It is believed that the origin of the game of Bridge lies in the mid 19th Century when three officers in the British Army in India, reluctant to forego their regular game of whist, played with the cards of the missing player placed face up and visible to all. This became known as dummy whist and is the earliest recorded reference to a game resembling Bridge.
While other whist players asserted that with all four hands hidden their game was superior, the counter argument was that by analysing the 26 cards each player could see in the three handed game, there was greater clarity about the lie of the cards, less guesswork and play was more analytical.
By the 1870s similar versions of the game were played around the world and one with the name biritch became popular on the French Riviera. In this game the Dealer would choose the trump suit or elect to play with No Trumps and with their partner’s hand visible to all during play, the foundations of the modern game of Bridge were in place.
The next development came with the introduction of an auction, where players took it it turns to bid for the contract stating the number of tricks they would attempt to make in their preferred trump suit – or with no trumps.
Suits were ranked alphabetically by their English names, Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts and Spades with No Trumps the highest bid at each level, so after a bid of say 1 Heart, the next player could Pass, bid 1 Spade or 1 No Trump but if they wanted Clubs or Diamonds as trumps they had to bid at least 2 of that suit. The auction ended when three players passed, the last player to bid having won the contract would then try to make the number of tricks they had suggested.
Players who chose to bid would be expected to make more than half of the thirteen tricks available so the level of their bid would be added to six to determine the number of tricks required to make the contract. Thus a contract of 2 Hearts meant they were aiming for 8 tricks with Hearts as trumps (6+2), a contract of 4 Hearts would require 10 tricks (6+4) etc. At the end of each hand points were scored if the contract made and penalties imposed if the Declarer failed to make the required number of tricks. In 1925 a new set of rules was drawn up, with a change to the scoring and the name Contract Bridge came into being.
By far the most popular version of the game at that time was known as Rubber Bridge and though this is rarely played in clubs today, it is still played socially as it only requires four players and is also played by some professional Bridge players for high stakes.
Alternative forms of the game, which will be more familiar to people who play in Bridge clubs, developed later in the last century and we’ll look at those next time.
In the meantime, if you can already play the game, you can find out about your local club at www.bridgewebs.com/bishopauckland.
South West Durham News covering news across County Durham.
