Andrew Robson is one of Britain’s best known player/teacher/writers. He produces an acclaimed daily instructional “BridgeCast” videos for all levels of players (andrewrobsonbridgecast.com) and produced many free You Tube clips on the game he loves.
Andrew has written the daily bridge column in The Times for over 20 years. He also writes weekly for Country Life (for whom he has written for 30 years), for Money Week (nearly 20 years) and monthly for The Oldie. He owns the successful Andrew Bridge Club in South West London, which he began from nothing in 1995. Andrew is married with two daughters, Hannah and Mimi and lives with his wife Lorna in Wiltshire.
Andrew learnt how to play bridge at the age of 10 with his brothers (he has two younger ones, James and Rupert, neither of whom play any serious bridge these days) under the initial tutelage of his parents. He pored over bridge books as a teenager - particularly remembering Culbertson's Red Book which was in the school library and anything by Terence Reese.
In his twenties, Andrew begun a junior bridge partnership with John Pottage (who has since stopped playing), with whom he won the Common Market and World Championships, both in 1989. When he turned 25 and he couldn't play in junior bridge any more, England international Tony Forrester asked him to partner with him. Their partnership was to last seven years and saw many trophies lifted. The highlights were winning the European Championships in 1991, the prestigious Cap Gemini and the Sunday Times-Macallan. They reunited in 2014 and were part of the England team that won a bronze medal in the European Championships (later upgraded to a silver medal following the disqualification of the winning Israeli team), and then achieved a fourth place finish at the 2015 Bermuda Bowl (after two extremely narrow defeats in the semi-final and bronze medal play-off).
In 2017 he was part of a team which won a bronze medal in the Transnational competition at the World Teams Championships.
In 2018 he was a winner of the English Bridge Union's Diamond Award, introduced to recognise players "in recognition of excellence and success over a sustained period for England's international teams”.
Andrew has also played a fair amount with the legendary Zia Mahmood, with whom he won the Cap Gemini two further times, David Bakhshi, with whom he won the Gold Cup in 2002 and 2004, Rita Shugart in the US, with whom he won two Majors (the first Briton - with teammate Tony Forrester - to do so), and for the last 15 years with Alexander Allfrey. Andrew and Alexander have won the Gold Cup together seven times, Crockfords three times, the Harold Poster Trophy at the Summer Meeting twice and the Spring Fours five times (most recently in 2023).
Andrew's bridge ambitions do not revolve solely around his playing goals - although he would love to win a World Championship. A trained schoolteacher, Andrew's ability and love of teaching the game has seen him head many hundreds of seminars around the country. He reaps great satisfaction from reaching out to hundreds of new players via his teaching, giving them countless pleasure and, to date, seeing at least ten marriages result! Andrew always tries to impart his optimism for bridge, and the importance of playing in the right spirit: bridge is a wonderful game; but it is only a game.
In the Queen's new year honours list for 2013, Andrew received a well-deserved OBE for services to the game of bridge and to charity.
When not playing bridge or spending time with his family, Andrew loves long walks and bike rides.
Read Andrew's Top Table interview - June 2012
Last updated: October 2019
Major International Appearances
European Championships: 1991* 2014 2016 and 2018
Bermuda Bowl: 1991 2013, 2015 and 2019
World Olympiad: 1992 1996 2004 2012 and 2016
World Youth Team Championships: 1989*
European Junior Championships: 1988 and 1990
* = 1st place
European Champions’ Cup: 2004 2005 2014 2015 2017 and 2019
Camrose Trophy Selections: 1991 1992 1993 1994 2004 2009(EBU team) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 and 2019
Junior Camrose Selections: 1986 1987 and 1989
Gold Cup Winner: 2002, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2012 2013 and 2014
Crockfords winner: 2005 2008 and 2012
Premier League Winner: 2011 2013 2014 2016 2017 and 2018
Spring Foursomes Winner: 1996 2009 2016 2017 2018 and 2023
Summer Meeting Pairs, Harold Poster Cup Winner: 2004 2005 2016 and 2017
Summer Meeting Four Stars Teams Winner: 2010 and 2014
National Teams Congress winner: 1990
Tollemache Cup winner: 1989
Player of the Year Championship: 2014/15 - 2nd=; 2015/16 - 1st=; 2016/17 - 1st=; 2017/18 - 2nd=; 2018/19 - 2nd=