The Schapiro Spring Foursomes, one of the great events in the English calendar, begins this evening. Details about all aspects of this exciting and challenging tournament can be found on the EBU Website. The principal event, the Schapiro Trophy, has become one of the toughest events in domestic bridge. It is run on double-elimination lines over nine sessions each of 32 boards. Due to the generous sponsorship arrangement in place for this event, prizes are approximately twice the normal EBU value. The English Bridge Union extends its gratitude to Mrs. Helen Schapiro in supporting this most prestigious event in this way, and in donating a trophy in the name of her husband, the late, and truly great, Boris Schapiro.
In my column I will be following the progress of the leading seeds, and of course reporting on all the great giant-killing acts.
The top seeds this year are:-
1. Alexander Allfrey, David Bakhshi, Peter Crouch, Tony Forrester, Glyn Liggins & Andrew Robson
2. Simon Gillis, Boye Brogeland, Tom Hanlon, Espen Lindqvist, Hugh McGann & Odin Svendsen
3. Neil Rosen, Martin Jones, Catherine Draper, Ben Green, Duncan Happer, & Andrew Woodcock
4. Janet de Botton, David Burn, Jason Hackett, Justin Hackett, Artur Malinowski & Nick Sandqvist
5. Stephen Green, Rob Helle, Egbert Henstra, Ed Hoogenkamp & Simon de Wijs
6. John Armstrong, Paul Hackett, John Holland & Tony Waterlow
7. Geoffrey Wolfarth, Gary Hyett, Vladi Isporski & Valio Kovachev
8. David Mossop, Gojko Zivkovic, John Carroll, Tommy Garvey, David Price & Colin Simpson
Many foreign players have been attracted to these shores to take part in this great event. These include
from Norway: Boye Brogeland, Glenn Groetheim, Ulf Tundal, Espen Lindqvist, Odin Svendsen, Tonje Brogeland, Torkel Viken
from Bulgaria: Vladi Isporski, Valio Kovachev, Kalin Karalvanov, Ruman Trendafilov
from the Netherlands:Egbert Henstra, Ed Hoogenkamp, Simon de Wijs, Frank Burghout
from Croatia: Sandra Probst, Lara Ruso
from Switzerland: Gojko Zivkovic
From Denmark: Kenneth Edvardsdal
and of course many players from Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
The semi-final & final which take place on Tuesday 6 May will be shown on Bridgebase online. You can download Bridge Base Online from their website http://online.bridgebase.com or view it without downloading anything, from the BBOTV website http://www.bbotv.com/vugraph/
The Bulgarian pair Isporski & Kovachev have had a tremendous run in this event over the last 3 years (winners, runners up and runners up). It would be good to see their names accurately given for once....Vladi Isporski and Valio Kovachev, not the other way around!
ReplyDelete