Michael Byrne

Michael Byrne was born in the 'late eighties' and lives in Manchester, where he teaches bridge full time as part of the MSB teaching school. He teaches between 50 and 100 people a week and makes every effort to remember their names, succeeding with a suspiciously high success rate.

He first came to competitive bridge when he won the Schools plate at Nottingham University, although his school only had 2 bridge players, he quickly taught two more and a team was born.

Six months later he arrived at Manchester University and discovered Manchester Bridge Club, where he was a permanent fixture for the next few years, including several years where he actually lived upstairs.

His career as a junior international started when he was selected for the U20 team and managed to capture the Peggy Bayer on Scottish soil. He subsequently won the Junior Camrose 3 times, before representing the U25 team in two European Championships, a World Championships, three European Pairs Championships, and three Channel trophies.

The majority of his success however has come as a non playing captain and in his capacity as Under 20 squad Leader he has captained his players to two World Championship Silver medals (in Beijing in 2008 and Philadelphia in 2010) as well as the Peggy Bayer (he has been successful NPC seven times - the most of any NPC in the event's history) and the Channel trophy (something he never achieved as a player!).

In the open game he has won the English Premier League, the Camrose Trophy (twice), the Brighton teams championship (three times), and the prestigious Lederer memorial trophy in consecutive years.

Away from the bridge table (although admittedly he doesn't spend much time there), Michael enjoys cooking, watching films and he is a keen quizzer, competing every week in Manchester. He was also part of the "5 diamonds" EBU team that went on eggheads in 2015, although as the 6th man he never made it onto the actual tv programme.

In July 2014 Michael was part of the England team which won the Chairman's Cup - the primary open teams event run by the Swedish Bridge Federation.

In August 2015, playing with Kieran Dyke, he won the prestigious Harold Poster Cup, the Swiss Pairs event at the Summer Meeting in Brighton. In 2017, with Kieran, Mike & Sarah Bell, and Marion Robertson he won the Summer Meeting Four Star teams.

Michael's biggest success was winning the Yeh Brothers Pairs Championship in 2015 in partnership with Mike Bell, beating a field of international players from all round the world in Shanghai.

Last updated: May 2018

Read Michael's a day in the Life of.. - December 2010

Major International Appearances
World Youth Team Championships: 2005
European Junior Championships: 2004 and 2005
World Bridge Teams Championships: 2019
European Mixed Teams Championships: 2019 and 2022
Bermuda Bowl: 2022

Camrose Trophy Selections: 2009 (EBU team) 2011 and 2018

Junior Camrose Selections: 2002 2004 and 2006

Peggy Bayer Trophy Selections: 2001

Premier League Winner: 2010

Harold Poster Cup - Summer Meeting Swiss Pairs - winner: 2015

Summer Meeting Four Stars Teams Winner: 2006 2011 and 2017

National Teams Congress winner: 2007 and 2013

National Pairs winner: 2006

Hubert Phillips Bowl winner: 2017

Player of the Year Championship: 2014/15 - 18th=; 2017/18 - 20th=

National Point-a-Board Teams winner: 2019

Easter Congress Guardian Trophy winner: 2023

Crockfords Cup: 2023