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. Brief history here

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of the WBU, EBU and SBU's new National Bridge Organisation status, the British Bridge League was disbanded and superseded by Bridge Great Britain, the body that now runs the Home Internationals and the Gold Cup.)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.

Before 2000, the British Bridge League funded itself by running a number of events, including a number of well-supported simultaneous pairs; the BBL’s main expenditure was the support of British teams. After 2000, Bridge Great Britain continued to run quarterly simultaneous pairs, sharing most of the income between Wales, England and Scotland to meet the extra costs of National Bridge Organisation status, notably the support of Welsh, Scottish and English teams in European and world events. In 2012 the EBU took over running the now-entitled British Sims. In 2014 the WBU's share of this income will fall sharply. A new series of Celtic Sims is being mounted to raise funds.

Using this very welcome income, the Welsh Bridge Union has supported its teams in European and world events without drawing on members’ funds. In practice the funds available only allow partial support, and not for all events, so our representatives meet much of the costs themselves.

In 2008, a new home international event was introduced - the Seniors Camrose.

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 the designated closing date. Juniors should make contact with the WBU's Junior Coordinator (see Youth page).

Players' Responsibilities

The selectors have finalised a policy on the responsibilities that we expect players representing Wales to observe. Read it here.

European Bridge

Various reports, pictures etc from the 2010 European Championships in Ostend can be found here. The European Bridge League has introduced a European Masterpoints system covering performances in European and World events. Read about it, and see Welsh players rankings.

Selection Matters

The current selectors are Paul Denning (Chairman), Linda Greenland, Julian Pottage, Alan Screen, Alan Stephenson and Adrian Thomas.

The selectors have prepared their terms of reference. They have been approved by the WBU Management Committee.

Training Events

Training events have been held in the Autumn for a few years. In 2014 they were held on 18-19 October (More information. Training materials) and on 13 December (for Camrose players).

More information about the different international events and how we performed in them can be found here