The Inter-County Leagues National Final was conceived by Graham Jepson, who ran the event for the first five years of its existence. Up until 2020 (before Covid intervened) the event was run by Ian Mitchell in a personal capacity, but he decided that it needed the backing of a more official organisation, and Warwickshire CBA agreed to take on the reins. Ian will nevertheless continue to be involved.
(n.b. although this is a "National Final", and sanctioned by the English Bridge Union, the organisation of this event has nothing to do with the EBU).
The event is a one-day teams-of-eight event open to the champion counties of each division of the five Regional Inter-County League Teams-of-Eight events:
The Northern Bridge League;
The Midland Counties League;
The Eastern Counties League;
The Western League (South West);
The Metropolitan Cup (South Eastern Counties).
Additionally, as of 2022, national champions in each division have been invited back to defend their trophies in the following year.
Each of these regional events has a slightly different format, but the common feature is that they all consist of three divisions, with every county generally having one team in each division (i.e. there is no promotion / relegation, but every county ‘A’ team competes in Division 1, etc.)
The National Final consists of three events (divisions). Division 1 (or 'A' Division) is contested by the five champion teams of the respective 1st divisions of the Regional Leagues. Similarly the five Division 2 champions (county ‘B’ teams) and the Division 3 champions (county ‘C’ teams) compete within their own categories.
Since lockdown, we have continued to hold the final online, on the Realbridge platform.
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