Nato nel 1957 nello Yorkshire, dove vive con la moglie Sarah Teshome (anche lei bridgista di livello internazionale) e con i loro due figli, e dove esercita la professione di procuratore legale. 

 Ha imparato a giocare a bridge dalla madre che lo ha introdotto nei club locali dove è cresciuto sotto la guida di campioni come Brian Senior, Tony Forrester e Roman Smolski.

  Nel 1982 ha conquistato la sua prima medaglia d'argento nella categoria juniores agli Europei a Squadre.

 Tuttavia, Richard preferisce non partecipare ai Tornei internazionali perché questi lo sottraggono per troppo tempo alla sua famiglia e, pertanto, i suoi trofei li ha guadagnati quasi tutti nel Regno Unito.

 Sua aspirazione è quella di divenire uno scrittore.

Richard was born in 1957 in Yorkshire where he continues to live and practice as a solicitor.  He is married to Sarah Teshome who also plays bridge and they have two children - Sophie born in 1998 and Daniel born in 2000.

Richard was introduced to bridge by his mother, who took him to various local bridge clubs, where he met and was encouraged by Brian Senior, Tony Forrester and Roman Smolski.  He went to Liverpool to read law and formed a bridge team with Andy Eastwood, Steve Wood, and Peter Hawkes.

Whilst still a junior, Richard won the pairs at Brighton with Andy Eastwood and they formed part of the Great Britain team which came second in the Junior European Championships in 1982.    

When Andy emigrated to the US, Richard formed a partnership with Mark Horton with whom he had a number of appearances for England in the home international series.  In partnership with Mark, Richard won the Spring Foursomes, Crockfords (1992) and the Life and Grand Masters in the UK.  The Gold Cup was the only domestic trophy which eluded them. 

Internationally, he and Mark played in numerous events with notable wins in the Dunhill Nations Cup (1991) and the Hoechst (1992).  Richard thinks his greatest bridge achievement lay in winning the Hoechst because the first winners of that event were Belladonna, Garozzo, Avarelli and Forquet - not bad company to be in! 

Although Richard no longer plays international bridge, preferring to spend time with his family, and little national bridge, he can still be seen on the domestic bridge scene, usually in partnership with Sarah.  They have won several national events together and regularly feature in the later stages of the Gold Cup and Crockfords.