[paulg]

The East District of the Scottish Bridge Union has been running a local league since the 1933-1934 season - a list of the winners can be seen on the web site.

Is anyone playing in a league that started before this date?

[mfa1010]

In Copenhagen we do have an even older annual tournament but it probably doesn't qualify as a "league".

Foreningernes Turnering was first held in 1927 and has been played every year since. It is open for any non-bridge association and participants compete for the Politiken trophy (Politiken is a major Danish newspaper). The tournament is being played over 5 mondays during the season and the system restrictions are strict. Originally no conventional bids were allowed, but now stayman, transfers, neg. dobl and blackwood are ok but that is it.

Another traditional tournament here is the Warburg tournament played with same format since 1934. It is an indivdual tournament for 20 players, of which the buttom 4 in the standings are kicked out and replaced for the next season. The top 16 continues and there are players who have played consequetively now for a lot of years. It is a private tournament with strict formalities, such as dress codes, significant (money) penalties for being late etc. but the tradition seems to create a special atmosphere for this tournament.

[mikeh]

mfa1010, on 2011-January-06, 12:38, said:

In Copenhagen we do have an even older annual tournament but it probably doesn't qualify as a "league".

Foreningernes Turnering was first held in 1927 and has been played every year since. It is open for any non-bridge association and participants compete for the Politiken trophy (Politiken is a major Danish newspaper). The tournament is being played over 5 mondays during the season and the system restrictions are strict. Originally no conventional bids were allowed, but now stayman, transfers, neg. dobl and blackwood are ok but that is it.

Another traditional tournament here is the Warburg tournament played with same format since 1934. It is an indivdual tournament for 20 players, of which the buttom 4 in the standings are kicked out and replaced for the next season. The top 16 continues and there are players who have played consequetively now for a lot of years. It is a private tournament with strict formalities, such as dress codes, significant (money) penalties for being late etc. but the tradition seems to create a special atmosphere for this tournament.

what were they playing in 1927? I suspect it was Auction Bridge...it would be interesting (to me anyway) to know when they transitioned to Contract...the literature from the late 1920s into the mid 1930's is full of titles like 'Contract Bridge for Auction Players'.... Contract spread like wildfire, but I would be surprised to learn that there was a Contract tournament in Europe in 1927. I have seen different dates suggested for the date of invention of the game....the consensus appears to be 1925 but I have seen 1926...and it was invented on board a boat on which Vanderbilt was cruising, so it would have taken some time to spread even amongst the Eastern US whence he came, as I understand it.

[mfa1010]

I don't know. We have a Danish bridge encyclopedia from 2002 but it doesn't mention a transition. In Denmark Foreningernes Turnering is branded as the oldest tournament in the world, but that need obviously not be true. If you have a special interest in these things I can probably connect you to the editor of our encyclopedia. He has been organizer of the tournament for at least 30 years.

[Siegmund]

Quote

I have seen different dates suggested for the date of invention of the game....the consensus appears to be 1925 but I have seen 1926...and it was invented on board a boat on which Vanderbilt was cruising

The cruise happened in fall of 1925. Many of us from the bridge laws mailing list celebrate 31 October 1925, date of the ship arriving in Panama, as the 'birthday' of contract bridge. But that's as artificial a date as Christmas is.

But the new rules of contract bridge are already published in the 1924 "Hoyle," and are not explicitly highlighted as a brand-new variant in that edition, though they are listed as subsidiary to the auction bridge section. I don't know what level of popularity a game had to achieve to merit publication then, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are obscure published sources from 1923 or 1922. Whatever Vanderbilt and his passengers did was only popularizing the game / adding zeroes to the end of the scores, not inventing anything.

As for the date of oldest events, the now-Reisinger started in 1929, and I think it's often cited as the oldest continuously contested event in ACBLand. I've always assumed it was contract from the star, but I don't honestly know if it was an auction or contract event the first year or two.

[paulg]

The Scottish East District League was Contract Bridge, but was preceded by an Auction Bridge League that started a year earlier in 1932. Apparently the Auction league collapsed pretty quickly.

And, by asking a proper historian, I've found that it may not be the oldest league in Scotland as the West District started a league, that was much larger, in the same year.

[TimG]

Siegmund, on 2011-January-07, 03:31, said:

Whatever Vanderbilt and his passengers did was only popularizing the game / adding zeroes to the end of the scores, not inventing anything.

I once came across a book, I think it was a copy of the Vanderbilt Club, that included a scoring table which put the value of a trick at NT at 35 points. That is: the zeroes weren't always superfluous.