Greetings from Lille!
The team have settled in and played their first
days worth of matches here in the Grand Palais. Initially walking into the
building felt like something straight from an MC Escher painting with staircases
going everywhere and some of the lighting being subtly disorientating, but we
are now getting on with the task at hand.
Those of you who have been
following us online may have wondered why Gold-Forrester didn't play a set
today. Unfortunately, David has been suffering the effects of food poisoning all
week and still hasn't properly shaken it off. I can report that he and Tony will
be back in action first thing tomorrow against ze Germans.
So it was
down to Crouch-Patterson and Allfrey-Robson to do the business today. A solid
start against Chile (21-9) was followed by a disappointing 11-18 defeat to
Spain. Those of you capable of rudimentary addition will note that adds up to
only 29VPs. The answer was Alex and Andrew getting a slow play fine. However,
the lesson to be learned from these things is to take your time and get it
right, not to throw away IMPs to rush and beat the clock. Since we gained 13 on
the last deal through a piece of Robson enterprise (that allowed him to play
unmolested in his making game instead of them playing in their cold one), it was
clearly time well spent.
The team finished off with a squeaky 16-14
victory over the Belgians to finish slightly above average.
Tomorrow
rates to be the toughest day in the round-robin. The Germans and the Swiss both
entertain good hopes of qualification. Our final match is against current
Bermuda Bowl holders the Netherlands who are clear favourites to top the group.
Good results in these matches would leave the team in a strong position as we
would then have played most of the tricky fixtures.
Alan Shillitoe
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