Trinity duo Dido Coley and Lily Kearney help England bring Bridge trophy home

Trinity students and Bridge duo Dido Coley and Lily Kearney helped England bring home the Lady Milne Trophy in an emphatic victory.

The England team scored 90.58 Victory Points out of a possible 100, significantly ahead of their nearest rivals, Ireland.

Lily and Dido were crowned Young Pair of the Year by the English Bridge Union in 2025.

They performed so well in trials they were selected to represent England in the Lady Milne Trophy this year, joining seasoned players Fiona Brown, Helen Erichsen, Anne Rosen, Nevena Senior and Sally Brock (pictured above.)

Since 1950, the Lady Milne Trophy has been the Home Countries Championship, in which teams representing England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland compete.

Third-year Classics student Dido said: ‘Lily and I are both delighted about the result; such a high score is rather unusual and is quite a convincing reflection of the state of English women’s Bridge at the moment.’ 

They are hoping to continue their success at upcoming tournaments in Europe and China.

Below Dido explains the attraction of Bridge, what makes for a winning duo and why competing internationally is ‘utterly incredible.’

How have you been preparing for the upcoming tournament?

Bridge is a strange game because you’re never really just preparing for one tournament but rather maintaining a solid baseline and building skill and ways of thought over time. Bridge itself is quite time-consuming when played in full so we tend to stick to regular bidding practice throughout the term with a couple of full sessions peppered in here and there when we can. We also read Bridge books now and then to approach the game from a different point of view and learn from those who have come before.

What’s it like competing at such events?

It’s utterly incredible. Bridge competitions are electric because the game itself is so mentally stimulating and there’s nothing quite like being able to ‘talk Bridge’ with everyone there. Each hand is unique and provides its own set of challenges that keeps you on your toes. When you sit down at the beginning of a new set at the start of the day, there are definitely some butterflies and the first few hands are always a bit nerve-wracking. After the first few though you just slip into the rhythm and let the cards guide you. Before you know it, the set is over and you’ve got five minutes until the next one starts!

What makes you such a successful Bridge pair?

Probably our ability to chat about anything as a partnership and our trust in each other. We will always listen to what the other has to say and have essentially modified our own system (the ‘language’ that we use to bid in the first stage of the game) to what works best for us. We’re always open to new ideas and regularly push back against each other to get our game to the next level.

After the Lady Milne Trophy, what’s next?

There’s a whole summer of Bridge awaiting us, believe it or not – something that we’re delighted about!

We’ve recently been selected to represent England in the U26 Open team for the upcoming European Youth Team Championships in Riga, Latvia, and will be the first female pair to do so in the records of the English Bridge Union. We will then head across Europe and then to China in early August to compete in the World Youth Pairs Championships where we hope to win our first gold medal. In the past two years we’ve won bronze, then silver, so we’re hoping to be able to top the podium at long last this summer.

Generally, what does Bridge bring to your life?

Bridge does us the world of good. It encourages us to be flexible with our problem-solving and to think outside the box; more than that though, it gives us another set of friends and allows us to communicate internationally with no language barrier. Going forward, we’re determined to make our mark on the Bridge world and see how far we can get!

 

Banner image, courtesy of Gilly Clench, member of the Wales team.