Until the end of 1999, there was a single British team playing in the European and world events. So International Bridge for Wales meant the Camrose, the Lady Milne, and the Junior Camrose, effectively the Home International trophies for the Open, Ladies & Junior Teams respectively.
On 1st January 2000 the World Bridge Federation and European Bridge League
agreed that Wales, England and Scotland could join Ireland in being eligible
to send teams to many European and world events. (As a consequence of
the WBU, EBU and SBU's new status, the British Bridge League was disbanded
and superseded by Bridge Great Britain, the body that now runs the Home
Internationals and the Gold Cup.)
So, whilst the home international competitions are still important to us, we have now widened our horizons with enthusiasm to take in Europe and the World, and many more Welsh players are benefiting from a wider range of opponents. The teams that have represented Wales, and their results, can be seen in this table of international results.
Trials for our international teams take place each autumn. Open and Ladies' pairs who would like to be considered for selection should contact the Chief Executive by early August. Juniors should make contact with the WBU's Junior Coordinator, Elaine Sharp.
|
International Event
|
Nature
|
Recent tournaments and results
|
Trials results, selected teams
etc.
|
| Camrose | The home internationals for open teams. First held in 1936, the Camrose is the most-played international bridge series in the world. |
The 2007 Camrose started in Oxford in January and was completed in Aberdeen in March. Wales finished third overall. See reports by Patrick Shields, on the first and second weekends. The first weekend of the 2008 Camrose was held on 11-13 January in Belfast. Wales were third, well in contention. See here for the detailed results. In the second and final weekend the Welsh team again had a very creditable time. Our weekend total of 84 VP, the same as the first weekend, was second highest, leaving us third overall, only 8 behind England, and 30 ahead of the fourth-placed Scots. The overall results. See reports by Patrick Shields, on the first and second weekends. |
|
| Lady Milne | The home internationals for ladies' teams. First held in 1950. |
The 2007 Lady Milne was held in Newport Gwent on 13-17 April. Wales finished third overall. The 2008 event was held in Dundee in Scotland on 11-13 April. It was a disappointing weekend for Wales; we won only 1 of our 8 matches, finishing in last place. Detailed results. |
The 2007 Welsh team. |
| Junior Camrose | The home internationals for under 25s. First held in 1971. |
The 2008 events were held in Manchester on 16-17 February 2008 . Our Peggy Bayer team achieved a very creditable third place. Full results here.
|
The Welsh teams in 2008 can be seen here. |
| Peggy Bayer | The home internationals for under 20's. First held in 1990. | ||
| European Teams Championships | These are currently held in even numbered years. European countries send Open, Ladies and Senior teams. The format is usually all-play-all 20 or 16 board matches over a two-week period. The top few teams in each category qualify for the Bermuda Bowl world championships in the following year |
Wales has been represented in Tenerife
(2001), in Salsomaggiore
(2002), in Malmö
(2004) and in Warsaw
(2006). |
|
| World Team Olympiad | These are held in the years divisible by 4. In 2004, the format in the Open and Womens events had 4 and 2 sections respectively of all-play-all matches, with the top 16 teams playing long knockout matches to decide the overall winners. The Seniors was an all-play-all event. |
Wales has been represented in Maastricht (2000), and in Istanbul (2004). The Welsh Senior team in Istanbul finished 7th of 29 countries, which was our best result so far in World and European championships. |
|
| Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championship | This tournament, for Open teams representing Commonwealth countries, was held for the first time alongside the 2002 games in Manchester. |
Wales played in Manchester (2002) and Melbourne (2006). In Manchester, Wales won the silver medals, losing to Canada in the medal final. A very major achievement! |