A Brief History

The Dawes Trophy was presented by George Roland Dawes of Warwickshire for the Midland Counties Contract Bridge League. It was to be for a competition between seven shires - Derbyshire, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Currently Oxfordshire also play in the league, and in the past Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Yorkshire have sometimes participated. The first competition was played in the 1951-52 season. Unusually when the plinth was first engraved the winning County was shown against the year in which the early matches were played, perhaps because the intention was that the programme would normally be completed in one calendar year. It was not; but the pattern of engraving remained unchanged until 1994. In that year the 1993-94 season winners were engraved twice against both 1993 and 1994. Thereafter normal practice has prevailed. In the record below the winners are all listed by the season over which the matches were played.

Late in 1958 Counties participating in the Dawes League were asked their views re a league for county second teams - being told a trophy had been offered. Such a league was subsequently created for first competition in the 1959-60 season. This first competition was won by Warwickshire who went on to retain the title for 14 seasons until Nottinghamshire captured the trophy in the 1974-75 season. Throughout this period, and indeed until 1988, the competition was generally referred to as the Dawes League Second Division, and the trophy was widely believed to be a second 'Dawes Cup'. When Nottinghamshire won the division again in 1988 Eric Nunn chased after the Cup which had 'disappeared'. This was ultimately located in an attic in Warwickshire; and only on cleaning it did Eric discover that it had been donated by a Mr M A Porter, who had been a well-known Warwickshire player in the 1940s and 1950s. The history of the cup itself is quite interesting. It was originally donated in September 1936 by Maurice Porter for the Midland Counties Second Teams Competition (note no reference to Bridge). However Maurice Porter became a well known Warwickshire wartime/post war player. The assumption is that he purchased/gave the trophy in 1936 for a competition in some sport; but that competition never happened or failed and the cup was returned. Many years later, probably in 1958, the trophy was offered to us to be used as the Midland Counties Second Division Trophy. Eric's subsequent proposal that the trophy and competition should both be re-designated as thePorter Cup was adopted.

Third team unofficial/friendly matches started in 1990s. Initially not all Counties fielded a 3rd team but by the year 2000 six Counties were taking part and by the 2003/4 season all 8 of the Counties were doing so. The Markham Trophy was purchased by Leicestershire in 2001, in memory of Harold Markham. It was formally presented by his brother, Joe Markham, at the LCBA AGM in June of that year to Jim Tomlinson, who at the time was the Secretary of the Midland Counties League. It was agreed in 2001 that the Markham Trophy should become the third team trophy from the 2001-02 season and not be awarded retrospectively to leaders in previous years.

With the Covid pandemic starting in 2020 the 2019/20 season was not finished and when the Midland Counties League was restarted all matches were played online. Now some matches are played online and some played Face-to-Face

Winners of the Midland Counties League Trophies