annual tournaments for national open teams, 1932–1939) but no more tournaments or official matches involving any team from outside Europe. 1950s 1950 Hamilton, Bermuda The first rendition, held at the Castle Harbor Hotel 13 to 16 November, featured three teams who played round-robin for raw scores or "total points". The USA team won both of its matches, by 4,720 points over Europe (also referred to as Sweden-Iceland featuring two pairs from Sweden and one from Iceland) and 3,660 points over Great Britain; Europe defeated Great Britain by 1,940 points. 1951 Naples, Italy Held 11 to 17 November, the match was between representatives of the American Contract Bridge League (North America) and the European Bridge League consisting of 320 boards using the 15-point International Match Point (IMP) scaling table for the first time. The USA team won by 116 IMPs. 1953 New York City, USA The United States team won its third consecutive championship by 8,260 points. Crawford, Rapée, Schenken, and Stayman were also members of the previous two winning teams. The 256 boards were played against Sweden at the Sherry-Netherlands Hotel in New York, 5 to 10 January 1953. 1954 Monte Carlo, Monaco France won the 1953 European championship with a six-man national team and the right to represent Europe in the Bermuda Bowl to be held 9–14 January 1954. Jean Besse of Switzerland and Karl Schneider of Austria replaced one of the French pairs; the team is also referred to as France. Schneider had been a member of the 1937 world champion Austrian team. The USA team had won the right to represent that country by winning the ACBL summer nationals held in St. Louis in August 1953; the five members of that team invited Lew Mathe to round out the team to six first-timers for the Bermuda Bowl event. The USA defeated Europe by 49 IMPs representing 4,400 points. 1955 New York City, USA The 1955 event was held 9–14 January at the Hotel Beekman, New York. The British team had defeated 13 others to win the European title in 1954 in Montreux, Switzerland. The American team had won the 1954 ACBL summer nationals in Washington, D.C.; that team of five was augmented by Alvin Roth. Great Britain won by a margin of 5,420 points. 1956 Paris, France France made it two in a row for Europe. Bacherich and Ghestem were veterans from 1954. 1957 New York City,