World Championships Updates - Women's Team Progress (David Gold)

We are halfway through the quarter final v Poland and are up 45.

All 3 pairs played well today, it was a real team effort so I am very pleased

There were many good boards but I am a little under the weather so for now will share only my favourite,

Nevena found her self in 4S doubled with these hands:

Kxx

Void

AQT9xx

AQ98

QJ98x

QJxx

JX

XX

Rho had opened 4H, pass, pass and Heather as north doubled. Nevena bid 4S- a questionable decision, pass pass double and the 4H bidder doubled (suggesting extra offence) all pass.

She had to back up her bidding with great play.

Heart lead ruffed. King of spades ducked... and they key moment had arrived. Only 3 cards from dummy make the hand, 8 of clubs, 9 of clubs and queen of clubs which all look counter intuitive but Nevena called for the 8 of clubs! Rho won, forced dummy with a heart. Nevena played ace of clubs, club ruff and ran the jack of diamonds which held. Now queen of spades which held, pitching a diamond. Another diamond finesse, club ruffed and over ruffed. And after lho cashed the trump ace she had to play a diamond from kx which Nevena finessed making a hugely valuable 790 as teammates had lost 500 in the other room so we won imps instead of losing.

Opponents hands:

X

Akxxxxx

X

Kjtx

Atxx

Xx

Kxxx

Xxx

We have plenty of work to do tomorrow so tonight a quiet dinner in our hotel.

David

World Championships Updates - England Mixed Team captain's reports - Days 8 (Paul Barden)

Day eight, Sunday 22nd September

We've decided to give Sally and Barry, the senior members of the team, a day of rest before the knock-out phase starts.  The other four sit down against Pakistan feeling confident.  The first board is a dangerous double-fit hand - the high cards are equally divided but East-West can made 6D while the limit for North-South is 2S.  Fiona and Michael bid hearts then sell out to 4S doubled.  In the other room, East-West for Pakistan try 3NT by West, doubled by South.  Frances leads spades, Graham wins and returns the jack, and Frances ducks.  Declarer happily claims the rest, that's -850 instead of the +500 available, lose 13 IMPs.  Not to worry, one of the strengths of the team is that the players don't let a bad board affect them.  The boards are swingy,  and for most of the rest of the match the swings are positive, so we end up with the big win I'd hoped for, 67-25.   Meanwhile, USA2 lose 44-40 to Romania, and we lead by 12.28 VPs going into the last round, making us big favourites to finish on top.

In the last round, we play China, who are in 5th place, while USA2 face mid-table Taipei.   We have some good boards and some less good boards, but it all seems to be under control, and when we score up we find we've won 41-34.  We have bar-coded photo-ID cards, which we can scan to get a printout of the official scorecard: Michael gets one and alertly spots that a score has been put into the Bridgemate by the Chinese North with the wrong declarer. I find a Director to correct the mistake, changing +50 to -50, and the result becomes 38-34.  That small difference promotes China from 5th to 3rd place. USA2 have lost heavily to Taipei, so we finish a full match ahead of them.

As winners of the round robin we have the right to choose our quarter-final opponents from among the 5th to 8th placed teams, then USA2 picks their opponent, then China picks theirs.  Russia in fourth place will get the remaining team.  After that we can pick which quarter-final our semi-final opponents will come from.  We have a team meeting and agree a strategy.  At 4:30pm there's a "Captains' meeting" in the Vugraph theatre for these picks to be made in the four events.  When it comes to the mixed teams, I call out "Latvia" - they have one good and one competent pair, but they're playing four-handed and are bound to find the going tough in a long match against strong opponents.  Then I choose to face the winners of China v USA1 in the semi-finals.  However, if both USA teams win their quarter-finals, under the rules they will have to play each other in the semi-finals while we, I hope, play the winners of China v France.

Matches in the knock-out comprise 96 boards over two days, played in three sets of 16 each day.  At least the first two sets tomorrow will be shown on BBO.

All four Englanad teams have reached the knockouts.  Captains aren't allowed to watch at the table in the BBO rooms, so there's likely to be a row of England officials sitting anxiously in the Vugraph theatre, paying some attention to the commentary but mostly watching our teams on BBO.

Paul

World Championships Updates - Women's Team Progress (David Gold)

It was the last day of the round robin today and just two matches. In the first match we beat the dangerous Danes by 9 imps but with other results going our way we are almost 100% to qualify. In the last match we played USA2 and won by 13 IMPs so we finished 5th. The way it works, the top 3 teams get to choose between 5th-8th with the team in 1st picking first and so on, so there is no advantage to being say 5th or 8th but it is good for confidence nonetheless.

