Well - mission accomplished! We came in knowing that the top eight teams would qualify for next year’s Bermuda Bowl and our fine late form took us through.

We started with the eventual gold medalists - Norway. A match full of exciting boards saw a few big swings traded. Possibly the most interesting swing happened when Forrester judged to bid a thin 3NT  holding AQTx of hearts because of a slightly dubious 2H overcall, this brought in a double digit swing.

The next match was quite fantastic. Allerton/Jagger and Bakhshi/Malinowski powered away scoring an avalanche of imps against a strong Bulgarian team, simultaneously relaxing the team supporters since we were now virtually assured of qualification with a match to spare. We even were able to concede a 1700 penalty (!!!!) and still win by 31 imps.

We were able to enjoy the final match against France despite the fact that the result didn’t fall in our favour, we lost by 18 but secured a 7th place finish.

Reflecting on the tournament as a whole I really felt that our team finished tremendously well and our second week’s form for the whole event would have had us in contention for the gold medal. Our very good results against the other strong teams bodes really well for next year’s Bermuda Bowl.

On a personal note I would like to say how proud I am of all my players and would like to make a special mention to our indefatigable coach Andrew Murphy. I sincerely look forward to seeing them together with our women’s and senior’s teams who did really well to qualify next year in China!

Neil

European Championships 2018, Ostend, Women's Teams, Final Result

Close but no Cigar !

With just a few boards to play, we had moved up into serious contention for a bronze medal.





We watched the results come in with great excitement.   Our match against Turkey finished and we had won by 67 IMPs to 27.   We were waiting for two results.   If Estonia could make 3NT on the last board aganst Norway, and the Icelandic EW pair could go plus against Denmark, we would win the bronze medal.

Unfortunately, Denmark made 3NT and the Norwegian EW went plus - we finished fifth !

For the first time in many years, we have failed to win a medal but at least we have qualified for the Venice Cup next year.

The Final Standings

1	POLAND	313.92
2	SWEDEN	300.03
3	NORWAY	275.10
4	DENMARK	273.24
5	ENGLAND	272.54
6	NETHERLANDS	266.08
7	SCOTLAND	263.68
8	FRANCE	257.75
9	RUSSIA	247.17
10	ESTONIA	241.64
11	PORTUGAL	229.29
12	ITALY	227.18
13	TURKEY	217.33
14	ISRAEL	216.49
15	BELGIUM	212.69
16	SPAIN	202.85
17	GERMANY	200.21
18	HUNGARY	197.68
19	SERBIA	191.80
20	GREECE	189.05
21	ICELAND	184.76
22	FINLAND	182.68
23	IRELAND	170.84

We have enjoyed the tournament, a great experience and we are looking forward to Sanya next year!

Over and out,

Derek :)