italy back in usual place!

ITALY - Ercole Bove (npc), Francesco Angelini, Alfredo Versace, Lorenzo Lauria, Dano De Falco, Fulvio Fantoni and Claudio Nunes
POLAND Cesary Balicki, Alexander Dubinin, Andrei Gromov, Wojciech Olanski, Wlodzimierz Starkowski, Adam Zmudzinski, Stanislaw Golebiowski (npc) and Tomasz Sielicki (coach)		GERMANY Michael Elinescu, Tomasz Gotard, Andreas Kirmse, Josef Piekarek, Entscho Wladow and Michael Gromoeller (pc)

ITALY is again back in its usual place, having won the European Champions' Cup for the fifth time!

The competition took place in Wroclaw, Poland, 8-11 November 2007. 12 teams took part, representing the top 10 countries of the most recent European Team Championships (Warsaw 2006), the defending champion and the host country. A qualifying round robin split con­tes­tants into three groups; the top group was populated by two Polish teams, defending cham­pions Germany and Italy.

In the semifinals, the two Polish teams played each other, with Wro­claw's Polytechnic Club emerging as the easy winners. The other semifinal was a fierce battle between Germany and Italy's Tennis Club Parioli Angelini, which continued until the very end. The eventual win­ner was Italy, and the 48-board final between them and Poland was a lively match. Italy led the race and stayed on lead until the end. The final margin was 32 IMPs. Germany had no problem winning the playoff for third place and taking the bronze medal.

Italy - represented by Rome's Parioli Tennis Club Angelini - has been the only winner of this title, besides Germany! The European Cham­pions' Cup was revived in 2002, and Italy's Parioli Tennis Club Angelini has won five out of the six contests held so far.

The 6th European Champions' Cup was very well organized in Wroclaw, by the Polish Bridge Union and the local bridge community, led by Stanislaw Golebiowski.

The European Champions’ Cup is a competition between the elite teams of European bridge, i.e. the national team champions of the top ten coun­tries at the recent European Team Championships.

Accordingly, this year, the top ten contenders of the 48th European Team Championships 2006, held in Warsaw, Poland, were invited to participate in the European Champions' Cup: England, France, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden. Germany, the defending champion, and Poland, the host country, were allowed additional teams, bringing the total of contenders to 12 teams. The format was a round-robin qualifier, followed by semifinals, a final and playoffs.

This was the sixth event of the competition which was revived in 2002 in Warsaw, Poland with the above format. The winners of that event were Italy, followed by Israel and Norway. Italy was more than successful ever since, as no other country has succeeded in winning this tournament. After the inaugural event, the tournament travelled to Rome, Barcelona, Brussels and back to Rome. This year, the Champions' Cup returns to Poland after five years, in the beautiful city of Wroclaw.

The European Champions’ Cup competition was originally tried under the support of PHILIP MORRIS in the eighties. The ‘Europa Cup’ addressed the winners of the national club championship in each EBL country. Every two years, the winners of neighbouring countries met in a qualifying stage, with the top ones advancing to the European final. The competition was discontinued in 1988, and gave way to another championship that was established in 1990 as a biennial event: the European Mixed Championships.

• For a complete list of the previous events, their venues and winners, click here.
• To see the reigning champions, click here to go to the 5th European Bridge Champions' Cup site.