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Maureen Hiron (1942 – June 2022) was a British games designer and international bridge player. She is best known as a developer of over 60 board, card, dice, word and question and answer games, including the abstract strategy game Continuo. Her games were published through Hiron Games Ltd., which she founded with her husband in 1982 after retiring from teaching.

Personal life

Maureen Hiron was a teacher, head of the physical education department of an Inner London comprehensive school. She retired from teaching, aged 32, after a serious injury when a heavy metal air conditioner broke away and fell on her head while she was calling from a window to quieten some unruly children.

Hiron was a passionate bridge player, who participated in national and international championships. She was on the winning England team in both the 1974 and 1975 Lady Milne Trophy, the home countries internationals, and also represented Great Britain in the European Championships of 1974.

Through bridge she met Alan Hiron (1933–1999), the bridge correspondent of The Independent, and in 1990 the gold medalist of the inaugural World Championship Senior Pairs. The couple married in 1983.

In the early 1990s the Hirons moved to Southern Spain for the better climate. Alan died in Málaga on 7 June 1999 from Guillain–Barré syndrome. Maureen took over writing the bridge columns in The Independent and Irish Independent newspapers, and developed further games.

Hiron died in June 2022.

Game design

In 1982 the Hirons founded the games publishing company Hiron Games Ltd, initially to produce and market the game Continuo and later a stream of other games, such as Quizwrangle and Cavendish. Maureen invented the games and Alan was the tester and editor. Continuo, launched on 1 April 1982, became Britain's best-selling game, with around 205,000 sets sold in the UK by the end of that year.

In 1984 Maureen and Alan Hiron were the subject of a 30-minute BBC TV documentary A Will to Win. Shortly afterwards Maureen was diagnosed with cancer and was admitted to the Royal Marsden Hospital. There, using her fellow-patients as play-testers, she developed the game Chip In, which her company manufactured and used in the campaign to raise £25 million for the Royal Marsden, the world's first specialist cancer hospital. The Appeal President was Princess Diana, and the main backing newspaper was the Daily Star. Maureen was voted Londoner of the Year, in London Electricity's Brightening Up London campaign. The then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, even took on Maureen and Alan at Chip In.

Bridge and writing

In 1993 Maureen and Alan competed in partnership at the European Union Bridge Senior Pairs in Portugal and won the bronze medal. Maureen and Alan wrote some beginners' bridge books together, and also quiz books - including The Ultimate Trivia Quiz Games Book, with over 10,000 questions, which reached No. 2 in the British Bestsellers list. (Non-fiction). Maureen also wrote the questions for the first series of Channel 4's popular quiz show Fifteen to One and created puzzles for ITV's The Krypton Factor.

Selected publications

• 1983: The 11+ Bridge Book (with Alan Hiron). Crowood
• 1984, 1991: The Penguin Ultimate Trivia Quiz Game Book (with Alan Hiron) (ISBN 978-1870630849)
• 1985: Trivia Choice (with Alan Hiron & David Elias). Severn House
• 1987: Bridge for Beginners (with Alan Hiron). Crowood (ISBN 978-1852230784)
• 1989: Beginning Bridge (with Alan Hiron). Batsford (ISBN 978-1852233518)
• 1994: Easy Guide to Bridge (with Alan Hiron). Cadogan (ISBN 978-0713486629)
• The Puffin Trivia Quiz Game Book (with Alan Hiron & David Elias)
• Beyond the Ultimate Trivia Quiz Game Book (with Alan Hiron & David Elias). Penguin
• Learn to play aBRIDGEd. Out of the Box (USA)

Games

Awards

• 1995 Mensa Select Game: Continuo
• 1995 Mensa Select Game: Duo
• 1995 Parents Choice Gold Award: Teddy's Party
• 1996 Mensa Select Game: Quadwrangle
• 2018 Game of the Year: KIVI (Finland)
• 2018 Game of the Year: Grabolo Junior (Hungary)
• 2019 German Educational Game Award: Hoch Spannung [de] High Voltage
• 2021 Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design: inducted into Hall of Fame

References

1. ^ Boydell, Tony. "Mourning Maureen". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
2. Hiron, Maureen (10 December 2019). "Maureen Hiron, Gamesperson Extraordinaire" (PDF). IBPA Bulletin. 659. IBPA: 1, 16.
3. "Maureen Hiron | Board Game Designer | BoardGameGeek".
4. ^ Walker, Tim (3 November 2009). "Big game hunter: The search for the next Monopoly". The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
5. ^ Batchelor, Charles (28 April 1988). "Inventor hits games market on the head". Financial Times. p. VI. Retrieved 12 May 2020 – via Internet Archive.
6. "Prolific inventor Maureen Hiron on having ideas – and the daftest thing a game designer can do". Mojo Nation. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
7. "Lady Milne Home Internationals - a History | English Bridge Union". www.ebu.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
8. ^ "Obituary: Alan Hiron". The Independent. 9 June 1999. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
9. "A Will to Win". The Radio Times. 10 January 1985. p. 31. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
10. Sid. "Brighten Up London". Hands On London. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
11. "Quadwrangle". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
12. "Quizwrangle". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
13. "Double". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
14. "Seduxion". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
15. ^ "Mensa Select® Games". www.mensamindgames.com. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
16. Just, Wilfried (28 November 2019). "Hochspannung erhält Auszeichnung Lernspiel des Jahres 2019" [High Voltage Receives 2019 Educational Game of the Year Award]. Kinderspielmagazin (in German). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
17. "Hall of Fame". The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design. Retrieved 13 May 2022.

External links

• Official website
• Maureen Hiron in the game database Luding
• Maureen Hiron in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)

• 1942 births
• 2022 deaths
• Board game designers
• British game designers
• Contract bridge writers
• British women in business