Dublin, Open - Final

The open team are coming to the end of a hard ten daysbplay in Dublin. Yesterday we produced a magnificent performance to beat the mighty Italians 19-11 despite a fair amount of bad luck. Then we ground out a tight 16-14 win against the Irish. In the evening we played Sweden, they did some very good things and we mounted a late revival to get 11VPs, leaving us needing 8 VPs from the last match v Israel this morning to guarantee qualification for the Bermuda Bowl, and we still have a chance for a medal. Fingers crossed!

There's always the pairs

My optimism for our women's team seems to have put the mockers on them and unfortunately, after dropping behind at half time, never looked like catching their strong Italian opponents who ran out eventual winners by 19 imps.
So English interest in the teams has ended, but the pairs semi final has plenty of interest.
Leading the way (and the whole field) are Alexander Allfrey and Andrew Robson. Dave Kendrick is in 5th (playing with van Cleef of the Netherlands) and just ahead of the Irish, Hanlon & Carroll. Also high up were Holland-Brunner (22nd), Sandqvist-McIntosh (35th) and Hallberg (42) - playing with Furunes of Norway.
In the seniors, Hackett-Harper were 5th in qualifying and Hirst-Hassett 14th.
We had no women playing in their qualifying, but the Penfold team will be exempted into the semi-final if they wish to play.