Playing bridge is a sport

So says the organisation that represents Bridge clubs all over the country.
They insist the game meets the strict definition of the word sport. If 'successful in being recognised, posh Bridge clubs all over the country will qualify for taxpayers money from Sport England. Madness.
Only under the Tories. Pushing Britain forward to the old days
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Olympic Tiddley Winks on the way?

My Gran was a keen bridge player she used to slot it in between her boxing and marathon training.

Short listed for the Olympics in 2020. The Bridge Union want it included in the school curriculum  

Sport England say these people are playing 'mind games'
In court today. A judicial review. Should be a good indicator as to how far the posh militant tendency are re-colonising the courts. Sport England and the lottery are furious

I play a bit of bridge, and really like it. Bridge clubs aren't as posh as some people on here seem to think. You get all sorts in the ones I've been to.

No way on earth it's a sport though. Perhaps if someone follows the lead of chessboxing? Bridgewrestling, maybe?

monkey tennis?

Mike. I don't think the Bridge Union could care less about your club.
But take my neighbours a few years back up in Bath, between the Royal Crescent and The Circus.  They were a proper posh club. Rollers used to pull up once a week and spew out their cargo for a pleasant evening. That's probably the sort of club that needs a bit of financial help
I did chuckle at their quaint snobbery on the radio this morning.

'Bridge is a thinking game full of skill, and there is no chance of winning by luck, like in some other sports'
I guess they're talking about all those horrible physical oik sports. The funny thing is they the think the climate is right for them to be so open and up front in their castigations. Almost spoiling for a fight, I'd say.

It's also bollocks. Luck plays a part in bridge, as it does in any game.

Like all grand old institutions in this country, I've no doubt that the very top level is mostly run by bellends, but it's still a fine game, very good mental exercise, and an excuse to drink port and lemon and pick up old chicks*. No bad thing, given the recent studies on mental stimulation staving off dementia.

I wouldn't be against some money going into to grass roots clubs to make the game more accessible. They shouldn't get a penny from Sport England though. Not when there's still a public street without a wonky ping pong table on it.

(*If my wife is reading, that last bit was a joke...)

That's what the court case is all about. Sport England are furious and refusing to give them a penny, while there are physical sports still in need.
The Art Council money is similarly under attack, as local grass root theatre and art groups are losing their funding, only for the big London institutions to swallow it up. I thought these people didn't like the nanny state.

Not when it's being wasted on poor and working class people, they don't.

Actually, while they don't admit it, they're delighted with the nanny state. It keeps their position safe in perpetuity without much fear of being given the elbow and losing their ill gottens. As long as the money doesn't come from their coffers, they really couldn't care less. It's an oik thing to be sorted among themselves.

And of course, among other wheezes there's the single farm payments that top them up nicely. Dole for land owners. I know one land owning farmer in West Devon that gets 600k a year and another 40k for NOT grazing his sheep on certain parts of the moor, and yet more money for grazing them somewhere else. And that's before he gets out of bed.
Oh, and by the way,  many professional football clubs qualify for single farm payments, so you can imagine who else qualifies for landowners' dole.
We don't hear much about this sort of thing though. I wonder why. You'ld have thought the free press would be all over it.

I'm always on about it Sir John, they have cut single farm payments but only to people with less than five hectares. My neighbour gets £1.4m but then I expect he worked very hard when he was at RBS.

If any card game can be called a sport...it surely would be strip-poker.

I can't play bridge but I'm sure it is a fine game. Game being the word here. Like all card games. Dominoes. There's another. Scrabble. Draughts. Chess. All games.

Surely to qualify as a sport the actvity must need some sort of inherent physical activity/skill balance. Darts and snooker just about qualify as a sport. There's lots of thought going in to choosing the right card, I'm sure, but precious little that meets the description of physical.

Mind you if bridge gets in then Euchre has to be in with a shout so maybe...

They always have archery in the Olympics; why not darts?

Sports ground are specifically excluded from the new Basic Payment Scheme. Even under the old SPS, my understanding was that sports fields were Cat C, and ineligible. I don't know if football clubs used to get paid for them some time ago, or if it's just one of those urban myths.

The new BPS had the chance, through the 'active farmer' ruling, to give subsidy farmers a bit of shoeing. They didn't. Who knows why? A cynic might suggest that it's because guys like Iggy's neighbour are mates with the people writing the rules. But no, surely our government is run for the benefit of all, and carefully ensures that the money goes where it's most needed, rather than into the back pockets of those milking the scheme?

(This forum really needs an ironically raised eyebrow emoticon, btw. )

Eh...

Also known as the hairy eyebrow.

Par for the course Mike (golf speak). All sort of crap is spread around as gospel concerning the ne'er do well city dwellers living the high life on their jsa\child benefit,  yet as soon as anyone mentions lazy land owning well-to-do scroungers, all of a sudden it's an urban myth. Have an eyebrow.

Anyway, what happened to the Bridge luvvies against Sport England today. I heard this evening the Chess Federation are getting in on the act as well. Piracy, I call it. These card players and 'rookies' need to be annexed then deported to keep our numbers down.

PS.... Do Bridge players get tested for drugs ? ... Mainly alcohol. Surely we can't condone drug cheats in sport. Maybe alcohol/nicotine/coke tests need to be introduced across the land in Bridge clubs. Alcohol is no longer allowed in snooker, after the ins and outs of that Canadian rotunda that looked a forerunner to the green Taverners..

PPS.... Oh, I must add the Green Taverners are not a charity, and rightly so, since their proceeds go to a bulk standard company.. However, here's a rub, many many Bridge clubs are registered charities. You couldn't make it up, this country is morally bankrupt, and getting worse.

Charidee is big business now.