Christian Bakke was born on November 21st 1995 in Bergen. Both his parents are high level bridge players. He has three brothers. He completed his high school studies at Fana Gymnasiuman in his hometown. He is currently studying mathematics and physics at the University of Bergen.
Christian learned to play at home and gradually gave up the other sports he practiced with his brothers to devote himself more and more to bridge.
At a youth level he won over several national titles, a silver (2015) and a bronze (2017) in the Transnational Swiss Teams, a bronze in the Damiani Trophy (2014), a gold in the European Mixed Pairs (2018), a silver in the Transnational BAM Teams (2017), a bronze in the David Pigot (2015).
In 2017 he won the Joan Gerard award that the WBF gives to the player who shows the best sporting spirit of each championship and in 2019 he won the Jacoby and the BAM Open Teams in the World Youth Open Championships. in 2022 Bakke added a Bermuda Bowl bronze to his trophy cabinet.
Dame Janet de Botton has been fielding a high quality team for many years. She has won each of the following twice: the Spring Foursomes, Crockfords and the Gold Cup. Other successes include a Hubert Phillips win in 2007 and a bronze medal in the European Open Mixed Teams. She is a well-known patron of the arts, is a DBE (for charitable services to the arts) and was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery for 10 years. See Janet’s EBU profile.
Thomas Charlesen is a Norwegian International who has represented his country many times on Junior and Open teams. He was on the team that won the European Champions Cup in 2021. He is also a regular on the de Botton team playing in many events including several Lederers.
Nicolai Heiberg-Evenstad is a 16 year old Norwegian star and the youngest player in this year’s competition. At 13 Nicolai won a sensational silver in his first Norwegian open pairs championship in 2021 playing with his father. He became a U21 world champion in 2022 and a European U26 mixed champion in Veldhoven in 2023.
Thor-Erik Hoftaniska is a bridge professional and Norwegian International. He has been a core member of the de Botton team for some years and was instrumental in victories such as the Spring Fours in 2013. He was in the Middlesex team that won the 2015 Tollemache. In 2019 he and Espen Erichsen won the pairs in the Reykjavik Bridge Festival.
Artur Malinowski was born in Poland, moved to Norway and then England where he is now a full-time bridge professional. He also manages TGRs Bridge Club. See Artur’s EBU profile.
He won the silver medal at the 2007 European Pairs in Antalya, and was in the England Open team that took the silver medal in the World Mind sport Games in Beijing in 2008. He also has two bronze medals in the European Mixed Teams, and has won Crockfords as well as the Gold Cup. With David Bakhski he represented England in the Bermuda Bowl in 2019 and the team was very unlucky not to make the semi-finals.
Lederer Trophy 