Page 17 - ABF Newsletter October 2024

Time took its toll on their marriage and, after very many years, they went their separate ways, remain- ing good friends. As Nikki put it, “We’ve known each other much longer than we’ve known anyone else”.
George Riszko was an enigma. He had no hobby apart from bridge. When not actually playing, he spent much of his leisure time reading about the game. But, although bridge was an abiding passion, George had multiple other interests, in particular politics and current affairs. These subjects can lead to heated debate and, with a lively intellect, George never hesitated to participate. Indeed, he loved nothing more than a vigorous argument about any- thing and everything.
George was an accomplished player who, it seemed to those of us who knew him well, never achieved his full potential. We wondered why. Was an uneasy, challenging childhood in some way responsible? Was an inherent Eastern European excitability too difficult to control? Was an argumentative nature, albeit non-aggressive, too taxing on stable partner- ship? We’ll never know. What we do know is that George was a person of utmost goodwill (but some- times misunderstood) and that his very best bridge was played with the hyper-phlegmatic Hashmat Ali.
George Riszko, you were one of a kind who will never again pass our way. We are going to miss you.
John Brockwell
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Nikki Varkonyi, a Hungarian refugee, and George Riszko first met in Wellington when they were barely teenagers. For many years they were just friends. Then the relationship blossomed into romance, and they married in 1965. George was in the second year of his five-year dental course; Nikki left Victoria Uni- versity in Wellington and completed her Arts Degree in Dunedin. On a whim, they took bridge lessons from a fellow student and were instantly addicted. Bridge became a pastime that engaged, enthralled and entertained them for the rest of their lives.
Nikki and George had two daughters, Gaby and Tonja. (They knew about bridge but never played seriously – although Tonja was a Summer Festival caddy for two years.) Both girls have made success- ful professional careers for themselves and have been a source of great pride for their parents. Gaby lives in Melbourne and is a prominent social worker in non-government organisations; Tonja lives in America and is a distinguished academic with unri- valled expertise in the relationship between the US Supreme Court and the US political system.
For several years after graduation, George practiced dentistry in London. Nikki with two small children, never came to terms with the English climate, so the family returned to Wellington in 1974. Six months later, George bought a practice in Canberra. One of their first acts was to join the Canberra Bridge Club where they continued to play until the present.
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