I was born in Matlock, Derbyshire in 1944, the second of five children, into a card-playing family. I went with my mother to whist drives around local villages from the age of seven. I am told I did not like to lose! I was quick at multiplication tables at my primary school and I think I still hold the record 50 years on, of writing 84 answers in one minute. At grammar school I played representative cricket and rugby, but I enjoyed tennis best. I enjoy watching all good level sport, mainly via Sky TV and the armchair. I did not intend going to college, but a County Exhibition award for distinction at A level Geography and History continued my education at Sheffield University, where my life changed for ever. I WAS INTRODUCED TO BRIDGE!

A plethora of bridge talent was there and subsequently many well-known EBU  members played there. I began playing at Sheffield BC around 1965 and won the Club Individual trophy in 1966, my first trophy - always a special one to remember. The club was doing well and I was asked to teach there. Over 200 members joined from the duplicate classes until the club had 450 members and by 1984 was full. I had been Club TD, Secretary and Chairman in this time and decided with Pat, my non-playing second wife, to open up our own club nearby, so Sheffield BC associate members could play more and improve. We ran this club for 20 years and it is very successful, now as Beauchief Bridge Club. 

We decided to run British bridge holidays and have been told they are very pleasant and successful. We will have done 250 of them when we retire from organising our own bridge holidays in November 2008. Since meeting our wonderful game of bridge, I have been involved with virtually every aspect of it and loved every minute of my involvement with it. I am now a member of the EBU Board of Directors and am privileged to be responsible for youth matters.

Oh, my working life? I fitted in 31 years of primary class teaching at the same wonderful Sheffield council estate school, before I retired in 1997. I missed National Service by a few years, but unfortunately got caught by the National Curriculum at the end of my career. Throughout this time I was part of the most wonderful bridge partnership with Peter Littlewood, who accidentally died in 2000. Winning the National Pairs in 1977 and 1997 were our highlights and winning the Northern Pairs for a record equalling fifth time.

A couple of things people may not know about me is that I made the local press for the best 11 year old Widow Twankey in Aladdin that the reporter had witnessed. In the national press in 1965 I made it big time as Britain's first Bachelor of Bingo, when my University dissertation on Bingo in the 1960's made big headlines worldwide. It made me realise that everything you read in print is not necessarily true and statements can be misconstrued! I was the next big Bingo cheque giver at Top Rank after Elsie Tanner of Coronation Street fame.

I have two children - a son Ivan, a manager at Northumbrian Water who lives in Hexham with his wife Kathy and our two grandchildren, Thomas aged 8 and Laura 5. My daughter, Emma is single and lives in Birkenhead and she is a former Wren and now a civilian in the police force.