Andrew Black is 60 and lives on his stud farm in Cobham with wife Jane, four children and two huge dogs. He has been playing bridge since his school days having graduated from the local whist drive run by his grandparents. This is the only thing he graduated from; he was thrown out of university for spending all his time in the bookies. Fortunately, this paid dividends in later life when his internet creation, Betfair, propelled him from geek to guru overnight. Despite having played rubber bridge for a living for a while in the 1990s Andrew barely played at all in the ‘Betfair years’, but returned to the game in 2011 and put his team together. Team Black made it to the final of the European Winter Games in 2016, beating Lavazza in the semi and losing to Monaco in the final. They won the Gold Cup in 2017 and, as England, came third in the Champions Cup in 2018. In 2024, they represented England in Buenos Aires
Simon Cope is a 43 year old full time professional player from London. In partnership with Peter Crouch he has won all of the UK’s premier events, including a Spring Foursomes, two Gold Cups, two Crockfords Cups and two Premier Leagues. He has also seen some success in America, and the win in the Soloway partnering Kevin Rosenberg (Son of Scotland’s Michael) was a real highlight.
Away from Bridge, he speaks Italian and French fluently, and enjoys hacking around a golf course now and again and travelling to various wonderful places the world has to offer.
Peter Crouch is a 65-year-old retired Chartered Accountant and full-time bridge professional. His bridge successes include winning the Vanderbilt teams, Gold Medal in the European Winter Games, seven Gold Cups (making him the joint-fourth most successful player in the history of the competition), four Spring Fours, three Crockfords Cups and four Premier League wins as well as representing England in the European Championships, two Olympiads and in a number of Camrose matches.
He represented England in the European Championships and World Mind Sport Games in 2012 and the World Bridge Games in 2024. In 2017 he was part of a team which won a bronze medal in the Transnational competition at the World Teams Championships.
In 2018 he won the Silidor pairs in Philadelphia. In 2019 he was part of the Wolfson team that won the Vanderbilt teams in Memphis. In 2020 he won a silver medal in the Open Pairs at the European Winter Games. In 2023 he was part of the Orca team that won the gold medal in European Winter Games.
When not playing or coaching bridge he spends his time helping to look after his seven year old grandson with his wife Sara and trying to get out to the Golf Course.
David Gold is a bridge professional and one of very few players to have played for the England Open Team while still a junior. He started his career in the sports world as a top junior chess player going on to learn bridge at school aged about 16. David has numerous domestic titles on his bridge CV and was the winner of the inaugural Player of the Year Championship for the 2014/15 season. See David’s EBU profile.
He and Tom Townsend were one of England’s leading pairs for 10 years. Their best result was in Beijing, 2008 where England won the silver medal in the mind sports games. David has since formed partnerships with Tony Forrester and David Bakhshi and has represented England with them many times in the European Championships (winning a bronze medal in 2014), Bermuda Bowl and World Olympiad. He played with Andrew Robson in Denmark in the European Championships in July 2024 and the team qualified for the Bermuda Bowl later this year. David has appeared on the Sorry Partner podcast so have a listen!
Andrew McIntosh (aka Tosh) has been professionally involved in bridge all his adult life. He left his native Scotland in 1993 to embark on a lucre-less career in London’s rubber bridge clubs. The appalling standard of play and especially behaviour in those clubs meant he quickly shifted his focus into private teaching. After a while he got quite good at it and on a whim and a prayer took over the Acol Bridge Club in 2007. It is now the busiest Duplicate club in the country.
Around 2014 he realised the time and effort required to teach up a club had resulted in a serious diminishing in his own skills and began to draw back from the Acol into the tournament scene. Since then he has won the Spring Fours, the Premier League, the Gold Cup, the Commonwealth Pairs and Teams and is particularly proud of a silver medal in the European Winter Open 2016 and a bronze in the European Champions Cup 2018. Both the latter where achieved with Team Black. See Andrew’s EBU page.
Tom Paske is a young bridge player and is known in the bridge world as ‘Mini Paske’ (from when his older brother used to play). He already has many domestic and international successes. His 2019 victories alone include the European Open Teams Championship, the Spring Fours and Crockfords. He won a Bronze medal in the Rosenblum in Orlando in 2018. In December 2024, Tom and Simon Cope won the the prestigious Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs in the US Nationals in Las Vegas, USA. See Tom’s EBU page.
Lederer Trophy 