On other pages you can read about exciting developments in the Academy`s related projects in Tenerife and Fuengirola. Both venues are simultaneously promoting bridge for the elderly and handicapped - as well as the very young. Like those champions aged 6 to 11 pictured outside the first ACES Academy on Koh Samui in Thailand.

Several of the kiddies in that photo had already broken records.  Let`s see if this ACES Academy in Spain can bring similar success and happiness to Spanish youngsters and their families.

MY  LEGACY

Time to reveal a few secrets

Having cheated death so many times, my luck will surely soon run out. No point in taking my stories and pictures to the grave. Hopefully my achievements in the face of adversity will help and inspire many youngsters as well as elder handicapped bridge players long after I am gone.

I have chosen this moment to reveal my secrets in the hope it will give a boost to the IMPULSA bridge project of the Spanish Bridge Federation. It´s primary objective is to promote bridge in schools and universities in a country where there is currently still noone under 16 playing the game. In contrast, across the border in France, there are thousands of children who play the game.

I was one of the pioneers of that French project. In fact I started teaching bridge at schools in Ste Maxime and Gassin 15 years ago when bridge was only part of the curriculum for children aged eleven and twelve in a few French schools. Local TV news coverage of the youngsters having their bridge classes led to a snowball effect: Children as young as nine were encouraged to take up the game for its educational and character forming benefits. To cope with demand, elderly members of the local community were often called upon to help in the classrooms. (There was no shortage of volunteers because 1.5 million French people already knew how to play bridge). The net result is that the FFB now have 560 registered bridge clubs in schools. A remarkable number.

My experience of teaching the game to youngsters in France and then in Thailand makes me confident the IMPULSA initiative in Spain can achieve its objectives. To show my Spanish friends why I am convinced that is possible in a very short space of time, let us start the revelations with some of my proudest moments as the teacher and coach of the Thai National Schools team:

October 8, 2016.

Kafield, a Thai girl aged just 8 years and 3 months, became the youngest player ever to compete in an international bridge tournament. She was partnering me at the Polo club in Bangkok under the watchful eye of the President of the Asia Pacific zone of the World Federation, Esther Sophonpanich.

October 7^th 2016

Four adorable girls with an average age of 9 years all broke by a mile the previous record for the youngest players to compete in a bridge tournament at the Royal Sports Club in Bangkok.

Pictured  with Esther Sophonpanich are

two sets of Thai sisters and an English girl.

(plus a proud mum, an equally proud dad and their extremely proud coach)

Celebrating the girls´ heroics at the Polo club and Royal Sports Club.

But their adventure did not end there....

29^th November 2016

The youngest teams to be invited to a world championship tournament.

Three teams with an average age of ten years

Sonny, Kafield, Pin and her sister Pae at the national under 16 team championships in Chumphon.

                                                                                                                                           XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Now some of the highlights of my playing career:

Number One: 2006 - 2009

Having the honour of partnering Madeleine on several occasions in her weekly Wednesday tournaments at the Les Myrtes club in St Raphael on the French Riviera. The first time I met her she was a sprightly 99 years. The last time I had the pleasure of partnering her, she was 102 years young and still playing as well as ever. She went on to play competitive bridge unaided for another two years. An extraordinary French lady.

Number TWO. 17^th January 2023

52% partnering 97 year old Iris in a tournament earlier this year where we came up against the 2019 French National champion,  Mikael Courrias.

Number THREE. March 2006.

My first and only Psychic bid in a long playing career: The successful opening bid of 7NT at the very first table of a prestigious tournament in Ste Maxime on the Riviera. Even former French World Champion Philippe Soulet* was impressed. By the logic behind the bid as well as my speed of thought in calculating in less than a minute that the chances of the contract succeeding were heaped in my favour.  

* As this is my only claim to fame as a player, forgive me for mentioning that Phillippe suggested it might be worthy of inclusion in the Guinness book of records. As the only opening bid of 7NT vulnerable to succeed when it was Impossible to make thirteen tricks using any conventional bidding system. FFB computer records show that no other pair in the tournament made more than 12 tricks playing contracts of five or six spades.

You can read about all these uplifting experiences in more detail elsewhere on this website.

Trevor 01h20 on 15/9/23

All the articles on this site are relevant to bridge players. Whatever their standard. I like to think they will improve the enjoyment of bridge for everyone - and encourage the young and old as well as the poorly and handicapped to want to play the game. That is not an impossible dream. 

Two bridge champions who will agree with me 100% are Philippe Soulet and Franck Multon. The former was twice World Champion. The latter won the Bermuda Bowl in 1997 - and was runner up as recently as 2015.

I sat at the same table as Philippe and Franck on many occasions between 2006 and 2010. But it was not to play bridge with them. It wasn`t for a bridge lesson either.

Our chats at the table would always involve a discussion on how we could bring young people into the game. And at the other end of the age scale, ways of improving the enjoyment of bridge for the infirm. Both felt as passionately as me on those matters.

Both champions are excellent teachers as well. Whilst I have to admit that my best level of bridge was never anywhere near theirs, I am possibly able to trump their achievements in one respect:

In the past two years, the average age of my bridge students is around nine.

During the same period, the average age of my partners in club tournaments has been close to seventy nine. 

Trevor 28th February 2019

For your amusement, a humorous look at members`pet names

Starting with the nicknames of the admired youmgsters the first ACES bridge Academy

Rueful Rabbit

Colin the Corgi

Oscar the Owl

Peregrine the Penguin

Molly the Mule

Timothy the Toucan

A few words now about the less desirable adult members 

Hideous Hog

is by far the club's best player. But also an insufferable shark who seeks to humiliate** opponents for their mistakes

Charlie the Chimp

would rather post mortem the last hand than play the next. Once famously produced a remarkable (and impossible) quadruple squeeze against himself by retaining a small card to conceal his own revoke.

Walter the Walrus

whose expertise in - and devotion to - the point count are matched only by the utter mess he makes of bidding and playing

** Here is a sample of the humiliating quotes attributed to Hideous Hog:

"I know noone whom I would rather see in charge of the dummy"

"I do not doubt your luck, and I know noone who needs it more than you"

"Of course I always hold much better cards than you do. Being declarer is part of my system"

"I am such a fine player, noone can deny my right to be rude"

"How dare you bid no trumps and become declarer".

"My point count system? Extra for long suit, extra for short suit and 3 points for my superb play"

Playing bridge is always

GREAT FUN at ACES