Tony Priday

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Richard Anthony (Tony) Priday (born 1922) is an English bridge player and journalist, who had a longstanding and successful partnership with Claude Rodrigue.[1] He was a member of the Great Britain teams which finished third in the Bermuda Bowl in 1962, third in the World Team Olympiad in 1976 and which won the European Championships in 1961 (when he was partnered by Alan Truscott) and came second in 1971.

He played in the World Team Olympiad three times in all (1972, 1976 & 1980) and in the European Championships eight times between 1961 and 1979. He also won the Sunday Times Invitational Pairs, a prestigious tournament which features some of the world's strongest partnerships, in 1970 partnered by Nico Gardener.

He has been selected 30 times for England in the Camrose Trophy (competed for by England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland), with a record of won 24, drew 3 and lost 3. His first appearance was in 1955 and the most recent in 2002. He won the Gold Cup on seven occasions between 1964 and 1976.

He was an independent assessor of the technical evidence at the British Bridge League inquiry into the allegation of cheating by Terence Reese and Boris Schapiro at the 1965 World Championships.

He is renowned for his correct demeanour at the bridge table. In a survey of 23 leading British players, 13 chose him when asked to name the "perfect gentleman/woman".[2]

In 1983, he took part in a televised match arranged by the BBC between teams representing Britain and the United States. The British team was Priday, Rodrigue, Nicola Gardener and Pat Davies. The US team was Neil Silverman, Matthew Granovetter, Jacqui Mitchell and Gail Moss. The British team won by 32 international match points over 78 deals in seven sessions. The match subsequently formed the basis of a book, in which Priday was described as follows: "He is tall, grey-haired, distinguished and impeccably dressed... He is also amusing, polite and might appear ripe to be mugged at the Bridge table... Beneath the velvet lurks a mind of iron..."[3]

He has been non-playing captain of many England and Great Britain teams over a period of almost forty years, including those in:

  • the Bermuda Bowl in 1987 when the British team finished second;
  • two World Team Olympiads (1988 & 1996);
  • the Women's World Team Olympiad in 1960;
  • four European Teams Championships (1969, 1985, 1987 & 1997).

He was the bridge correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph from the newspaper's launch in 1961 until 1997.

He was made a Life Member of the English Bridge Union (EBU) in 1997 and is its Vice-President and a former Vice-Chairman. He is a former Chairman of the British Bridge League.

[edit] Life outside bridge

He attended Winchester College, and then joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps, serving during World War Two and achieving the rank of Major. In 1947, he joined the family timber business, Sydney Priday & Snewin Ltd. He became Managing Director in 1968. He retired from the firm in 2001.

In 1966, he married Jane Juan, herself a noted bridge player (d. 1994). He remarried in 1995.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ New York Times article
  2. ^ Peter Hasenson (ed), British Bridge Almanack, 77 Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-9549241-0-X, pp158-165.
  3. ^ Jeremy James, Jeremy Flint and Derek Rimington: Grand Slam, published by Country Life, 1983, ISBN 0 600 36878 5, p7.

[edit] References