Pescara, Italy. Her bridge career started in 1975 when she was elected President of the Bridge Association of Pescara. Three years later, she joined the Board of the Italian Bridge Federation and took over the women's section. Starting from scratch, she managed to boost participation in national women championships to 340 pairs and 182 teams in four years time!

In 1985, she was elected to the Executive Committee of the European Bridge League (EBL). She was immediately appointed Chairman of the EBL Women's Committee, and again the results were spectacular. She was re-elected by the EBL Congress in 1987, 1991, 1999 and 2003 as an Executive, while she also served as EBL Vice President (1995-99). In 1999 she was awarded the EBL Gold Medal for her services.

Anna Maria Torlontano joined the WBF Executive Council as a member in 1993 and served until 2002. In 1999, the WBF Women's Committee was founded, and she was appointed to lead this sensitive area once again, this time at world level. In recognition of her great services to bridge, in 2003 she received the WBF Gold Medal. She was named in Antalya 2007: "EBL Honorary Vice President ".

In Bali, Indonesia, Anna Maria had the honour of being elected to the WBF Committee of Honour, the highest possible award in bridge. This Committee can consist of just thirteen living members and by electing her, Anna Maria's colleagues showed their recognition and appreciation of the amount of work and dedication she gave to bridge.

We will not see her like again

ANNA GUDGE - Anna lives with her partner, Mark Newton,on the island of Orkney in northern Scotland. She has two daughters, both “grown up and gone” a 25 year old granddaughter and a 8 year old grandson. Anna learned to play bridge in her 30s but never plays these days, preferring instead to spend her spare time enjoying her hobbies which include MahJong, photography, bird watching and investigating Neolithic tombs!

Anna and Mark developed ECatsBridge (http://www.ecatsbridge.com) and she works within bridge for various different organisations, including, of course, the WBF.
You can contact Anna by emailing anna.gudge@worldbridgefed.com

 

VINCENZO DELLE CAVE (1958) - He graduated in Electronic Engineering at the University of Rome and started playing competitive bridge in 1978 while studying at this University, but work and family duties soon put a stop to his brilliant (?) bridge career. Now he works as IT Project Manager for a big company in Rome.

He is a close friend and business partner of Fred Gitelman (the creator of Bridge Base Online and producer of the best bridge software available)

Vincenzo runs BBO ITALIA and he has created the Italian versions of Fred's bridge software. He organizes 4 yearly exciting bridge holidays. For the bridge holidays' calendar link to www.fantonivacations.it. Vincenzo plays on BBO with the nick VINCENZO and his email address is info@bridgebase.it. If you like to learn more about Vincenzo and if you are interested in his bridge software have a look at (www.bridgebase.it) or BBO ITALIA website (www.bboitalia.it ).