By defeating Israel 16-14 VP and Italy 20-10 VP, Norway secured victory in the 17th Junior European Teams Championship. Thus they become the first team to record four wins. The Netherlands secured the silver medals, right at the death, by virtue of a 25-4 VP win over Russia. That left them one point ahead of the bronze medal winners, Israel. France won the race for fourth pace. These four teams will carry the European banner to South America for the 2001 World Junior Bridge Championships.

In addition to their Championship titles, Norway and Poland won the prizes relating to the Red Sea International Bridge Festival offered by David Birman, the head of the organising committee, and coach of the Israeli Junior Team. David flew from Tel Aviv to Antalya today to be on the podium with his team, and to present the prizes.

Editorial

These have undoubtedly been outstanding championships. Never before have so many players and Captains visited the Daily Bulletin to deliver material. I hope you have enjoyed reading their stories and the ones we discovered ourselves. Many people deserve thanks for their involvement.

Brian Senior, who managed daily to reduce three-page report on the world’s greatest cycle race to five or six lines; George Hatzidakis, the first Layout Editor in history to appear for breakfast, used his design skills to fantastic effect; Takis Pournaras, our Internet Editor, who ensured your supporters at home could read the bulletin before you, and is the second worst network hearts player in the world! Burak Bayhan, who demonstrated that it is possible to go for twelve days without sleep, was the man responsible for ensuring that the bulletin was waiting for you at breakfast.

There are many other people to who we owe our thanks; Patrick Jourdain & Barry Rigal, for reporting the VuGraph highlights; Kees Tammens for a tremendous series on defence. Stefan Back & Henrik Røn for major articles, Nissan Rand, for being Nissan Rand, Gianni Baldi, for a wealth of information including the Butler scores; Marc van Beijesterveldt, confirmed as the world’s number one proof-reader; Maggie Pierce, who kept us supplied with certain essential items! Our magnificent Turkish hosts, who provided us with everything we needed, and we salute them all. There is a vast army of others, too numerous to mention individually, but without the efforts of the man behind the scenes there would be no bulletin. A toast then to our Chairman, Panos Gerontopoulos.

Mark Horton

Editor