China picked Japan, Poland surprisingly in my opinion picked England,  Norway picked the Netherlands leaving USA1 to play Sweden.

Gillian did very well on this hand v USA2:

AJ765

AK92

AJ3

3

She saw 1S on her right, 1N on her left, 2S on her right which she did well to pass - in the open USA2 doubled England for -670, now when it went 3S on her left passed back to her she decided she couldn't resist a double.

After leading a top heart dummy produced:

Q9

76543

Q8765

A

After the heart held the only way to beat it is to switch to a low spade and she found it!

Declarer held

KT8432

T

K9

KQJT

And had to lose 2 aces and 3 spades when she lost control. Without the spade switch declarer can play clubs through Gillian and make the hand. This scored up nicely with +670 from Heather and Nevena in 2Sx for a 15IMP win.

We have been without Yvonne for a couple of days due to a nasty throat bug that has been going around but she seems a lot better now and we will have 3 pairs again for the quarters v Poland, starting tomorrow (today as this is published).

It will be a 96 board match, 48 each day and it will be on bridgebase,com at 3 am, 6.30 am, and 9.30am UK time so please tune in for the last set at least, if you can.

The team is in good spirits and each day we have a little exercise walking 10 minutes (for some, 30 for some others) to and from the venue. Crossing the road here should require life insurance and motorbikes think they are pedestrians. Buses do not obey red lights.

The venue is pretty good but there are too many smoking areas.

Oh and England is one of only two countries which got all of its teams through and is in all 4 events, the other is China. USA has a team in all 4 events too but it had an advantage as it began with 8. Pretty good going.

OK enough for now,

David

World Championships Updates - England Mixed Team captain's reports - Days 7 (Paul Barden)

Day Seven, Saturday 21st September

The first match against Chinese Taipei starts badly.  Sally and Barry miss a difficult odds-on slam, then have a horrible accident and concede 1600 in 1NT redoubled.  But they rally impressively, registering all plus scores from board 8 onwards.  Michael and Fiona have a good card and we win the match 54-35.  USA2 surprising lose to Egypt, and we have a double-digit lead again.

We are ridiculously unlucky in the second match against Brazil. First they overbid to 4NT, but 3NT goes off at the other table so it costs them only 3 IMPs.  It's an interesting play hand.  West leads a spade, and you play a club to the king, which holds.  Now if you can tell that West has six spades, the right line is to continue with the queen of clubs - you can afford to lose two club tricks so long as it's West who wins the first of them.  Alas Graham got a hand wrong for once, playing a low club in an attempt to duck out the ace.  Next they play 4H in a 4-3 fit rather than the comfortable 5C.  And they play the wrong line, needing a 3-3 heart break.  Hearts are 3-3 and they gain an IMP.  Then they play 4S from slightly the worse side.  But as the cards lie - a 5-0 trump break offside, the only thing that matters is whether you lead a heart.  We have put the hand with KQx of hearts on lead, so they lead one, and we lose a game swing.  Two boards later, they play an inferior line in a thin 4S contract, and find exactly the lie it works on to win another game swing.  They round it off by bidding 3NT needing two finesses, rather than 4H needing one of two.  Both finesses work.

However, we hold the loss to 30-24.  Not surprisingly, USA2 have registered a big win against Morocco, so our lead is cut to 3 VPs.

The last match of the day is against Indonesia.  They play quite well and we are soft; the result is a 23-20 loss.  USA2 lose by two IMPs to Australia, so our lead is now 2.75 VPs.  There are only two matches to play tomorrow to complete the round robin, and our first match will be against Pakistan in last place.  And whatever happens we will be playing in the knock-out phase.

The other three England teams are all in the qualifying places too - good luck!

Paul

World Championships Updates - Women's Team Progress (David Gold)

It is the penultimate day and we started with Japan who were lying just behind us.

I sent in Catherine and Gillian with Nicola and Yvonne. Yvonne was feeling unwell which is a worry.

Opponents played very well and we lost by 29 imps (3.42 VPs).

Not great but not a disaster, thanks to some cushion provided by our brilliant day yesterday.

I sent Yvonne to rest and she will have the rest of the day off, leaving Catherine and Gillian to play throughout.

In the second match we played Brazil and won by 22 imps (15.38 VPs) with solid cards in both rooms. So after two matches on the day we are almost average.

I am writing from the Vugraph theatre and we are currently playing the tough USA1 team and it is currently 1 imp all. I will update later today.

