What is it all about?

What is it, you ask? It's only the best teams event on the EBU calendar! Spanning five days, you get a lot of bridge for your money and a great experience to boot.

The Schapiro Trophy goes to the winners of the main event, which is probably the most peculiar tournament of the year. It's run on double-elimination lines over a massive nine sessions of 32 board head-to-head matches. Lose once and you go into a pool of once-defeated teams. Lose twice and you're out (but you get to play in the Punchbowl competition by way of consolation)! This process continues until there's just one undefeated team remaining, and three once-defeated teams who contest the semi-finals and final. Click here for a detailed explanation of the scoring.

The 2004 final stages were very exciting. David Price's team were trailing in their semi-final match by 48 IMPs at full time, but because they were undefeated until then they could exercise the right to play another 8 boards. And, just as if it was a Kevin Costner movie, they pulled back 52 IMPs and won the match! The script-writers weren't on the ball for the final, though, and they lost to Janet de Botton's team who took the trophy.

You may think this event sounds complicated, but the fun really starts when there are an odd number of teams and they have to devise a complex scheme of triangular matches and repechages. Just watch those tournament directors sweat!

For those teams who get eliminated before the Sunday evening, there is the Punchbowl competition which is a fun combination of round robin and knockout matches and quite prestigious in its own right.

Finally, if you fancy a more relaxing game on the Monday, you can play in the Hamilton Cup.

The Schapiro Spring Foursomes really is a unique and fun event and terrific value considering the amount of bridge you play, the prize money involved and the caliber of the field.