Lederer History
The Lederer Trophy was presented in 1946 as a tribute to Richard Lederer, and was originally a challenge event between the London's Bridge Clubs. Richard Lederer was a leading international player who ran his own club and contributed greatly to the development of English bridge in its formative years. He won the Gold Cup three times in the 1930s. The cartoon above is taken from his book Lederer Bids Two Clubs, written when he was Bridge Editor of The Sunday Referee. The name of his son, Tony, the first President of the LCCBA (the former name of the LMBA), was added to the dedication after his death by his widow, Rhoda Barrow Lederer, one of the leading bridge teachers of the time.
During the 1970's, teams from outside the capital were often invited to play as guests and in 1977 a Glasgow quartet (including Victor Silverstone and Willie Coyle) won the competition. Over the following years an international flavour was introduced and overseas teams have included Australia, Canada, France, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, North America, Norway, Poland and Sweden.
The Lederer Memorial Trophy is one of the strongest tournaments held in England and a list of the winners is displayed at the venue. It is hard to think of a single star of English bridge since the second World War whose name does not appear on it.
A VuGraph room was introduced in 1990 and has become a regular feature. This year the selected VuGraph match will also be shown live on the Internet through Bridge Base Online.
The Lederer has been developed over the years through the efforts of various organisers. Its staging would not be possible, however, without sponsorship from the Association’s President, Bernard Teltscher and from the Young Chelsea Bridge Club. We are most grateful to Bernard, to Gordon Rainsford (the tireless manager of the YC) and to the many club members who help out during the event.
THE TELTSCHER CUPS
An innovation in 2004 was a ‘Play with the Stars’ satellite event, where pairs at Wimbledon Bridge Club played the first 24 Lederer boards and scored up with one of two top Lederer pairs as their team mates.
Other Clubs now participate and the overall North-South and East-West winners are invited to the prize-giving on Sunday to be presented with the new Teltscher Cups, generously donated by Bernard Teltscher.