David

Blog Update

We lost by 30 to usa1 which handed us 3.27 to complete a poor day.

We are now on 6th, about 9VPs ahead of 9th place USA2 who we play tomorrow in the last match. We play Denmark in the morning, it is just a 2 match day.

These events are hard work and very stressful for everyone so this evening it will be nice to have a small celebration for a milestone birthday for Nevena. Rest assured the players know how big the job at hand is and will certainly not over do it.

David

World Championships Updates - Bermuda Bowl Blog - Day 6 (Neil Rosen)

Day 6

A very tough day on paper proved to be the case. We held Poland to a narrow loss but the crack USA1 team got the better of us and won comfortably.

The final match of the day was perhaps our most disappointing experience of the day with only a narrow won over the inexperienced Guadeloupe squad.

However with 5 matches to go we are still in a qualifying position and have real aspirations toward making the top 8 particularly with two much easier matches tomorrow.

Neil

World Championships Updates - Bermuda Bowl Blog - Day 5 (Neil Rosen)

Apologies for the delay in the blog but it’s been a tense couple of days with a lot of tight matches for the team, some of which didn’t quite go the way we hoped. 

We started with a thumping win against the famous Italian squad, the highlight of which was Tony Forrester finding a lead of the queen of clubs from Q9 (uncontested auction) to beat 3NT. This was followed by two disappointing narrow losses against Australia and Chile. A number of individual errors contributed however tomorrow is another day!

Neil

World Championships Updates - England Mixed Team captain's reports - Days 6 (Paul Barden)

Day Six, Friday 20th September

Today we play USA1, Denmark, and France, in 9th, 10th, and 4th places overnight.  All three matches will be on BBO, so I will be in the VuGraph theatre hoping to get enough signal to follow them.  You can review what happened by going to the BBO archive at bridgebase.com.

USA1 takes the lead by taking four vulnerable undertricks against a partscore we play in a 5-1 heart fit, then bidding an excellent slam which we miss.  We recover by defeating a poor slam, then taking a 500 penalty when they try 2H in a 5-1 heart fit - they play 2H at the other table also, one off.  On the penultimate board they bid a game off four top tricks, but the tricks are hard to cash, and we don't cash them (in the Bermuda bowl, the game makes at both tables in the USA1 v England match).  That ties the match, and on the last board we bid to 4S instead of the somewhat better 3NT.  The lie is the one that favours the better contract, and we lose a game swing, and the match by 47-37.

Against Denmark, there is little action for the first two thirds of the match, then we double our lead to 20 IMPs with a thin 3NT.  But it all goes wrong at the end.  A normal overcall costs 500, they bid and make a fair slam which we miss, and on the last board they make a conservative pass while our overcall helps them guess the trump suit in their 4H contract.  We lose the match 40-28, the first time we've lost two in a row.  But both matches have been close, and we had a sizeable lead at the start of the day.

Denmark has asked for a ruling on a board where we gave different explanations on either side of the screen.  It's not at all clear that this affected their bidding, but it's a question which should be considered.  The Directors decide to make a small adjustment, and the score becomes 40-26.  The adjustment is somewhat generous to them, but that's as it should be: we have no complaints.

The players go back to the BBO rooms to play France.  The French take an early lead, but we get our noses in front when Sally makes a winning decision to bid five over five.  We're a few IMPs down approaching the last quarter, but now it's our turn to have a run of good boards.  They bid a poor slam which fails, then go off in 3NT which we make against an inferior opening lead.  On the last board, Frances and Graham find a nice defence to beat 1NT by two, and we have won by 46-23.

We were bound to have a poor day sooner or later, and this was it.  But as poor days go, it was pretty good - we scored just below average, and we're still in the lead.  USA2 are now quite close behind us: we each have only one match to play against a team from the top eight, but their run-in looks slightly easier.  We shall see.

Paul

World Championships Updates - Women's Team Progress - A Dream Day! (David Gold)

A dream day!

We started the day in 7th place and were looking for a good day to give us a cushion as the last 2 days are tricky.

In the first match we played Pakistan and a string of huge results from Catherine and Gillian combined with an error free card from Nicola and Yvonne meant we won 19.85 to -0.10 despite them missing a slam they really should have bid. Pakistan were fined 0.25 VP for late arrival, hence them actually getting minus VPs in the match.

