After surviving the 90-minute opening ceremony, which as far as I could tell dedicated the whole of the middle section to giving praise for the many uses of string (I kid you not), our team started with a modest 11-19 loss to France, before crushing Ecuador 24-6. A slightly tired match aginst the USA saw us go the whole match without conceding a single game swing — our worst board was 7 IMPs out — so it was somewhat disappointing when this resulted in a 12-18 loss.
Today, however, has seen us return to form. A rather embarassing 100 IMP win over Botswana gave us 25-0. Then we faced Norway. Despite bidding a reasonable slam that went off we won 25-4, just as we did in the Europeans. The European silver medallists, Bulgaria, awaited us and we emerged victorious 16-14 in a tight match. This leaves us in 3rd place, approximately one third of the way through the round robin.
It's great to see all our teams doing so well, but I, of course, have a particular interest in the U21 team. It's Monday lunchtime here and the third day is over in Beijing. With 9 of the 17 matches played in the round-robin the team lie 2nd, just 9vps behind France. no one who knows anything about Junior Bridge would dare to count chickens, but with eight teams to qualify for the KO stage, things are going well. It seems a shame that with so much going on in Beijing, that there seems a lack of information about the Junior events. A seperate location and timing from the Olympiad would have given the Youth Bridge events a higher profile. England's first round match was against the French and there is an account of that match in Bulletin 2 , found on the WBF website. The two teams are very closely matched, (The French pipped England to the Bronze Medal in last year's European Championships by just 1vp) and although England lost 19-11, the result could easily have been reversed. Let's hope the lads have a chance of revenge, preferrably in the final. :)
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