Stirling University professor Sam Punch and her partner Stephen Peterkin are in Riga, Latvia, this week to represent Scotland at the European Bridge Championships. The couple, who met over a card table nearly 20 years ago, have built a life and a competitive partnership around the game.
An Unpromising Start
When Sam first met Stephen across a bridge table at the Aviemore Congress in 2006, she was not impressed. “I thought: ‘Oh gosh, he’s quite arrogant and I hope he doesn’t start having a go at me if I get something wrong,’” she recalls. However, after a friend paired them together when her usual partner dropped out, Sam discovered Stephen’s skill. “When we actually played together, he was very well behaved and we played well. I think we won the event. The bridge definitely impressed me first.”
A Partnership Beyond the Table
Since then, Sam and Stephen have travelled the world for bridge, competing in Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Poland, Norway, Italy, and France. Their relationship deepened through hours of post-match analysis and heated debates. “We’d go to the bar after play, buy drinks, and go through every board one by one,” Sam explains. “There were always heated arguments where we disagreed — and honestly, that hasn’t changed in all these years.” The couple even has a house rule: never go to bed on an unfinished bridge argument.
Bridge as a Matchmaker
Sam notes that bridge clubs are a fine matchmaking environment. The Scottish Bridge Union, established in 1931, found that over half of members cite bridge as something they share with a friend or partner. “Most bridge clubs are full of couple pairs,” Sam says. “You hear it all the time — people getting into bridge because they fancied somebody. Bridge creates friendships, partnerships and relationships because you spend so much time together talking and thinking together.”
Competing on the European Stage
The European National Bridge Championships run from June 27 to July 7 in Riga. Sam and Stephen are competing as a pair for Scotland. “If it wasn’t for bridge, I’m sure we wouldn’t be together,” Sam adds. “We’re very different people in lots of ways, but bridge gave us something enormous in common.”
