John Holland is a Manchester based professional. He played for the England open team in the 2006 and 2008 European Championships with John Armstrong. At Senior level he has won 2 world championships, in 2009 and 2010, plus a European championship in 2014 , partnering Gunnar Hallberg. He was a member of the winning Gold Cup team in 2015.
Gary Hyett is a retired Traffic Engineer living in Manchester. He played for the England many times with a variety of partners and represented Great Britain in the 1999 European Championships. He has won the Gold Cup on two occasions, partnering Alan Mould. Gary is married with two grown up children and a granddaughter.
Graham Kirby represented Great Britain many years ago, before two if his teammates were born. he was in the winning GB team in the 1991 European Championships and runner up in the 1987 Bermuda Bowl, playing with John Armstrong. Graham retired in the 1990s to help bring up his two sons, playing only occasionally in Nottingham and, latterly, Kent since.
Alan Mould was born in Wootton Wawen, a small village 6 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, in 1957. He was taught bridge when he was five, by his two brothers, both of whom are more than 10 years older than he is and had the good sense to give up the game years ago. He continued playing at his secondary school (King Edward VI Grammar School – the most famous ex pupil being a certain William Shakespeare) and at Stratford-upon-Avon bridge club until he left for Manchester to study for a degree in Mathematics in 1976.
His serious partnerships have been, in chronological order, with Anil Ruia, with whom he won the National Pairs and reached the final of the Gold Cup; Howard Melbourne, with whom he played his first Camrose match; Gary Hyett, with whom he won the Gold Cup in 1997 and 1999, played for Great Britain in the very last European Championships that country played in (Malta 1999) and has played 10 or Camrose matches; and most recently, John Holland.
Alan has also taken up official positions in the England Women and Open teams, as either captain or coach. Alan is married to his partner of 35 years (in the non-bridge sense). Monica plays no bridge at all, a fact that both of them are daily grateful for.
Ben Norton is 21 and lives in Leicestershire. He writes about bridge for a living, but he’s still not very good at it. He likes reading bridge books and watching films in his spare time.
For the juniors, he has been capped 21 times, including two World Team Championships and two European Team Championships, and has won two Junior Camrose events, one Channel Trophy and a European bronze medal at teams.
In England, he has won the National Swiss Teams, reached the QF of the Spring Fours and the SF of the Gold Cup.
Alexander Roberts is a recent junior international and now coaches the junior teams on an ad hoc basis. His junior career spanned 2010-2017 in which time he represented England at three European Championships and two World Championships. Besides bridge, Alex has just completed his PhD in Maths at Oxford, having studied there as an undergraduate. There, he also played squash for both the university and Oxfordshire county.
Lederer Trophy 