Ostend Open, Seven

Two tough matches to start with and we got 14 against Bulgaria and 12 against Italy. It's critical we score well tomorrow in our matches against Latvia, Switzerland and France.

You hold (against Italy):

A 5

Q 8 7 4 2

K 4

9 8 7 6

It goes pass pass to you and you open 1, next hand doubles and partner raises pre-emptively to 3. The opponents bid 3 raised to 4 which is the final contract. It's your lead. David Gold earned 13 imps for England by leading the K reasoning that a heart lead was unlikely to generate enough to beat the contract. Partner held x x 10 x x x Q 10 x x K x x so if declarer won the diamond a ruff was coming and if he ducked there were two diamond losers. Well worked out and 13 imps to England.

Ostend Open, Six

Today was the end of the first round robin and the open team qualified for the final stage. We start tomorrow in the final round robin keeping our scores against all the other qualfiers from, our group and playing the 9 qualifiers from the other group starting with Bulgaria then Italy. We start in 11th place and will need to move up to 7th to qualify for the Bermuda Bowl to be held next year.

Ostend Women, Six

Moving day it turned out to be -

We started with a narrow loss to Portugal 14-16 but followed it up with 23 & 25 v Finland and Hungary respectively.

We were in second overnight — the Netherlands still had a useful lead. First match today we played old adversaries the French who were hot on our tails. Sadly by the end of the match we were hot on theirs — they beat us 10-20. Next up were more old adversaries — this time the Italians — but this time we did come out on top, winning 19-11

The top 5 looks like this with one match to play today...

1	NETHERLANDS	322
2	FRANCE	307
3	ENGLAND	303
4	GERMANY	300
5	SWEDEN	298

Ostend Seniors, Three

The third day saw England playing three top teams and apart from a close match with France lost 20:10 to Sweden and Netherlands. Today there are two difficult matches, and then the competition eases. However, at 18th we are a long way from a qualifying place.

Against the Netherlands you hold an 0-6-6-1 with three Aces and the KQ of diamonds. The bidding reaches 6, so do you double or bid 6? England doubled and found the opposition with a diamond void in one hand and a hear void in the other. The Netherlands bid 6 only one off; huge swing.

England also missed a grand slam bid at the other table in the match v France, so not a lucky day!

Peter Baxter

Ostend Open, Five

Today, the penultimate day of qualifying was good for us as we took 22, 22 and 24 to all but guarantee a qualifying position. Tomorrow we end with two tough matches against Israel and Poland who are almost certain to qualify.

Ostend Seniors, Two

The second day of the Seniors championship saw them record two good wins against Israel and their old adversary Turkey before just losing to Sweden.

This enabled them to move up the field from their poor position on the first day.

Italy seem to be establishing an unassailable lead.

Peter Baxter

Ostend Women, Five

We have had a good day today 43 out of a possible 50 - we beat Lebanon 25-4 and came back from a very bad start v Switzerland to record an 18-12 win.

In the overall ranking list we are back up to 6th but it is worth noting that positions 2-6 are covered by only 5 VPs. We are, however, quite well placed having played 4 of the other 6 in the top 7.

The Netherlands are the clear leaders - we play them on the last day, hopefully we will be in a position for that match to still be meaningful.

We have another three matches tomorrow where we are playing teams from the lower half of the ranking list - let's hope it is moving day, to coin a golfing phrase!

Ostend Open, Four

Not a great day with a heavy loss against Netherlands followed by a narrow loss against Luxembourg. We are still qualifying but we need some VP's tomorrow.

On the good side the Seniors after a poor start on Day 1 have perked up by winning the first two matches today.

Best image of the day was a large crane on the beach lifting people up and down in a large basket. When the basket had reached it's highest point you could see that on the bottom it said "Benji fun"

Ostend Seniors, One

The England Seniors joined the European Championships in Ostend today, hoping to add the European Championship to go with their World Championship in Brazil.

The opening two match's against the Czech Republic and Austria did not go well with losses of 20:10 and 18:12 leaving the team next to bottom overall.

Tomorrow they play Israel, Turkey and Denmark not an easy day.

Peter Baxter

Ostend Open, Three

First of all an answer to the bidding question. At the table McIntosh bid 4 (normal in my view) and that went all pass and down 4. In the other room South bid 4 and it went pass pass and North went to put the bidding cards away but Justin was having none of that and doubled. The contract was not a success and went for 800. If you bid 3NT hoping to escape you might get lucky and have it passed out but probably not and that will result in a big penalty when you eventually come to rest. The advantage of bidding 4 is that you have a chance to move it to 4 if the double seems swift and confident.

Yesterday started with a narrow loss against Romania but then a chunky win against San Marino revived spirits. San Marino have been a bit hit and miss with some good wins and some big losses.

In the final match against Sweden the pairs in one room sat the wrong way. This could have been spotted by either pair concerned, either coach, either captain or the BBO operators but wasn't. Naturally the regulations don't cover this and the decision was a replay today which has just started and England are down after 10 boards of it. It maybe that a replay happened just because there is the time for this as today is only a one match day but also because it was on BBO. At all tables not on BBO there are large signs showing how the players sit and they are hard to miss. On BBO these are not visible from the table and the operators are also supposed to check.

It's not the only event for which the regulations are deficient. In an early match between Netherlands and Russia, two strong teams there were some fines meted out for slow play and there is now discussion as to whether this fine is carried forward to the second stage if either or both teams qualify.

Tomorrow sees England have a tough match vs Netherlands followed by an eaiser one and the bye then the last two days of qualifying have what looks like a relatively easy day but on the final day we end by playing Israle and Poland which is a tough finish.

Jeremy Dhondy