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History

THE LADY MILNE TROPHY

The History of the Trophy The Lady Milne Trophy began life as an open English Ladies' Teams' Championship, organised by the National Bridge Association in 1934.

The National Bridge Association was set up by Hubert Phillips, the editor of Bridge World (supported by Thomas de la Rue & co.) in competition with the first British Bridge League, organised by E. Manning Foster, editor of Bridge Magazine (supported by Waddington's). Both organisations' members were effectively the readers of the respective magazines. The BBL's Open and Ladies Championships were the Gold Cup and the Whitelaw Cup, and the NBA's rival parallel events were the Tollemache Cup and the Lady Milne. Lady Mile was herself the voluntary Assistant Secretary of the NBA.

In the years just before the war, the 'new' BBL was set up along democratic lines, and Hubert Phillips helped set up, and was the first Chairman of the EBU which superseded the NBA. However, the old NBA events were taken over initially by the new BBL, and run as British Championships, open to allcomers, during the immediate post-war years. Then in 1950 the Lady Milne Trophy was organised for the first time as a Home Unions representative event, but it was a requirement early on that the competing teams had won their own Union's Women's Teams Championship, rather than being selected.

The CBAI, who rejoin this event this year, took part in the first International Lady Milne in 1950. It may well have been their only appearance to date. Northern Ireland did not enter at all for the first few years. In 1951 and 1952, neither Irish Union played and in 1953, only England and Wales entered. These appear to be the only two teams to have ever been present.

The victory scoreboard to date reads:-

Scotland 7; Wales 3; Northern Ireland 2; England 36

(Thanks to John Williams of the EBU for the above - the results of his research to date.)