A worrying day yesterday. We started with Turkey and all was going swimmingly until about three boards from the end when they bid a grand. This relied on playing AK10xx opposite J9xx for no loser. In addition the hand over the AK10xx had opened 3S so a second round finesse looked the odds play. The Turkish declarer cashed from the top and there was Qx so that was -13 and that with another couple of indifferent results was a 14-16 loss. In the next round we became the first(and as it turns out only) team to beat Russia. We won 20-10 and now with two weakish teams to play all looked good.
Chinese Taipei, however, hadn't been told they were a weakish team and went into a 40 imp lead after 8 boards. At one point we were 6-24 down to them, got a bit back but still lost 10-20 to give us work to do and worse ensure final qualification was not in our own hands.
In the final match this morning we won 21-9 with a solid performance against Kenya and other results including Chinese Taipei walloping one of our rivals(Poland) meant we moved into what looks on the table a rather comfortable 4th. We don't find out who we are playing in the last 16 until late today and the KO phase starts at 10.00 tomorrow(9.00 UK time).
I was interviewed by a journalist from Le Monde yesterday. Nice to see the press showing some interest. I shall now go and find a copy.
Chinese Taipei, however, hadn't been told they were a weakish team and went into a 40 imp lead after 8 boards. At one point we were 6-24 down to them, got a bit back but still lost 10-20 to give us work to do and worse ensure final qualification was not in our own hands.
In the final match this morning we won 21-9 with a solid performance against Kenya and other results including Chinese Taipei walloping one of our rivals(Poland) meant we moved into what looks on the table a rather comfortable 4th. We don't find out who we are playing in the last 16 until late today and the KO phase starts at 10.00 tomorrow(9.00 UK time).
I was interviewed by a journalist from Le Monde yesterday. Nice to see the press showing some interest. I shall now go and find a copy.
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