31st January 1928 – 24th February 2011Jane Preddy started playing bridge at the age of 11, when her grandmother taught her the rudiments of the game in the air raid shelters during the Blitz. In the 1940s she played much Canasta with Terence Reese and her first, late husband, William Preddy, as well as bridge with many of the big names of the time including “Skid” Simon.
Having enjoyed a string of successes on the national bridge scene in the late 1940s, Jane stopped playing in order to raise a family of five – four daughters, including former bridge international Kay, and a son. However, she returned to bridge in the 1980s, when she revitalised her international career; among other successes, she represented Great Britain in the World Championships in Japan in 1991. It was in the early 1980s that Jane made her most significant contribution to bridge, when she founded the West of England Bridge Club in Bristol, a club that attracted many future internationals such as Andrew Robson, Marc Smith and David Carlisle, with whom Jane lived for the last thirty years and married in 2003. The star of the club was undoubtedly Jane herself, an exceptional teacher who attracted a very devoted following.
Jane retired from Bristol to Kent, where she took up golf, in the late 1980s but soon after she moved again. First she briefly co-managed the Acol Club in London together with Andrew Robson, then she followed David Carlisle first to Aberystwyth, where he gained a PhD, and later to Essex, where he became a school teacher.
Jane Preddy loved life and was much loved by all her family and friends. She leaves her second husband, four daughters and a son. She had thirteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
