[Bridge is] deliciously simple in the rules but deliciously complex in doing well.
I was taught by my Grandparents the basics of the game at the age of 12. Fortunately, bridge was heavily encouraged and some early competitive successes ensued.
I was a member of the school team (St Paul's) that won the London League (where 60 school teams competed) on three occasions and also finished 2nd in the British Universities championships even though I was still at school.
My main entry to the elite of bridge came through playing at the Young Chelsea Bridge club – now one of the biggest duplicate bridge clubs in England. When I started there, as one of its earliest members, I was about 15 years old.
Bridge followed me to University where I took a Law degree at Jesus Cambridge, winning both varsity matches I played in and cementing my reputation as a junior player.
At the age of 21, I represented Junior England in the home nations series where we won every match.
Around this time, I had started work as an Investment Analyst, and was a member of a team that won the British Championship (The Gold Cup) at the age of 23. Though working brought a steady pay cheque, my heart was really in bridge. I took the chance when offered to become Assistant Manager at the St James Club Britain’s Premier Rubber Bridge Club to manager Irving Rose. This was very much a 24/7 job which did not leave much time for competitive bridge, but occasionally because of the prestige of the club, we received invitations from overseas – playing in Dubai with Terence Reese and in Deauville with Boris Schapiro. At the time a new entry to the rubber bridge scene Zia Mahmood was cutting his teeth at the club, and together we played in the Gold Cup reaching the semi-finals (should have been the finals but I failed to recognize one of Zia’s psyches).
After Irving Rose’s departure to the USA, I took over management of the club, often playing or hosting 18 hours a day. I remember one session where I went three full days without a break. The hours in the end took their toll, and in 1983 I moved to South Africa.
Initially, I gave bridge a back seat. Happily, you can never really get away from the game, and one day I was recognised by one of my former members from the UK in a Johannesburg supermarket. He encouraged me to play at the local rubber bridge club, where on the first day I lost R200... Well, I could not let them hang on to that, and the bridge bug was back.
Playing with the late Brian Marvis, we won the pairs at my first very South African Congress – the premier event of the year in our local calendar. Over the years, though I did not play every year, I have added a further 12- national titles at teams and pairs to my resume playing with many different partners. I have lost count of the number of Provincial titles that I have been lucky enough to win.
Back in 1985 I moved to Cape Town and worked as a computer analyst in the financial sector. This led to several jobs initially as financial systems analyst, and later to financial management until my retirement last year. But through all these times, bridge remained my biggest passion.
Back in the 80’s The South African Bridge Federation correctly withdrew from participation in world bridge. The bridge constitution specifically stated that we were a multi-racial game and we would only play at multi-racial venues. So, until the downfall of Apartheid, bridge competition was strictly events in South Africa.
In 1992 South Africa returned to the world stage, and so began, for me, an uninterrupted run of 17 years where I did not fail to qualify for the South African team. Whilst in most cases it was tough for us being amateurs against full time professionals, we had many highlights. We won or came second in eight consecutive All Africa championships. This qualified the team to play in the World Bridge Championships which take place every 2 years.
In 1994 we managed to reach the quarterfinals before losing to Canada. In 2007, in Shanghai, we became the first team to beat Italy in the championships for over 10 years, which earned us a semi-final match against the USA which we lost by a small margin. This was the first and only time South Africa had made it to the top 4 in the world. Playing with Glen Holman, we remain the only South African pair to have made two World Pairs finals. These successes gave me the rank of World International Master and the highest ranking achieved by a South African player ever, before or since.
In 2009, the rules for the selection of the SA team changed. Now bridge had become a member of the International Olympic Organisation, and even though the World Bridge Federation rules required a player to be permanently resident in a country for at least three years (at this stage I had been a permanent resident for over 25 years), the local rules were that you had to be a South African passport holder to represent South Africa.
Because of this my role changed from player to coach and captain, successfully taking our Ladies team twice to qualify for the World Championships and being appointed coach of the Open team. The rules in 2020 have changed again, and I am now able to represent South Africa again, and in the recent trials, I qualified in second place to re-join the team I had been excluded from for 10 years.
But the retirement mentioned earlier has allowed me to go back to my first love of teaching the game. This I am happy to do at any level – from beginners through intermediate and the most advanced. I am available for teaching either locally at my home in Observatory Cape Town, or as I often do these days online on Bridge Base Online (BBO). The online lessons usually take place with the addition of a group Skype call – so it does not matter what part of the country you are in (or even which country) – I am available to teach.