2012 is a big year for our international teams. Not only are the European Championships (Dublin, June 12-24) taking place but there is an Olympiad to consider as well, although the August dates for that have not yet been confirmed.
The following Open team has been selected for the European Championships:
Tony Forrester/David Gold
Andrew Robson/Alexander Allfrey
Peter Crouch/Derek Patterson
Reserves: Tom Townsend/David Bakhshi NPC: Simon Cope Coach: Ben Green
The same team has been selected for the Olympiad, assuming this takes place in 2012.
The selectors were fortunate to have such a wealth of talent to choose from. Just a few of the pairs who could rightly consider themselves unfortunate not to have made the team are Jason & Justin Hackett, Jeffrey Allerton/Ian Pagan and Chris Jagger, Frances Hinden and Graham Osborne, Fredrik Bjornlund and Nicklas Sandqvist, Espen Erichsen and Norman Selway, and Martin Jones and Neil Rosen. No doubt they will curse the selectors and vow to work harder to make the cut next time.
So who are the players who will be representing the EBU on the international stage and hoping to achieve long overdue success in a major Open tournament?
Andrew Robson needs little introduction. As the proprietor of the Andrew Robson Bridge Club, the bridge correspondent of the Times, perhaps the most sought-after bridge teacher and lecturer in the UK and author of numerous excellent books, Robson may have become the best-known figure in English bridge. His partner, Alexander Allfrey, is less visible to the bridge-playing public, but has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the bridge world over the last two or three years and is the captain of the team that includes all the pairs who have been selected for the European Championships. This team won the 2011 Premier League in fine style, finishing ahead of most of the other contenders for international selection. Statistically, Allfrey/Robson were the second most successful pair in the Premier League, just behind their teammates, Forrester/Gold. The same team reached the final of the Gold Cup in 2011. In 2010 they won the Lederer Memorial Trophy and the Brighton Four Stars A Final.
One or two football fans have been surprised to hear that Peter Crouch has already been selected to play for England in the European Championships this summer. He certainly has a good touch for a (not so) big man. He and Derek Patterson were, statistically, the strongest pair in the first Camrose weekend of 2012 where they teamed up with Robson/Allfrey and Forrester/Gold. Crouch and Patterson’s years of hard work on their system has paid off with some spectacular results in recent years. Besides their successes with the Allfrey team, they won the 2009 Premier League with different teammates and they had the best Butler score in the 2010 Camrose, helping England to 1st place.
Tony Forrester is another England star who needs little introduction. He is the Telegraph bridge columnist and author of numerous books. He has played for England in more Camrose matches than anyone else alive and he enjoyed a long and successful partnership with Robson, with whom he won the European Teams Championship in 1991 and the Reisinger (a prestigious US “major”) in 1998 and 1999. He has won the Gold Cup on ten occasions. His current partner, David Gold, was not even born when Forrester first started dominating the English game. Gold is now a full time bridge professional, running the St John’s Wood Bridge Club. Forrester and Gold were, statistically, the top pair in the Premier League 2011. In partnership with David Bakhshi, Gold won the 2011 NEC Cup Open Teams in Japan and he has also achieved strong results in partnership with Tom Townsend. Bakhshi and Townsend will themselves be reserves for the European Championships, having travelled the world to play in major tournaments and develop their game.
With Simon Cope once again picking up the reins as NPC and Ben Green as coach, I think this squad will have every chance at the European Championships and the Olympiad which follows. They are used to playing together (and winning!) as a team and they have the stamina and talent to do well. I am sure all EBU members will wish them every success!
NICK SMITH (selector)
It has been a long time since I ran the St John's Wood bridge club!
ReplyDeleteSorry, David - I was relying on the biography of you that appears elsewhere on these EBU pages. We will try to update that. Nick
ReplyDeleteNo problem, it is 8 years out of date, the photo more like 10! Perhaps I should update it!
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DeleteI find the repeated references to Butlers in this article a little disconcerting. Is that an indication that the selectors regard the Butlers as an important factor in making selection decisions?
ReplyDeleteButlers in a team event are fundamentally flawed as a measure of performance, because they don't take account of the choices that teams make about lineup. Most players treat the Butlers as a bit of harmless fun, or just an irrelevance.
Using the Butlers for selection purposes is potentially quite destructive. As soon as you start using the Butlers for something important, you create conflicting objectives: a pair hoping for selection has an incentive to pick the easier opponents, which will often not be in the best interest of the team.
That's not a comment on the actual selections made. The players chosen have had many excellent results over the past few years. I doubt, however, that any of them would list "topping the Butlers" amongst their proudest achievements.
Completely agree with Andy Bowles' sentiments - bizarre that the selection committee does not ask for x-imps to be used instead of butler scoring...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to everyone selected! I believe in you!
ReplyDeleteRemember, our greatest glory is not in never falling....but in getting up every time we do.
ReplyDeleteOr as the great philosopher Martina Navratilova once said: “Just go out there and do what you've got to do”
DeleteDavid B - that really is a profound quotation. I am sure the team will take it forward and use it wisely.
ReplyDeleteReference to Butlers is a bit over the top I agree. Note that in the Premier League team Allfrey was the only team which played no sets against Teltscher/Silverstone who were bottom of the butlers. It actually makes their victory and butler scores even more impressive...
ReplyDeleteBut they did get to play quite a few sets against Townsend.
DeleteTo clarify, the metric commonly referred to as "the Butlers" is, in fact, produced by cross-imping. It would be an excellent way to score an IMP pairs event.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any quibble with the way that these figures are calculated, but only with the use to which they may be being put.
Why leave it to a subjective selection committee when x-imps can tell you objectively which pairs to select?
DeleteI'm not going to repeat what I've already said. You'll find the reason why I don't believe them to be an objective measure in the second paragraph of my first comment.
DeleteThanks to Nick for a little insight into the team selection. I wish the team success, and the luck when they need it.
DeleteNick just mentioned that the selected pairs did well in the butlers, he didn't say they were used as the method of selection. He also mentioned all the successes of the selected pairs in a number of events, I would think that these successes, rather than the butlers, were the primary factors in their choice.
Delete"Most players treat the Butlers as a bit of harmless fun"??? Why does that make them invalid then?
DeleteSorry Andy, I see no mention of X-imps in that paragraph :(
DeleteWherever I have used the word "Butlers", pretend that I wrote "cross-IMP scores".
DeleteAs I said, using cross-IMPs from a team event as a measure of performance is flawed because it doesn't take account of decisions about lineup. It's quite common for the two strongest pairs to pick each other, thereby artificially deflating their own cross-IMP scores.
Another problem (which I haven't not mentioned before) is that a team may have been in need of IMPs, and therefore have adopted a swingy approach. By pursuing their best chance of winning the actual event, the pairs may damage their own Butlers.
Imagine a pair, with one match to go, having a high cross-IMP score, but with their team lying in second place and needing a big win. Should they play aggressively because that's what the team needs, or play their normal game in order to improve their chances of an England slot? It would be iniquitous to put anyone in that position.
Guys, debating selectorial procedure isn't really appropriate for these blog comments so I think I'll put a stop to this now. If you have any further queries they can be addressed to the secretary of the Selection Committee.
ReplyDeleteMessages of support for the team are still more than welcome of course!
Play up England, Play up England!!! Good luck guys!
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