Search MSO Worldwide

History

History of the Venice Cup

The Venice Cup, which was presented by the Italian Bridge Federation, is the trophy awarded to the winners of the World Championship for Women's teams. This contest is more of recent origin than the Bermuda Bowl, but in other respects the development of the two competitions has been remarkably similar.

Like the older event, the Venice Cup was born of a challenge match between Italy's women's team representing Europe and a United States women's team.

Italy's claims for the honour of representing Europe in this inaugural contest were strong: their ladies team were at the time the holders of the European Women's Championship and of the World Olympiad Women's Teams. Nevertheless , Italy represented by Marisa Bianchi & Anna Valenti, Rina Jabes & Antonietta Robaudo, Maria Venturini & Luciana Canessa - were beaten, albeit narrowly. The margin in the 136-board match was 297 IMPs to 262 in favour of the United States, represented by Dorothy Hayden Truscott & Emma Jean Hawes, Carol Sanders & Betty Ann Kennedy, Marietta Passell & Betty Cohen with Ruth McConnell as non-playing-captain.

The second Venice Cup contest took place in 1976, along with the 'jumbo' series of world championships held during that year in Monte Carlo. Europe's representatives on this occasion were Great Britain who earned their place by winning the 1975 European Women's Championship. The victors, however, were again the United States, this time by the wide margin of 395 IMPs to 211 over 140 boards. The USA were represented by four players who had been on the 1975 winning team - Truscott, Hawes, Sanders and Kennedy - plus Gail Moss and Jacqui Mitchell, with McConnell, again, as the captain.

The next Venice Cup was in 1978. Having been adopted by the WBF as a fully fledged world championship, the event was staged in New Orleans along with the World Pairs and World Knock-Out Teams. There were five contestants: the Unites States as defending champions; Italy as winners of the 1977 European Championship; Argentina, representing South America; Australia, from Zone 7; and the Philippines, representing the Far East. In the second round robin, the teams finished in that order. In the 64-board final, Italy started by scoring 47 IMPs in a row before the opponents scored and; but in the end, the United States again won decisively, by 229 ½ IMPs to 140. The US players were Mary Jane Farrell & Marilyn Johnson, Jacqui Mitchell & Gail Moss and Emma Jean Hawes & Dorothy Hayden Truscott, this last pair registering their third successive victory along with npc Ruth McConnell.

The fourth Venice Cup took place in 1981, concurrently with the Bermuda Bowl held at Port Chester in the State of New York. Using the same deals as the Bermuda Bowl contestants, the five Venice Cup teams played a 15-session round robin of 32-board matches to qualify two teams for a final. The round robin was notable for a promising performance by Brazil, who entered the last round only needing to beat Great Britain by 11 IMPs to reach the final - win they did but only by 1 IMP, so they finished third in the standings.
In the final, the United States at last surrendered the trophy they had held since it was first fought for seven years earlier. Their opponents, Great Britain, started with a 'carryover' from the round robin of 21 and two-third IMPs and won the 96 board encounter by 160 and two-third IMPs to 122. The winning team consisted of Pat Davies, Sandra Landy, Nicola Gardener and Sally Sowter. Maureen Dennison and Diana Williams also played in the round robin, but not in the final. Derek Rimmington was the non-playing captain.

During it's Port Chester series of meetings, the WBF Executive Council decided to place the Venice Cup on a more rational footing by holding it every two years, at the same time and place as the Bermuda Bowl, starting in 1985. The Council also decided that the two contests should be in almost all respects similar, including eligibility requirements and format. The length of the semi-final and final would differ, the Venice Cup being somewhat shorter.

The 1985 Venice Cup in Sao Paulo was the first to be conducted under the new arrangement, which proved very successful. The full quota of ten teams participated, with Zone 4 - represented by India - taking part for the first time. The women played semi-final and final matches of 128 boards, compared to 160 and 176 in the Bermuda Bowl.
Nevertheless it was a Venice Cup team - the British - that experienced the severest test of stamina in either series, playing 464 boards in the round robin and then 256 in the last two matches; 720 in all. By contrast, the Brazil and Israel Open teams each played 608, whilst the two Bermuda Bowl finalists, USA and Austria, having been exempted from the round robin, played only 336 each; and the French Venice Cup team, only 224 boards.
France and the USA 1, as winners of the Zone 1 and Zone 2 Championships, were exempted to the semi-finals, in the same way as in the Bermuda Bowl. In the semi-finals USA 1 beat Chinese Taipei, playing in their first Venice Cup contest, by 342 to 246; but Great Britain had a stiff task against France, trailing early and taking the lead only at halfway before winning eventually by 276 to 241.

Great Britain won the final by 323 to 213, having led from the start. The team consisted of Nicola Smith (Gardener) & Pat Davies, Sally Horton (Sowter) & Sandra Landy, Michelle Brunner & Gillian Scott-Jones, with Grattan Endicott as the non-playing captain. Landy and Horton actually played 656 deals during the course off the competition - more than any other pair in either series.

In 1987, in Jamaica, USA (Judi Radin & Kathie Wei, Lynn Deas & Beth Palmer, Cheri Bjerkan & Juanita Chambers) defeated France in the final. Bronze medallists were Italy, who defeated the second USA team in the third place play-off.

In 1989, in Australia, the USA (Kitty Bethe & Marge Gwozdzinsky, Karen McCallum & Kerri Shuman, Lynn Deas & Beth Palmer, Dorothy Hayden Truscott [npc]) defeated the Netherlands by 352-318 IMPs after trailing by 23 IMPs with just 13 boards to play. Third were Canada who defeated Germany in the play-off for the bronze medal.

In 1991, in Japan, USA II (Lynn Deas & Stasha Cohen, Sue Picus & Sharon Osberg, Nell Cahn & Nancy Pasell, Kathie Wei [npc]) comfortably repelled the Austrian challenge 358-258. The Chinese took the bronze medal, beating USA I.

In 1993, in Chile, USA II (Sharon Osberg and Sue Picus, Jill Meyers and Kay Schulle, Karen McCallum and Kerri Sanborn, npc Jo Morse) retained the trophy, comfortably beating Germany 325.5-272. Sweden took the bronze medal.

In China, Germany took their revenge on America in 1995, beating them by 312-248. This was the first time a non-American team had won the Venice Trophy since 1987. GERMANY: Daniela von Arnim, Sabine Auken, Karin Caesar, Marianne Moegel, Beate Nehmert, Andrea Rauscheid. USA: Karen McCallum, Kitty Munson, Sue Picus, Rozanne Pollack, Kerri Sanborn, Carol Simon. The bronze medal went to France.

In the 1997 Venice Trophy, held in Tunisia, USA beat a young popular Chinese team in the final by 244-184. USA I: Jill Meyers, Randi Montin, Sokolow Toni, Mildred Breed, Marihesa Letizia, Lisa Berkowitz, Sue Picus (npc). CHINA: Ming Sun, Yan Lu, Ya Lan Zhang, Ling Gu, Yu Zhang, Wen Fei Wang, Jihong Hu (npc). USA II took the bronze medal, beating France in the play-off.