Dave (The Chimp) Armstrong plays bridge and poker, mostly at the Avenue Bridge Club in Hove (actually). He is interested in having fun within the laws of the game. He started his working life as a market trader which probably accounts for the fact that he is sometimes a little loud.

Now he spends a lot of his time teaching kids, mainly at two schools around Brighton and Hove area. Many of his stories come from the kids and all of the group that I teach know what rude is and avoid it, which is more than I can say for a lot of the grown ups.

He is interested in the laws and making them easier to understand by the general player. He hosts bridge holidays accompanied by his wife (social and duplicate) at the Eastbourne Lansdowne Hotel. His company is Bridgebug Ltd (www.bridgebug.co.uk).

He is also very proud of his Triumph 2.3l motorbike.

Sally Brock, editor of Bridge Plus, has been playing tournament bridge since the early 1970s. She (first as Sally Sowter, then Sally Horton) was part of the successful British women’s team during most of the 1980s, winning world championships in 1981 and 1985. She then retired from women’s bridge. In 1993 she married Raymond Brock (who sadly died in early 2008), and had two children in fairly quick succession, thus needing to curb her bridge playing. Despite that she represented England in a number of events this decade, the most successful outing being winning the gold medal at the European Championships in 2001. She works from home in High Wycombe, partly editing Bridge Plus, partly writing her weekly bridge column in The Sunday Times, and partly typesetting travel guides for a local publisher.
 

Michael Byrne, now 26, is a professional bridge teacher from Manchester, where he was born and raised. Returning to that area for University after spending some years in the south he trawled through university and represented England at both Under 20 and Under 25 level for 6 years before making his debut on the full England open team in May 2007. Michael is currently the England Under 20 Squad Leader which means he is responsible for the training and captaining of the England Under 20 team, a role which takes him all over the world and takes a considerable numbers of years off his life!

Pietro Campanile is an Italian who, after fifteen years spent in London working in the Arts at the Barbican Centre, is now happily ensconced in sunny Tel Aviv with his wife Migry, twice world champion and a full time bridge professional. They are co-editors of the Israeli Bridge magazine. They attribute the success of their marriage to how well they have kept up their firm commitment to limit to the absolute minimum the number of times they sit at the bridge table as partners. Pietro is a regular contributor to several other bridge magazines and a top player in his own right with several national titles and a few wins on the international circuit.

Stephen Cashmore has been writing for Bridge Plus ever since it started in 1989. He has co-authored two books with Dave Huggett - Plan the Play, which was well received on both side of the Atlantic, and Monster Book of Declarer Play, which has become a reference for beginners and teachers alike. He has had a varied career, working as a teacher, a careers advisor, a commissioning editor and as an auditor for the National Audit Office, the Audit Commission, and for South Ayrshire Council where he finally put down roots. He lost his first wife to cancer, but met his second wife on the internet and went out to China to fetch her. He has four children, with an age gap of 16 years between the youngest and second youngest! None of them play bridge yet - but he is working on it.

Justin Corfield is a well-known player on the tournament circuits of England and Wales. He has played County first team level bridge for many years, and has won a number of National events. He writes for several bridge magazines, and is currently writing his first book about the game. Justin is a Doctor of Philosophy and a qualified barrister. He lives in Chester with the novelist and journalist Mary Stanley.

Born in Leicestershire in 1926, Terry has lived in London with his wife Lynn since 1957. He had little choice but to learn bridge in 1943 (Culbertson, of course) to win reluctant tolerance from the parents of his girl-friend at the time (they were desperate for a fourth) and has never ceased to be grateful for it. He writes his humorous articles 'for his own amusement' but sincerely hopes that Bridge Plus readers find them amusing, too. Terry has a PhD in organic chemistry but occasionally wishes he had specialised in card play, instead.

Heather Dhondy lives in Hendon with her husband of 13 years, Jeremy, and 13 tropical fish all named after cricket players. Heather is an accountant as well as a professional bridge player, teacher and writer.

Heather's international successes include a bronze medal in 2004 at the Olympiad in Istanbul (Women's teams), the World Mixed Teams in Rhodes in 1996 as well as three European Championships - the first two (1997 and 1999) for Great Britain in partnership with Liz McGowan, and the last (2001) for England with Nicola Smith. In addition, she has won a record 12 Lady Milne trophies over the past 16 years.

