A brief history of the London Trophy
(A List of the winning teams is also available)

The London Trophy was dreamed up by A L Della-Porta, known as Freddie in the bridge world and Della in the tennis world. He played in the Wimbledon championships and was still playing tennis at the age of 90.
His idea, in 1978, was to introduce friendly, competitive bridge to non-duplicate players in the Home Counties area. The draw is regionalised so that no team travels too far in the early rounds. To achieve his objective he planned a knock-out competition for people who were members of any organisation other than bridge clubs. Naturally, his first approach was to bridge sections of tennis clubs and then to golf clubs. The rules were that only simple systems could be used so there should be no arguments about conventions. Scoring was by aggregate so there was no need to understand conversion to IMP. Besides being members of the same organisation, only one member of the team could be a National Master or above. Having one very good player was encouraged, as long as that player partnered a comparative beginner. This was deliberately aimed at introducing poor players to better exponents of bridge in their own team or the opposition team as long as it was a friendly introduction.

The competition has been organised and run by Cecil Leighton since inception. The London Trophy itself was donated by the LMBA President of the time – Terence Reese. It was won for the first two years by Freddie’s All England LTC team. Feeling that this was unfair, Freddie split up his team and never won again. He was an excellent salesman who knew lots of sports people and it was he who built up the number of entries from 27 in 1978 to 334 in 1991. The entries decreased when he became unwell a number years ago and he died in 1999. Other people have tried recruiting new teams but none with the same success.

We have had many sponsors since 1982. Lang’s Supreme Whisky, Prudential Holborn Unit Trusts, Trust House Forte, Capital & Regional Properties, Mr Marchessini and Hilton Hotels. Since 1997, our entrants have had to pay a small entry fee and Abridge Golf Club and Queens Club have generously staged the Final, charging nothing for the venue. Bridge Plus Magazine also provided some sponsorship for one year. In 2003 we had sponsorship for one year only from Investec Private Bank.
Also in 2003, the London Committee decided to present a new permanent Trophy for the “Della Porta Plate”. This was presented to the winners that year by his daughter, Pat Brotherston and she has continued to do so.

This year, the RAC have generously staged the Final – as in other cases, with no charge for the venue.

Queen’s have been represented at 6 finals and RAC at 5 but this year RAC will equal Queen’s impressive record.
June 2007