Anthony Dixon Clark was born 26 July 1945 in Sheffield His mother was a keen rubber bridge player and she taught Tony to play when he was 12, but his interest did not take off until later.
Tony studied at Cambridge University and while there he met Steve Burton a fellow under-graduate and they formed a bridge partnership which lasted fifty years. In the early days of their partnership they won the British Junior Pairs twice. He played for Cambridge in 1967 and was part of the winning team in the Varsity match (against Oxford) and the Universities Cup.
Tony & Steve partnered each other in the 1970 European Junior Championships playing for Great Britain where the team finished tenth. In October 1972 Steve & Tony played in the Camrose trials finishing first out of 28 pairs. This result ensured that they played in the Camrose that season & they played against Wales in February 1973. England won the Camrose that year. Steve & Tony also played in the Camrose again in 1974 & 1976.
After leaving Cambridge Tony worked in London and by the turn of the century was a principal lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering, Science & Technology at the South Bank University in London. He lived for many years in Tonbridge with his wife Christine and two daughters, none of them played bridge though.
In Kent Tony played his club bridge at Farnborough. He regularly played for Farnborough in competitions such as the Corbett Cup and was in a number of winning team. He was also part of the Farnborough team which won the Garden Cities in 2001 and 2002.
In later years he regularly played in the KCBA congress with Steve Burton. Playing together they won the Invicta Cup (main pairs) in 2000. He was also successful in the teams winning the Lukey Cup in 2006 & 2011 & Owl Cup (awarded to the runners up) in 2004.
In National competition Tony and Steve also had numerous successes. They were part of the team which won the Silver Plate in 1998. They were also part of the winning team in the Brighton Bowl at the EBU Summer Congress in 1995 and were second in 2002. In 1982 they were in the team which won the Year End London Swiss Teams. They were also part of the Crockfords runners up team in 1980.
When playing in teams competitions Tony and Steve very often included Andrew Thomson as part of the team. Tony and Andrew also regularly played in National competitions with some success for over 20 years. They won the Harold Poster pairs at the Summer meeting in 2000 after being runners up in the year before. They also finished second in the Two Stars in 1998 and won the Easter Pairs in 1994.
Tony and Andrew also represented both Great Britain and England in numerous international competitions. Their best result was in 2001 in the European Pairs Championships in Sorrento, Italy where they finished as the best placed British pair.
Tony also played for many years at the London Duplicate Bridge Club and was chairman for two periods from the 1980’s until 2014 when he retired from bridge due to ill health and moved to Hastings.
Tony died April 2022 in Hastings after a long illness.