10 year old Sophie Morris is youngest ever medal winner at European Youth Team Bridge Championships
Congratulations to the English U16 team who came away with a bronze medal at the recent European Youth Team Championship event, held recently (7th-13th July) in Wrocław, Poland.
The European Youth Teams Championship event is run by the European Bridge League (EBL) and acts as a qualifying event for the 2025 World Youth Championships with England represented by teams in all five categories. The World Youth Championships will be run by the World Bridge Federation World Bridge Federation (WBF).
The English U16 team consisted of five players; Thomas Bradkin, Maks Blicharz, Holden Clark, Cecilia Birdsall and Sophie Morris.
Sophie Morris was the youngest player at the whole event and her medal makes her the youngest medal-winner ever in an EBL or WBF event. Sophie was born in 2014 in Durham and her home club is Wearside. Sophie first learned bridge aged 8, when, persuaded by her parents, she went to the EBU Junior Teach-In. Six weeks after starting to play, she played her first duplicate pairs against adults with her grandad. She has been training multiple times weekly with the England junior bridge squad and was excited to play for England at the European Youth Team Championship in Wroclaw.
In bridge, each of the countries of the British Isles are separately represented.
The European Youth Team Championships consisted of five events, with teams representing England in each category (Under-16, Under-21, Under-26, Under-26Women and Under-31). There were between 11 and 19 teams from different countries around Europe registered for each event.
In addition to the U16 team winning a bronxe medal, the England U21 team won a Silver medal and all five England teams finished in qualifying positiona to secure their qualification for the World Championships, a fantastic achievement!
What is Bridge?Bridge is a trick-taking partnership game played by four people sitting round a table, with a standard pack of cards. There is an auction phase (often called bidding) which sets the trick target, and then one player at the table will strive to achieve the target while two others combine their efforts to stop that. Achieving or exceeding the target will reap a positive score, while failure will generate a score for the other side. In duplicate bridge competitions the same deals are played multiple times allowing comparison of scores with others who had the same hands to play. This almost eliminates the 'luck' aspect that exists in card games such as poker.
Playing bridge is one of the most enduring and popular pastimes in the world and for over 100 years it has fascinated people of all types and from all walks of life. Famous players include Claudia Winkleman and Victora Coren Mitchell.
Bridge is recognised as a Mind Sport, and thus has 'sporting status' with many organisation including the International Olympic Committee and Charity Commission in the UK.
For more information about bridge visit https://www.ebu.co.uk/.