Richard Fleet learned to play bridge by watching his parents' regular Sunday evening game some 45 years ago. The bridge was of an informal character: players would draw attention to jewellery if they wanted a diamond lead or rub their chests for hearts.

His interest in the game developed when at school (Manchester GS, where the Hackett twins were also - much later - educated) and he devoted much of his time at Cambridge University to playing rather than academic studies. He has represented England on several occasions though now plays little bridge. However, he retains a strong interest in the game, and is still heavily involved in administration as a member of EBU committees.

Richard lives in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire with his wife Debbie and 6 1/2 cats (the half is a neighbour's cat who doesn't realise where her home is) and is employed by Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd as Tax and Pensions Manager.

Tony Forrester scarcely needs an introduction. As bridge columnist for The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, Europe's number-one player is already known to tens of thousands of enthusiasts - whether rubber or contract bridge players - for his inimitable mixture of instruction and humour.

David Gold, the latest bright star in English bridge, is a professional bridge player and an anchor member of the England Open Team. He has represented the country in the Bermuda Bowl, and has won medals in several international bridge championships. David is the managing director and co-owner of the St John's Wood Bridge Club, a prestigious bridge-for-money club in the heart of London. He is also the bridge manager of bridge4money.com, an on-line club where rubber bridge is played for money.

Away from the bridge tabe, David likes eating out and watching films.

Tony Gordon is the Bridge Plus Roving Reporter, specialising in covering international championships. A Grandmaster and a first-class analyst, Tony also acts as the magazine's Technical Supremo and contributes to championship bulletins whenever he is in attendance. His main hobby are photography, and writing up hands played by attractive German women players.

Andrew Kambites has now retired from teaching maths in schools, and so has more time to devote to his hobbies - chess, tennis and bridge. A lucid writer and a superb teacher, Andrew is the author of several bridge books, some co-written with Eric Crowhurst and Ron Klinger, and writes articles for several bridge magzines. A respected Tournament Director, he has been known to run events in full EBU regalia and old slippers.

Ron Klinger is one of the best and the most prolific bridge writers ever. Author of countless books, his trademark is a lucid style that leaves no stone unturned. An Australian international player, Ron contributes to several leading bridge magazines. His current column in Bridge Plus, 'Bridge Championship Quiz', takes the reader 'step-by-step' through interesting and instructional hands played in world championships.

Sandra Landy has been one of our very best women players for several decades. She won the Venice Cup (women’s world teams championship) in 1981 and 1985, in partnership with Bridge Plus editor Sally Brock. For many years she taught computing at Brighton University but took early retirement in 1997 and went to work for the EBU in Aylesbury as project manager of Bridge For All, the EBU’s nationally accredited scheme for teaching bridge. Five years later she retired again, but still works from home, writing books, giving seminars all around the country and producing her local award-winning newsletter.

Bernard Magee is the author of the best-selling Collins Bridge Quiz Book. In 1997 he wrote The Mr Bridge Quiz and Puzzle Book and in 1999 he was a guest contributor to the popular Daily Bridge Calendar. In 2005 he wrote another best-seller, Tips for Better Bridge. Bernard regularly works on cruise ships and hotel weekends as a bridge host, giving seminars and directing. In between, he finds the time to write bridge articles for several leading publications and producing much-acclaimed instructional bridge software.

Liz McGowan is one of Scotland’s most successful players – of either sex. She enjoyed an extremely successful partnership with Heather Dhondy, winning European Championships in 1997 and 1999, though perhaps the highest point of all was in 1996 when they won the Transnational Mixed Teams in partnership with members of the Icelandic Open Teams. Unfortunately all that had to come to an end in 2000 when devolution occurred and instead of one team, Great Britain, there were three: England, Scotland and Wales. Liz lives in Edinburgh with husband Ian; they have two grown-up daughters. She is now a bridge professional, writing a daily bridge column in The Scotsman, and generally writing about and teaching bridge.

