Originally from Glasgow Scotland, Shenkin now lives in Florida. He played Internationally for both Scotland and Great Britain many times between 1970 and 1994. He has won 7 International Camrose Championships for Scotland, 3 British Gold Cups Seven Scottish cups and two Sunday Times Invitational pairs. He moved to USA in 1998. Since moving here, he has written “playing with the bridge legends” and has won three US national championships. Shenkin first met his USBC partner, Jim Mahaffey, when Shenkin’s team defeated Mahaffey’s in the semi-finals of the Proton Invitational teams event in Taiwan in 1989.  In 2001, Shenkin's team lost in the USBC finals, and then also lost in the repechage finals (2 teams were being selected in 2001), making him a "double runner-up" in the event.