Tony Priday

Richard Anthony (Tony) Priday (13 August 1922 – 9 October 2014) was an English bridge player and journalist, who had a longstanding and successful partnership with Claude Rodrigue. He was a member of Great Britain teams that finished third in the 1962 Bermuda Bowl and the 1976 World Team Olympiad, and those that won European Bridge League (EBL) championship teams-of-four in 1961 (when he was partnered by Alan Truscott) and came second in 1971.

He learned bridge at prep school and his father's club, "read lots of books on the game" before the war, and "practised it enthusiastically most days of the week" after the war. His first successful partnership was with Charles Tatham in the early 1950s. Subsequently he notably partnered Jeremy Flint and Maurice Harrison-Gray. After Gray's death he formed his partnership with Rodrigue. During the 1970s they were selected to play in nine consecutive major international championships, an unparalleled feat for a British pair.

Priday played in the World Team Olympiad three times (1972, 1976, 1980) and in the EBL Championships eight times between 1961 and 1979. He also won the Sunday Times Invitational Pairs, a prestigious tournament that featured some of the world's strongest partnerships, with Nico Gardener in 1970.

He was selected 30 times for England in the annual "home international" tournament for the Camrose Trophy, with a record of won 24, drew 3 and lost 3. His first appearance was in 1955 and the last in 2002. He won the Gold Cup on seven occasions between 1964 and 1976.

Priday 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 during the 1965 World Teams Championship (Bermuda Bowl) in Buenos Aires.

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