Ostend Open, Two

Day 2 was a significantly tougher day, with matches against three potential qualifiers. We ended Day 1 2nd in our group. So far on Day 2 so good. It's been quiet which means that Townsend-Gold can play a match or two without a brass band rehearsing in the next room. We won the first match against Spain 19-11. If you want to try for the team decide what action you would take on:

975

43

Q1043

10965

You are vulnerable in 4th seat and it goes 3 — Dbl — Pass to you. Answer next blog (no cheating and looking it up on BBO).

The second match was against the fancied Russian team and we managed a narrow 4 IMP win including bringing home a grand slam on a finesse (no law against being lucky). Last match of the day is against Denmark just started. Ostend is basking in sunshine and it is not too hot to play bridge.

If you have nothing to do pop over.

Jeremy Dhondy

Ostend Women, One

Hopefully you will have read about the Open team's first day and know that they have started well. The English Ladies have also begun in fine form. Their lot is a 28 team Round Robin which means 27 x 20-board matches. Our goal is obviously to get a medal; failing that, to finish in the top 6 to earn a place in the next Venice Cup.

We had a tough start against a competent Norwegian team — we managed to win that one 18-12. A nice homeland tussle against the Welsh followed — we dispatched them 20-10. We finished with another tough one — the Polish — we managed to sneak a 17-13 win against them.

All in all a very satisfactory start that leaves us lying third at the end of the first day.

Ostend Open, One

The Open series started today (Wed 23rd). There are so many countries that the field is divided into two groups. We will play every other team in our group and then the top 9 out of 19 qualify for the second and final round robin together with the top 9 in the other group. We will carry forward our entire score against all other qualifiers. Our first two matches were against teams from the lower half of our group. We beat Monaco 25-5 in our first match. We played them first in Pau in 2008 also but then lost 8-22. We then played Estonia in the second match winning 25-5 again to head our group at this early stage.

Jeremy Dhondy

European Championships 2010

The European Championships kick off in Ostend on Wednesday so good luck to all our teams. We'll keep you up to date with progress here throughout the event and you can also view a lot of the matches on Bridge Base.

• Selections: Open Women Seniors
• Event information
• Watch online

Date of U25 trials announced

This year’s trials will be held on the weekend of October 16/17th. These trials will help the selectors choose teams to play in the Channel Trophy, the Junior Camrose and the Amsterdam White House tournaments, as well as selecting the squad for the 2011 Europeans.

The venue is West Midlands Bridge Club. If you would like to take part, please click here to email the organisers.

Blog In Japan

To tell the truth Blog is from somewhere considerably less exotic than Japan, but a few of our leading players are in Yokohama for the 15th NEC Bridge Festival. Here's the link:

http://www.jcbl.or.jp/game/nec/necfest.html

Our official representatives are England Ladies, Olympiad (or whatever) champions Heather Dhondy and Nevena Senior:

http://www.ebu.co.uk/general/biographies/players/heatherdhondy.htm http://www.ebu.co.uk/general/biographies/players/nevenasenior.htm

and newly recruited (for the Europeans in Ostend) Fiona Brown and Susan Stockdale:

http://www.ebu.co.uk/general/biographies/players/fionabrown.htm http://www.ebu.co.uk/general/biographies/players/susanstockdale.htm.

Then we have Kendrick. Unimaginative teamname, highly imaginative players. David Kendrick from Royston partners Brian Senior from Nottingham. We all know that Brian on a going day can play like a magician. David also has a few ideas about the game, the pairing is very effective when these don't interfere with Brian's spells. Last time out they reached the final of the Reisinger in San Diego. Their team-mates are Jon Cooke and Martin Garvey. These two have spent many hours developing their complex strong club system. Another high variance pair, they were on last year's winning EBU Camrose squad. On one of their going days Cooke-Garvey can dismantle any opposition. On a not-so-going day for this team you can look up the scores on the back of the bidding cards.

Two of the strongest of many Davids in English bridge, Gold and Bakhshi

http://www.ebu.co.uk/general/biographies/players/davidgold.htm http://www.ebu.co.uk/general/biographies/players/davidbakhshi.htm

play on team CANUKUSA (pass the sickbag) with North Americans John Carruthers and Howard Weinstein. This team are a banker to make the knockout stages.

It's all on BBO, here's the schedule:

http://www.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php

Good luck to you all!

