London -
It takes skill and cunning but could hardly be considered an energetic pursuit.
Yet although it merely involves four people sitting round a table playing cards, the game of bridge could now be considered a sport.
A High Court judge on Monday dismissed the idea that sport must involve physical activity and declared: “The brain is a muscle.”
Mr Justice Mostyn - who admitted to playing an occasional hand of bridge - cleared the way for a landmark court case to decide whether contract bridge should be classified as a sport.
He granted the English Bridge Union a judicial review against a refusal by Sport England to recognise it as a sport and grant Lottery funding.
He said chess authorities should be alerted to join the action if they wish.
Richard Clayton QC, for the EBU, told the court that other EU countries, including the Netherlands, Ireland and Poland, recognise bridge as a sport.
The International Olympic Committee recognised in 1999 that bridge and chess should be seen as mind sports.
“There is nothing in the Sport England charter that limits sports to physical activities and the health benefit of playing bridge is well documented,” Mr Clayton said.
Sport England’s barrister Kate Gallofent QC argued that playing bridge was no more sport than “sitting at home reading a book”.
She added: “Sport means all forms of physical activity aimed at improving physical fitness and well being, forming social relations and gaining results in competition at all levels. Bridge cannot ever satisfy this definition.”
Mr Justice Mostyn said that if the brain was a muscle, bridge - which has 300 000 regular players in the UK - qualified as physical.
“You are doing more physical activity playing bridge than in rifle shooting,” he said.
“There are a number of physical activities, such as running on a treadmill in a gym, which are physical recreation but not sports.”
The EBU’s action follows a tax tribunal ruling that the game involves too little physical exercise to count as sport and attract VAT concessions on competition fees.
The judge said: “To gain permission to seek judicial review you must have a realistic chance of success. The fact that the IOC recognised that bridge and chess were sports is very significant.”
Daily Mail