UK court asked to rule whether bridge is a sport

A spokesman for the EBU said: “When ruling on what constituted a sport in the 2011 Charities Act, parliament specifically included “mind sports”, stating that sport comprised “activities which promote health involving physical or mental skill or exertion”. A British judge has been asked to resolve the question of whether bridge is a sport after Sport England ruled that the popular card game is not.

But not all of Sport England’s officially-recognized sports are obvious sweatfests.

Lawyer Kate Gallafent, acting for Sport England, told the court the case was “not about bridge at all”, and that the characteristics of bridge, chess, poker or any other pursuit were irrelevant to the “rather dry point of law” at issue.

The English Bridge Union (EBU), which was founded in 1936 and has 55,000 members, has brought a challenge against the lawfulness of the adoption of the policy by the funding body which is accountable to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Simon Boyes, a specialist in sports law, said the EBU was pursuing its claim because success would potentially give it access to Sport England funding.

Sport England is arguing that according to the Council of Europe’s European Sports Charter in 1993 that: “Sport means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation aimed at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels”.

He said Sport England was an expert body specialising in physical sports and had no particular expertise in mind games.

The modern form of contract bridge was invented in the Twenties by American billionaire Harold Vanderbilt, who developed an early scoring system for the game.

He added: “Chess has already been recognised as a sport by the global Olympic Committee and was demonstrated at the Sydney Olympics in 2000”.

The EBU was granted permission in April to seek judicial review by judge Mr Justice Mostyn, who admitted he enjoyed the game.

And Jeremy Dhondy, an global bridge player and chairman of the EBU, said: “We hope that this hearing will allow bridge to be recognised in the way that it should”.

“Organisers of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo have invited both chess and bridge to apply for inclusion in the games, which, if accepted, will be the first time players have competed in the Olympics”.