The Bridgeclub APIH came up with the concept of a bridge pub crawl (bridge cafe event) in the 80s of the last century.
The first APIH cafédrive was organized in the 80s and 60 pairs took part. In the following years the number of participants grew steadily. Furthermore the concept was then adopted in other cities and the café drive phenomenon became a trend. Everywhere new Cafédrives shoot out the ground like mushrooms not only in the big cities but also in smaller cities.
There are variations in which you are going by car or bycicle to the next place to play. In some variations, the term "cafe" is used rather loosely. Not only a community centre, a Chinese restaurant or a pizzeria is a Café Drive, but sometimes the local bakery, the Hema and the coach house of a castle.
The highest number of pairs what APIH Cafédrive has ever had, was 564, in the fourteenth edition in 1996. Due to the intense competition, the number of pairs in recent years was around 300.
The concept has never changed over the years. You stroll from cafe to cafe, stroll through the city center playing a few hands of bridge and have a drink.
The field is extremely diverse, from former world champions to beginners. This is why our event is primarily a social one. People who take the game too seriously, frustrated by bizarre complications, good games combined with idiotic comments afterwards or loud music are all part of the event. But the people who take the game for what it is are the most enjoyable opponents.
Sometimes the tables are too small and the light is dramatically bad and it's raining outside too. And if the opponent is not really too brainy and happens to do everything right accidentally, then it's pretty hard to keep smiling. The spirit of the cafédrive is that you can keep smiling, at least at the end anyway. Because after a disastrous table, there is also always a good table, and all in all you look back on a nice day.