This is a little like the question which came first the chicken or the egg?. Except that the information we have gained from newspaper articles quite clearly shows that NEBA was well ahead of the game and instrumental in the formation of the EBU.

Ewart Kemspon became the stalwart of Contract Bridge in the North East. You may recognise the name Kempson from the Trophy that has been played for in his name for many years.

The Northumberland & Durham Contract Bridge Association was inaugurated on the 1st May 1935 and later that year became North East Contract Bridge Association.

The English Bridge Union came into being on the 23rd May 1936 at a meeting in Liverpool. The Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish & the Irish Freestate were ahead of the English in forming Bridge Unions. At this meeting things came to a head when the Scottish Union would not support a Board of Control unless English delegates represented an English Union, Needless to say other representatives were asked to withdraw, whereupon Mr Hubert Phillips proposed the immediate formation of an English Union. The rest as they say is history. The final paragraph of the article in The Chronicle on 26th May 1936 says: