Sunday 17 June 2018

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

Saturday 16 June 2018

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 :)