Freddie North is a bridge Grand Master, a former British international, and one of Britain's best known and most popular bridge authors, with a long list of successful titles to his name. A leading bridge teacher with many years' experience, Freddie North now concentrates on teaching, but still finds the time to write a regular column ('Defending with Purpose') for Bridge Plus and contribute to other bridge magazines.

Svend Novrup is a Danish writer who has written books (110 in all) and articles in nine different languages and more than 20 countries. He has written for international bulletins and British bridge magazines since 1970, and his character Eve is popular in many countries. For 30 years he wrote the chess and bridge columns in the major Danish newspaper Politiken. Among his books is a bridge encyclopedia, but also a bridge christmas calendar, and he has authored six books with different sorts of bridge humour. He has played in several international championships and coached several countries’ national teams.

Margaret Nygren has been playing bridge for a remarkably short period of time, compared with most of our other contributors. And even more remarkably, won a European Championships in partnership with BP editor, Sally Brock, in 2001 after having been playing for only four years. Bidding judgement is one of her specialities and she has good advice to give on that subject. She lives in London with her Swedish husband Martin, and has a daughter, Ana.

Julian Pottage first learnt the game of bridge some 30 years ago watching his parents, who are both still active players. Julian is a qualified bridge teacher and has a regular themed column in the three principal UK bridge journals, the topics covered being Defence and Opening Leads. He has written or co-written some ten books, his most recent solo work being Easy Guide to Defensive Signals at Bridge.

Derek Rimington is a Grandmaster and an International player who has won all the major British and English titles at least once. He is the author and editor of many bridge books, and has been associated with a number of TV programmes about bridge.

Andrew Robson is a former World Junior Champion, and has an impressive number of prestigious international titles to his name. He runs the highly successful Andrew Robson Bridge Club and is the Bridge Columnist for The Times. His vast experience in teaching improvers, as well as his bridge expertise, makes him the ideal writer for the Bridge Plus 'Tip of the Month' column. His most recent book, Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them, has recently been reprinted for the second time in a few months.

Nikos Sarantakos is married, has two daughters, and works as a
translator in Luxembourg. He has collaborated with Terence Reese for
articles and David Bird for books. His main bridge interest is real-life
deals. Nikos has written several books in Greek (short stories,
linguistics).

Marc Smith represented Great Britain as a junior, winning the 1985 European Union Junior Teams Championship. He has a host of wins in national events, and reached the final of the World Mixed Pairs last year playing with his wife, Charlotte. They live in Southampton with a Border Collie named Giorgio, and are planning to name their next dog Benito. Marc is also a former Under-19 Rugby international, although his spare time these days is devoted to a less-taxing stamp collection. A prolific writer and a regular contributor to several leading bridge magazines, Marc is the author of several successful books, notably 25 Conventions You Should Know, written together with Barbara Seagram, which has won the 1999 ABTA Book of the Year award for the Novice category.

Richard Winter was born in 1957 in Yorkshire where he continues to live and practise as a solicitor. He is married to Sarah Teshome who also plays bridge and they have two children – Sophie born in 1998 and Daniel born in 2000. Richard won the pairs at Brighton with Andy Eastwood and they formed part of the Great Britain team which came second in the Junior European Championships in 1982. However, Richard’s longest-running partnership was with Mark Horton with whom he had a number of appearances for England in the home international series. Together they won most national events (except the Gold Cup). Internationally, he and Mark played in numerous events with notable wins in the Dunhill Nations Cup (1991) and the Hoechst (1992). Richard thinks his greatest bridge achievement lay in winning the Hoechst because the first winners of that event were Belladonna, Garozzo, Avarelli and Forquet - not bad company to be in!

Bobby Wolff really needs no introduction as he is one of the all-time greats of our game, having won 11 world championship titles. He is the only person to have won world championships in five different categories. He has also served a term as President of the World Bridge Federation. He has long been the instigator of ‘Active Ethics’, a philosophy whereby it is not enough merely to play according to the laws of our game, but also how we should bend over backwards to behaviour in an exemplary fashions and see that justice is done and equity restored. He now lives in Las Vegas with his wife Judy. His new autobiographical book The Lone Wolff (Master Point Press, £15.95) is now out and full of explosive disclosures about top-level bridge.