Bridge players may bid for sport recognition again

Bridge players may make a new bid for sporting recognition after losing a High Court fight.

A judge yesterday concluded that Sport England, a funding body accountable to ministers, had not “erred in law” when refusing to classify bridge as a sport.

However, English Bridge Union officials, who had challenged Sport England’s classification, said they might try to appeal against Mr Justice Dove’s ruling.

They said the lack of sporting recognition stymied funding opportunities.

Sport England had adopted a policy containing a definition of sport which included the ingredient “physical activity”, the judge had heard at a London hearing.

English Bridge Union officials argued that Sport England had made legal errors.

They said the phrase “physical training and recreation” contained in legislation, the 1937 Physical Training and Recreation Act, had been “misconstrued”.

Mr Justice Dove thought otherwise.

The judge said there was a “compelling case” that the phrase “physical training and recreation” should be interpreted as “meaning physical training and physical recreation”.

He said that linguistic “construction” was supported by a 1937 memorandum which identified the government’s aim as “promoting physical fitness” and embracing “the whole field of physical culture”.

“I am equally unpersuaded by the suggestion that ‘physical training and recreation’ is a phrase whose general understanding has moved on or which exists within a factual or social context where its meaning may have developed and changed since the 1937 Act was enacted,” said the judge.

“The importance of supporting physical training and physical recreation remains a significant element of public policy, and the desirability of the specific promotion of physical activities remains as relevant today as it was at the time the 1937 act was passed.”

Mr Justice Dove began a written ruling on the case with the words: “Bridge is a card game...” And he said he had not been asked to answer the “broad, somewhat philosophical question” as to whether or not bridge “is a sport”.

He said the issue was whether Sport England officials had made a legal error.