THE NETHERLANDS WIN
FIRST-EVER CA~IB TROPHY

The first EOC Bridge Tournament came to an end today in Warsaw. In the last match, the overnight leaders from The Netherlands had to face Poland 2, the younger generation team that had been doing so well until then and were lying joint second at the moment. In case of a close outcome of this match, Sweden, joint runners-up with Poland 2, or even Austria or Poland 1 might win the event. So there was everything to play for with no less than five teams still in with a chance.

As a consequence, we saw three exciting matches, all three very close. England beat Austria 52-50 to record their first win here, but it counted as 15-15 only. Poland 1 beat Sweden 51-48 and that counted as a 16-14 win. The biggest margin of the day, by far, was reached by The Netherlands, who held on to beat Poland 2 39-31 which was 16-14 as well. This Vugraph show was a curious one. The Netherlands scored on only three boards, but that was enough to reach 39. Poland had won many more boards, but their tally was only 31 imps in the end.

With all these close matches, there was little change in the overall ranking. Sweden remained second, just tied with but just ahead of Poland 2 who finished third. In fact, their tie was split because Sweden had won the match between the two. Poland 1, who started the day level with Austria, just crept past them by 1 V.P. and England remained last. Please note that Austria, who finished fifth in the table, scored just 1 V.P. under average. It had been a close competition, with an average of 17 V.P. more than enough to win.