Match 2 we played China who are leading and look very strong. I sent in Catherine and Gillian again, with Heather and Nevena. Mentally I was hoping for 7 or more VPs, just wanting to avoid a bid loss. With two boards to go not much had happened and we trailed by an imp.Suddenly we missed a decent slam on these cards:

K83

Jt9

Kjt2

Aj9

Void

Ak8654

A943

Kt4

China though, bid 7H and although they can make it they fail to guess the QXx heart onside and we actually win a swing.

Then on the last board Nevena found herself in 4H after south LHO had made a takeout double:

Q2

8654

KQ

QJ876

KT93

KQT73

AJ6

2

And did very well to make it by guessing hearts with J9x onside. In the other room they went down so we ended up winning by 25 IMPs and almost 16VPs! So much for hoping for 7VPs or more - what a pessimistic captain I am.

We are currently playing South Africa and are up 50-7 after 10 boards and in 3rd place so I am very happy with my team.We have 5 matches left and they are not easy.Not in order: USA 1 and 2, Denmark, Brazil and high flying Japan.

We eventually beat South Africa by 58 imps scoring 19.85 VPs twice in the same day.

With scores of:

19.85

15.92

19.85 

We have scored 55.62 out of 60 on the day and are now 3rd almost a match clear of 9th. (Top 8 is what matters most).

Japan, Brazil and USA1 is a tough day tomorrow.

David

World Championships Updates - England Mixed Team captain's reports - Days 5 (Paul Barden)

Day Five, Thursday 19th September

Playing in a World Championship, you hold 1096 KQ1053 K82 QJ at game all, and see 1S on your left, 1NT on your right, 2D on your left, passed to you: your call?  While bridge is a bidders' game, there are times to go quietly and this is one of them.  Helped a little by RHO's slow pass, and remembering one of his own articles, Michael did pass, conceding 170.  His Thai counterpart evidently hadn't been reading English Bridge, because she competed with 2H.  Suddenly everyone started bidding, opponents landing in 5D as Frances realised that her four small hearts were perfect opposite Graham's presumed void.  With the king of diamonds finessable and the club honours and spade intermediates falling, you can actually make all 13 tricks.  The next board, at unfavourable vulnerability, the same Thai player held void AK9654 J974 J109 and saw 1NT (15-17) from partner, 2D on his right, described as hearts or spades and a minor.  Perhaps not sure how partner would interpret a heart bid, she passed, waiting for opponents to clarify matters.  She had a longer wait than expected, since Graham, looking at a 4324 two-count, elected to pass also.  Frances made three tricks for -250, but opponents had an easy eleven in hearts or diamonds (you can see all the hand records by clicking on the board numbers here).  These boards contributed to a 48-15 win in our morning match.  After we'd played the 16 boards, our opponents at each table kindly presented us with gifts of dried mango - any suggestions for reciprocal English gifts we might bring to the next World Championships?

Our second match goes equally well.  An Australian opponent elects to open a constructive weak 2S at favourable vulnerability holding AK1085 Q9 9843 92.  That was passed round to Graham who did very well to double with 432 A1062 AK75 73.  Since the normal contract was 4S the other way, failing on the 5-0 break, 2S doubled was a highly desirable contract for us - with the advantage of the opening lead, and being able to see the distribution, 4S could be made our way, and was, for +1100 (the full deal).  We win the match 62-18.

Twelve matches in each round are broadcast on BridgeBaseOnline, one of them being shown in the VuGraph theatre at the venue, with commentary led by sometime Englishman Barry Rigal.  Our third match of the day, against second-placed Latvia, is chosen for VuGraph.  I'm not allowed to watch at the table when we play in the broadcast rooms, so I go and join Barry R and try to guess what the players will do.  Exchanges are even in the first half of the match, but then we put together a run of good boards and win 56-27.  This deal is the highlight.  South opens 1D and West arrives in 3NT on a diamond lead.  When Barry Myers declared the hand, South won and continued diamonds, the jack winning the trick.  I suggested that he would solve his entry problems by leading the queen of clubs and ducking North's king.  These things are harder to see at the table, but Barry M obligingly found the play, and had nine easy tricks thereafter.  The fate of the Latvian declarer showed the wisdom of this simple approach: she was allowed to win trick one, and led the queen of clubs to the king and ace.  Now she crossed to the ace of spades, unblocked the queen of spades, and made the normal misguess of running the nine of clubs to Michael's ten.  Michael simply established a spade trick for one off.

We have had our best day yet: everyone played very well and we earned three good wins.  I do a little dance, and we go for dinner at a Thai restaurant to celebrate.  There are eight matches to play in the round robin.  Tomorrow we face three good teams and will need to play well again.

Paul