A bit about me
I'm a 52-year old retired Police Sergeant having lived and worked
in Manchester for the past 34 years. Outside of Bridge my main interests are riding (horses), scuba-diving,
computer programming and photography.
I'm a Londoner by birth and was taught bridge at a very early age by my father, who
had already taught my elder siblings how to play, but that still left them unable to make
up a four for Bridge so I became an instant addict at age 5 or thereabouts.
I was lucky in that the schools I attended from age 8 upwards all encouraged (or
didn't oppose) Bridge and so I started playing [vaguely] competitive bridge before I even
reached University. At Manchester University, though, I was introduced to the delights of
Teams of Four and Match-pointed Pairs and started to really study the game seriously. It was
here that some kind soul introduced me to Precision. I started playing
it, but found little opportunity to continue with it once I left Manchester.
Bury Athenaeum
When I left University I joined the Police in Manchester but, surprisingly, I had plenty of time left
over for playing bridge, and in quick time found myself joining and then running a bridge club in Bury
called the Bury Athenaeum. A friend and I turned it from a club where Bridge came second to a clapped out
snooker table into one of the best Bridge Clubs in the North-west of England. It was here that I started
teaching bridge (not Precision, mind, as this was strictly a beginner's class and Lancashire is deep in ACOL
territory). I did eventually find someone (Bob Bradbury) interested in developing a Precision system.
Manchester
I eventually moved on from Bury Athenaeum (long story, not to be repeated here) and started playing
Bridge in Manchester at Jeff Morris's Manchester Bridge Club, later the Galleon, and other clubs and fell into
a partnership with Jason Hackett, then an England Junior with his brother Justin. Jason and I took the system Bob
and I had been using and over several years developed it into a comprehensive Super-Precision system that was a
huge amount of fun to play, even if it did demand a great deal of concentration. We played
as a pair, and also as a Team of Four with Jason's twin brother Justin and their father the legendary Paul Hackett.
Needless to say I was pretty outclassed by these guys, but we had a lot of fun and won a few things!!! We even got a
winning draw out of the then GB Team (Brock, Forrester, Lodge & Sowter) after an outrageous psyche by Jason
in a Swiss Teams!!!
Online Bridge
In 1992 I gave up playing face-to-face Bridge (after I met my future wife Naomi, who doesn't like Bridge!!) and
switched my attentions to Online bridge, initially on OkBridge, but more recently on Bridgebase where I am now
happily situated. Besides teaching Precision in BIL, I also mentor a number of people on Bridgebase, but play
entirely for pleasure these days - still hoping to find a serious Precision partner, though... !!.
