17th European Youth Bridge Team Champinships

Daily Bulletin
Editor: Mark Horton • Co-Editor: Brian Senior • Web Editor: Takis Pournaras

No. : 5 • Tuesday, 11 July 2000
Israel Juniors retain the lead
Schools Teams Welcomed

Although Israel were defeated for the first time by Belgium, they held on to their position at the top of the leader board. France have moved into second place, and Germany have suddenly arrived on the scene, appearing in third place.

 

The Schools championship starts today. The opening ceremony took place yesterday evening in the Convention Center. EBL Youth Committee Chairman Panos Gerontopoulos welcomed the teams and introduced them to the key personnel at the Championships.

 

Turkey suffered a major setback when they were blitzed by Denmark in the opening match of the day, and it is greatly to their credit that they came back with a win against the powerful Italian team. Although they have dropped to eighth place, don’t discount their chances of qualifying. At the wrong end of the table, Spain are currently holding the wooden spoon.

 

Orbis Venice Cup - The Revenge

The outstanding website www.bridgeblaza.com reports on the return match between the Netherlands and USA I.

 

In the late hours of Thursday 20 January 2000, the Dutch team won the Orbis Venice Cup final, the official World Championship for women's bridge teams, by the smallest margin ever: one half of an IMP! This sensational match occurred on the picturesque island of Bermuda. Their opponents were the strong USA I team.

 

After the Dutch girls finished celebrating their victory, Hans Metselaar, owner of SBS, the 's-Gravenhaagsche Bridge School, suggested staging a rematch of this remarkable final. Ton Stam of Arboned and Peter Sisselaar of Sisselaar Onroerend Goed generously awarded the Dutch team DFL 25.000 for allowing their opponents the opportunity of revenge. In addition, the winning team would take a US$ 25.000 prize, while the loser had to settle for US$ 8.000. Add to that the ample hospitality, and you won't be surprised both teams accepted the invitation.

 

Venue for the 2000 Orbis Venice Cup Rematch was the 'sGravenhaagsche Bridge School in Scheveningen near Den Haag.


Table of Contents
Article Page
Michal Kwiecien 2
Scottish Team Profile 2
Israel vs Austria 3
The Disaster Corner 4
Dutch Team Profile 4
No for reward 4
Stick or Twist 5
German Team Profile 5

 

 

 

Antalya 2000

 

 
Bridgeplaza offers you full and freely accessible online vugraph coverage of the 2000 Orbis Venice Cup Final Rematch. Play was at three tables, with one table (called the "anchor table") comparing against both of the other ones.

 

You can see Vriend-Van der Pas, Pasman-Simons and Verbeek-Van Zwol in action against the USA team: Montin-Meyers, Sokolow-Molson and Mancuso-Wittes. Shawn Quinn will be replaced by Pam Wittes. You will see Pam (and Shawn) in action soon at the 2000 Maastricht Team Olympiad.

 

The Netherlands established an early lead, but the Americans turned the match around in the sixth segment. This deal cost the World Champions 22 IMPs.

 

Board 54. Dealer East. Non Vul.
  ª 10
© Q 8 3
¨ A K 8 6 5 4 2
§ 10 7
ª A K J 7 6 3
© A
¨ J 7
§ A J 6 4		 Bridge deal ª Q 9 5 4
© 76 5 4 2
¨ Q
§ 8 5 2
  ª 8 2
© K J 10 9
¨ 10 9 3
§ K Q 9 3

 

At the other two tables, West played in Four Spades, and made eleven tricks, because after cashing a top diamond, North switched to the ten of clubs.

 

asd
est North East South
an Zwol Mancuso Verbeek Wittes
Pass Pass 1ª 3¨ 4ª! Pass
§ Pass 5ª All Pass

 

East’s jump to Four Spades broke the rule of not preempting over a preempt, and tempted West into making a further move.

North cashed a diamond and switched to the three of hearts. South played the king and declarer won with the ace. She cashed the ace of spades, and then, appreciating that North was probably 1-3-7-2 decide to cash the ace of clubs, playing North for a doubleton honour, and planning to endplay her in due course. That meant she was one down, and it was a double game swing.

This is a difficult hand, and declarer had missed two important points. The first is that if North did have }Kx or }Qx, then a switch to a trump, or a second diamond to force the dummy at trick two, will be good enough to defeat the contract. That would be difficult to find, but more importantly, if you allow for the possibility of a defensive mistake, and do decide to play for the doubleton honour, you must play a spade other than the ace or king at trick three. In this way you gain when North produces the singleton ten (you can also get home if South has [10x).

 

The Champions won two of the last three segments, but the damage had been done, and as you can see from the results table, the Americans had taken their revenge. Perhaps the decider will take place at the Olympiad in Maastricht!

 


2000 Orbis Venice Cup Final Rematch
         
Segment IMP 1
NL-USA		 IMP 2
NL-USA		 Segment IMP
NL-USA		 Running IMP
NL-USA
           
Friday 7 July 1 39-18 29-15 68-33 68-33
Friday 7 July 2 20-6 2-25 22-31 90-64
Saturday 8 July 3 24-16 37-19 61-35 151-99
Saturday 8 July 4 31-39 22-17 53-56 204-155
Saturday 8 July 5 26-14 20-30 46-44 250-199
Saturday 8 July 6 5-42 3-43 8-85 258-284
Sunday 9 July 7 29-25 31-25 60-50 318-334
Sunday 9 July 8 25-5 4-35 29-40 347-374
Sunday 9 July 9 37-29 21-21 58-50 405-424

 

 

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