Tony Russ

I learned bridge in my late teens from my parents who were both club and county players. I played for a few years in Staffordshire but then marriage, children and career became more important and I didn’t then play for about twenty years other than staff room games at break and lunch times.

My career was divided equally into two twenty year segments, the first in teaching PE and sums followed by a complete change. During my teaching career I developed an interest in coaching and in 1990 I became one of the first professional Directors of Rugby when I joined Leicester Tigers followed by periods at other clubs ending as Academy Director at Harlequins.

When I was about 50 I returned to bridge, playing in Leicester, Belfast, Cumbria and Farnham before retirement brought us to Somerset. I was quite quickly invited to join the county committee and was honoured to become Chairman five years ago.

I hope to continue in this role as I look forward to the next three years as a member of the EBU board.