High Court judge to rule whether card game bridge is a sport

A judge at the Royal Courts of Justice is to spend the next two days considering whether Sport England was right to rule bridge out as a sport.

The EBU says it has the definition of sport in the 2011 Charities Act on its side – activities “which promote health involving physical or mental skill or exertion” – as well as the global Olympic Committee, which said in 1999 that bridge and chess should be considered “mind sports”.

The bridge union has already lost a challenge to the national tax service to give bridge the same tax benefits as officially-recognized sports such as tennis and rowing.

The veracity of this claim will be tested soon in Britain’s courts, where bridge players are challenging the government’s decree that their beloved pastime fails to qualify as a sport.

An early version of the game was played in England as far back as the 16th Century.

Government body Sport England, taking its lead from the Council of Europe, defines a sport as an “activity aimed at improving physical fitness and well-being, forming social relations and gaining results in competition”. If bridge is decided to be a sport then it could be granted a certain amount of public funds for tournaments and to prop up bridge bodies.

He said: “It is not right for mind sports like bridge to be ghettoised in a sense”.

Bridge, or contract bridge, is a card game played by four players who form two partnerships.

Ben Jaffey, representing the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, said it was common ground that bridge was a game of the mind. It adopted a policy as to which “sports” it would recognise so as to focus its effort and resources.

An EBU spokesman said bridge required “undoubted levels of mental skill” and had “known health benefits”.

“There are physical activities, such as running on a treadmill, which are physical recreations but not sports”.

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

It has argued that bridge is no more of a sporting activity than “sitting at home, reading a book”.

“There is nothing objectionable about bridge, chess or similar mind games”.