Alan Truscott

Alan Fraser Truscott (16 April 1925 – 4 September 2005) was a British-American bridge player, writer, and editor. He wrote the daily bridge column for The New York Times for 41 years, from 1964 to 2005, and served as Executive Editor for the first six editions of The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge from 1964 to 2002. He attended Whitgift School in Croydon and served in the Royal Navy for three years around the end of World War II. From 1947, Truscott studied at Oxford, which he represented at both chess and bridge. With Oxford partner Robert d'Unienville, he was on the British team (along with Terence Reese and Boris Schapiro) that won a bronze medal at the 1951 European Bridge League championships, age only 26. Truscott represented Britain in the same event twice more, finishing second with partner Maurice Harrison-Gray in 1958 (again along with Reese–Schapiro) and first with partner Tony Priday in 1961. He was in charge of organising the 1961 rendition hosted by Torquay in Devonshire, England. As European champions that British team finished third in the 1962 Bermuda Bowl held in New York City. The 1961 European Teams was Truscott's only international championship outside the British Isles.

America

According to Maureen Hiron, bridge columnist for The Independent of London, in New York City "(Truscott) fell in love with one of the scorers, in particular, and America in general, and decided to cross the Atlantic."

Richard L. Frey, the American Contract Bridge League publications director, recruited Truscott to help edit the ACBL's membership magazine and its Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, whose first edition was underway. Truscott moved to New York City, then the ACBL headquarters, and succeeded Albert Morehead as bridge editor of The New York Times 1 January 1964. Truscott wrote a bridge column for The New York Times daily until March 1994, and then three times a week until April 2005, when he retired due to poor health, for a total of some 12,750 columns.

Alan Truscott had three children, Frances, Fraser and Philip, with his first wife, Gloria Gilling. That marriage was dissolved in 1971 and in 1972 he married the American bridge expert and internationalist Dorothy Hayden, née Johnson, a former math teacher and actuary, who had four children from two previous marriages. and The Story of an Accusation.

Bridge accomplishments

Honors

ACBL Hall of Fame, Blackwood Award 2001

Winner North American Bridge Championships (3) Mixed Pairs (1) 1989 Master Mixed Teams (1) 1985 North American Swiss Teams (1) 1987 European Championships (1) Open Teams (1) 1961 British Championships (2) Masters Individual (2) 1953, 1958

Runners-up North American Bridge Championships (2) Master Mixed Teams (1) 1972 North American Swiss Teams (1) 1994 European Championships (1) Open Teams (1) 1958

Publications The New York Times articles by Alan Truscott. 224 pp. 272 pp. 232 pp. 32 pp. 32 pp. 32 pp. 32 pp. 32 pp. 159 pp. 99 to 133 pp. 331 pp. 26 pp. 224 pp. 252 to 260 pp. 152 pp. 133 pp. 220 pp. (New York: Arco Pub. Co., 1996, ) (paper). 236 pp. 292 pp. 399 pp.