A good reason to go Stratford upon Avon and play the Shapiro Spring Foursomes team trophy – held from 3rd to 7th May – is because it’s in memory of a great English player, Boris Shapiro. His name first echoed in the world from early 1950s, when he won the European championship and the 1955 Bermuda Bowl, breaking the string of American victories; with him, also there were Terence Reese, Kenneth Konstam, Adam Meredith, Leslie Dodds, Jordanis Pavlides, and the npc Reginald Corwen.
Another good reason to play the Shapiro Spring Foursome is because it’s the most important open international event held in Britain, with many continental and world champions. Here’s the list of registered teams so far: click here>>
The third reason to go lies on the playing format: a full time bridge job, with two 32 board matches per day in a double elimination formula; who wins goes on; who loses has to fight against the other once defeated brothers in order to not become a twice defeat one.
Also there are ancillary team events; the Punchbowl, a mini knock-out reserved to the teams dropped from the main event after the second defeat, and the Hamilton Cup Swiss Teams on Monday 6th, open to all.
It’s also supposed that, all friends, at evening gather together to drink a good English beer; but, true to tell, this happens in Italian events as well; just we haven’t English beer.
Official site: http://www.ebu.co.uk/competitions/schapiro-spring-fours
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Paolo Enrico Garrisi