Lady Milne Trials

The selectors have chosen the team for the ladies European Championship in Ostend. The "Big Four", reigning world champions Brock/Smith and Dhondy/Senior, selected themselves. (Not literally!) Youngsters Fiona Brown and Susan Stockdale got the nod to complete the team, ahead of Catherine Jagger and Sarah Teshome who are the reserve pair.

Trials take place this weekend to find England's teams for the Lady Milne Trophy, the ladies home international series. I do mean teams plural, we have two this year, to make the numbers even.

The top three pairs will automatically be the funded "England" team. The next three may play on the self-funding "English Bridge Union" team if they wish, and then down the list in order if a pair declines.

20 pairs have entered in total, a very good turnout. Perhaps we will have debut internationalists by Sunday night? A list of pairs and further information here:

www.ebu.co.uk/internationals/ladiestrials.htm

It's going to be on BBO, starting 7.15 tonight (Friday). Good luck to you all!

1st Camrose weekend

The first of this season's two Camrose weekends takes place 8-10th January at the Edinburgh Novotel. There's plenty of information on the local website:

www.camrosebridge.com

The England team looks like this:

Peter Crouch & Derek Patterson from Kent, the only English pair selected for both weekends. Peter and Derek are in fine form. They topped the Butlers whilst winning the Premier League, and faced each other in the final of the Gold Cup, Peter coming out on top. Derek was on the winning British team in the 1987 World Juniors.

Michelle Brunner & John Holland from Manchester, where they run a bridge school together. John has recently won the Senior Bowl in Sao Paulo. Michelle has won the IPBA prize for the best defence two years running, and everything in the ladies game over the years.

David Price & Colin Simpson, from Suffolk and Buckinghamshire respectively, were also on the Senior Bowl team. They played on the 2004/5 England team, the only one ever to qualify for the Bermuda Bowl.

The captain is Paul Hackett, vice-captain Simon Cocheme.

As usual the Irish will be the main opposition. Four of the six "whaaaales of Irish bridge" (as per their npc David Jackson) will appear each weekend. I don't suppose Jacko will risk his third pair very much, so the whaaaales will have to play more or less throughout. This might just give England the edge. Wales won't be far away. On form Scotland and the two Northern Ireland teams are there to make up the numbers.

The first match starts 7.30pm Friday, if you'd like to cheer on your team every board will be broadcast live with commentary on BBO.

Review of weekend's international action

Hello everyone, I am going to try to replace David Muller as Internationals blogger. Please feel free to chip in with your questions and comments.

Last weekend's international action featured seniors and juniors.

Stage I of the Seniors trial was at the Young Chelsea. The day before play, team captain Denis O'Donovan was a player short and threatening to scratch. A phone call to Malcolm Lewis proved productive, he was recruited to join Denis and his team-mates, Patrick Collins and John Short. Even with four players at the table, this team wouldn't have been favourites to qualify at the expense of Tony Waterlow's all-international quartet, and other respected opponents, but they managed it. O'Donovan lost the head-to-head match 14-16, but outscored Waterlow 54 to 53 VPs over the weekend round-robin, ahead of Jepson and Palmer who scored 36 and 35 VPs respectively.

This entitles Denis and his men to play Ross Harper's exempted gold medallists over 96 boards, winners to represent England in the Senior Camrose and the Senior European in Ostend.

Ostend also hosted the Junior Channel series, in which the EBU fielded three teams. Our girls finished third behind the Dutch, and our Schools team trailed in fourth behind the French. But our U-25s team carried the flag, winning for the first time for ages, but I think slightly less than the 25 years of hurt as reported on the front page. Perhaps someone can recall the exact year and winning team?

Many congratulations to our 2009 Junior Channel champions, hope they've all made it home by now:

Tom Paske, Ed Jones, Ben Paske, Graeme Robertson, James Paul, Alice Kaye, and n.p.c. Simon Cope.

Thanks David

I am sad to report that David Muller is stepping down as the Selection and Internationals blogger as he is no longer a member of the Selection Committee. David first took on this role in April 2008 at the inception of the blog, and since then has produced numerous reports of European and World Championships, bringing the excitement of those events to a wide audience of bridge lovers on a daily basis. His good humour and detailed insight will be missed by all who regularly read this feature.
On behalf of the Selection Committee and the readers of this blog I would like to thank David sincerely for his contribution.
Heather Dhondy
Chairman of Selectors