Alex first played bridge at home with his father at the age of 11 and together they were regulars at the local bridge club. Alex's next foray into bridge was in the club at the Grange School where he started a partnership with Gareth Wilkes. This partnership was part of the team which won the School's Cup in the One Day Challenge in 2009 upon which the four team members were invited to join the England U20 squad.
After attending some squad sessions and somewhat testing Alan Shillitoe's patience with stupid questions, Alex was given his first cap at the 2010 Peggy Bayer, playing with Mungo Jackson. Since Mungo would be too old for the next Junior Europeans, matchmaker Michael Byrne formed the "Fish and Chips" partnership of Alex Roberts and Tommy Brass. Tommy was Alex's first longtime partnership and together they finished 7th in the European Youth Pairs and 4th as part of the England U20 team in the European Youth Teams. They were awarded the EBU's Young Pair of the Year Award in 2010. Due to the WBF's somewhat questionable decision to change the age categories, a rearrangement of partnerships resulted in Alex forming a partnership with Shivam Shah. Whilst this partnership was a short one, it had relative success, guiding the England to the quarterfinals of the U20 World Championships.
Alex had now become too old for U20 bridge and spent the next couple of years catching up to the standard of the U25 team. After this break (and a cameo as Coach) Alex formed a partnership with James Paul and together they represented England in the European Junior Championships finishing an agonising 4th place. Unfortunately James will be too old to play in the World Championships this summer (again thanks to the WBF's age categories policy) and so Alex is now playing with Ankush Khandelwal.
Besides bridge, Alex is a second year Maths PhD student at Oxford, having studied there as an undergraduate. He plays squash for the university and has hopes of playing county squash for Oxfordshire in his time as a student.
Last updated: March 2016
Major International Selections
Junior European Championships: 2011 2015 and 2017
Junior World Championships: 2012 and 2016
Junior Camrose Selections: 2015
Peggy Bayer Trophy Selections: 2010 2011 and 2012
Awards:
Young Pair of the Year: 2010