World Mind Sports Games
These days it is not unusual for a newspaper to be over taken by events; the morning's headlines made irrelevant by breaking news. That may be true of the front page – but the bridge column? Last week I set a problem and I'll apologise to those waiting for the answer, or perhaps as teachers say when they haven't marked last week's homework, you've got a bit more time to spend on it.
While the Felixstowe Congress was going on, the World Mind Sports Games were being held in Beijing (as mentioned in a footnote a few weeks ago). As far as bridge was concerned, this was a re-positioning of the Bridge Olympiad, held every four years. The format was retained; each country sends a team and after a group stage, there are knock-outs and eventually, a winner. It's a bit like the Football World Cup without the pre-qualifying as bridge allows several matches a day and without hardly a rest. And there are more competitions; an Open, a Women's and a Seniors'. The WMSG also saw a youth section comprising the Under-21, Under-26 and Under-28.
The startling thing about this Olympiad was the performance of the English teams.
The Women have always been 'in the mix' for major events but have not had a success at world or European level since 2001. They remedied this in Beijing by winning the World Championships, beating China in a thrilling final when the hosts produced a huge rally in the last session but fell short by a single IMP. England Women were Sally Brock, Heather Dhondy, Catherine Draper, Anne Rosen, Nevena Senior and Nicola Smith.
Though a bookmaker might have been cautious about laying long odds on the English Women, I think a they would have had few misgivings about offering a good price on the open team. However, England were the surprise finalists against a ominously reformed Italian squad. It was close all the way but Italy took a grip on the match from the off and though England won three of the six sets, they were 30 IMPs adrift at the end. The English Open team were David Gold, Jason Hackett, Justin Hackett, Artur Malinowski, Nicklas Sandqvist and Tom Townsend.
In the Under-28 England went out in the quarter finals and were not represented in the Under-26 but the Under-21s won the qualifier and progressed to the final. However they were unable to overcome the French, losing by 24 IMPs. The Under-21 team were Adam Hickman, Edward Jones, Daniel McIntosh, Robert Myers, Benjamin Paske and Thomas Paske .
Suffolk player David Price was part of the English Senior team and though qualifying comfortably for the knock-out stages, they had the misfortune to run up against the surprise package of the event and eventual winners, Japan, in the quarter finals.
All the details and some actual bridge – the daily bulletins are like free bridge magazines – are available from the site for the WMSG at http://www.worldbridge.org/tourn/Beijing.08/Beijing.htm
It's an ill wind that blows no-one any good and David was available for Suffolk selection last weekend when the county took on Cambridge University. Suffolk won all three matches, the 'A' team 12-8, the 'B' team 16-4 and the 'C' team 14-6. However, at the current rate you may have to wait a week or two to see a report on that.
Published Saturday 25.Oct.2008