The Idiot's Guide to the Spring Fours Results

(Newly updated for 2008)

If you've never played in this fantastic event before, then you'll almost certainly be a little confused as to what on earth is going on. Here's a guide for you:

 

Rounds 1 and 2

 

 

 

All the teams converge on Stratford-upon-Avon on the Friday night. The format is designed for 64 teams to play head-to-head matches but because there are only 57 teams this year (nevertheless, a substantial increase on previous years), we're having 7 triangles which span the first two rounds. The triangles involve two 32-board matches.

The winner of each triangle goes through to round 3 as undefeated (even if they lost a match within their triangle). The other two teams are declared once-defeated (even if they lost twice in their triangle).

Those not playing in triangles just play a standard knockout, two 32-board matches. Those who win both matches are (obviously) undefeated. Those who lose once are once-defeated and those that lose both matches are knocked out and will enter the first Punchbowl Round Robin.

In round 3, therefore, we have the following:

 

 

 

The Undefeated Pool

There are now 16 undefeated teams who play 32-board head-to-head matches in a knockout format. Whenever a team loses, they drop down to the once-defeated pool. After six rounds there is one team left who is undefeated and they get a bye through to the semi-final.

The Once-Defeated Pool

The once-defeated pool works in pretty much the same way. It's a knockout, but all the teams that lose go out of the tournament completely. So going through to round four of the once defeated pool are:

So you have 24 teams. This process continues with strict head-to-head matches until there are just six left.

Round Four looks like this:

 

 

 

The Final Stages

After six rounds you have one undefeated team and six once-defeated teams. The undefeated team get a bye, while the others play head-to-head to determine the three semi-finalists to join them. Then a semi-final and final determine the winner.

The one undefeated team have special privileges - they can choose their opponents in the semi-finals, and they can elect to play a 40-board match if they are behind after 32 (but they can only do this once).

The Punchbowl

The Punchbowl is the subsidiary competition for people knocked out of the main event. After the Saturday afternoon session, there will be 9 twice-defeated teams and on the Saturday evening and Sunday they play a Round Robin to determine who qualifies for the final stages of the Punchbowl Knockout - only the first-placed team making the cut.

After three rounds of the main event, on the Saturday evening, a further 16 teams will be twice-defeated and these will play in two groups of 8, all-play-all with the top 2 from each group qualifying for the Knockout.

Finally, after four rounds of the main event, a further 12 teams will be knocked out and these will enter directly into the Punchbowl Knockout. On the Sunday evening, the 12 teams will play 2 knockout matches of 16 boards to produce 3 teams for the quarter final.

In case that all wasn't completely obvious, here's the graph for round five (the Sunday evening):

 

 

 

The Hamilton Cup

This is a normal Swiss Teams for teams eliminated from the main event or Punchbowl by Monday morning. Teams eliminated from the Punchbowl on Monday morning can also join the Swiss with a carry-forward score of 28 VPs out of a possible 40.