'Bridge is not just a game for your gran'

Adrian Darnell says the game needs selling to younger players

Bridge needs a rebrand to attract new players – and if it doesn't, "it will disappear".

That is the view of Adrian Darnell of the English Bridge Union (EBU), which has its headquarters in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

The average player is in their early 70s, and Mr Darnell said the card game needed "to break this cycle that people think 'It's what my gran does'."

Abbey Smith, 48, who teaches bridge, insisted that "it's not a game for old people, by any stretch of the imagination", and it used logic, helped to keep the brain active and was sociable.

Abbey Smith says the game can be played at any level

Mr Darnell, 71, from Durham, a volunteer with the membership-funded EBU, started playing as a teenager.

"The game's demographic is getting older and we recognise that's something we need to address," he said.

"It does not need to be played by someone who's retired."

He said the EBU hoped to gain new members from universities as well as the wider society to increase its membership.

"Every time you pick up a hand of cards, it's different. It's a delightful exercise in problem solving," Mr Darnell said.

"If we do not attract new people, if we do not recruit, then it will disappear. We're losing people naturally.

"We've got to have new people coming in – I would love to see our organisation with a wider, more diverse demographic."

The more "tricks" played, the higher the score

Ms Smith, from Drayton Parslow, near Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, said the game was her passion and had given her "the best career that I could have asked for".

She was taught to play aged 12 by her father and represented England juniors at 16.

"You have to think logically, and with children it makes them think without them knowing they're thinking," she said.

"It has nothing to do with the luck of the cards. It's how you play the cards that you were dealt that matters, so it's about skill."

Rebecca Moore said the game was like a "puzzle", and she would like to teach it in schools

Rebecca Moore, from Swaffham Bridge Club in Norfolk, said it was a great game to play with children as it used maths skills, and she played it with her grandchildren.

"It gets children away from their screens. It's a good way of being with them and it's not expensive," she told the BBC.

"[I hope that] the more younger people you have, the more likely you are to get more younger people."

Ciara, 26, from Norwich, said she had loved learning to play over the last year.

"It is such an interesting, varied and really fun game, and I have also met a lot of new, lovely people in the process," she said.

The English Bridge Union has about 40,000 members

Mr Darnell added: "Bridge is a game for all. We need to break this cycle that people think 'It's what my gran does'.

"It's multi-generational – it just needs a bit of a rebrand."