Panos Gerontopoulos - Closing Speech

Authorities, Mr President and colleagues,

Jesolo 2007 is about to finish. Tomorrow, we will be leaving taking with us, I am sure, very positive memories from this Championship. In my experience, it was a wonderful event; but – what is more important – from all the comments I have heard from many of you, the positive opinion appears to be overwhelming! This is very good for everybody, and especially for youth bridge.

Good things do not happen alone. It is therefore our duty to thank people who contributed to this most successful event. There is no doubt that the main protagonists in a competition are you, the players! In a few minutes, we will be congratulating the winners – the teams that fought well to make it to the top of the classification. But, we must also congratulate those who did not win. They are the people who make the championship what it is. The Olympic spirit of athletism dictates that participation and ethical behaviour is the much more important in sport than victory. So, thank you all, 26 National Bridge Federations, 50 teams and 332 players and team officials for coming to Jesolo and making this championship the great success it was.

The Italian Bridge Federation has proved that it is a true and unconditional friend of youth bridge. They staged the previous event, two years ago, In Riccione, and they were ready to do it this year again, when our event had no host just a few months ago. The Italians are most hospitable people: they have a beautiful country, good hotels at reasonable prices, excellent food and enough humid heat to satisfy even the most demanding! Above all, however, they are most amicable people, which makes all of us to feel at home in Italy. Thank you very much, Italy; thank you Jesolo and Veneto Region; thank you Italian Bridge Federation and thank you Gianarrigo Rona, the everlasting Italian President – for this magnificent event.

The Championship needs good staff to run it, and here our staff has been a real dream team. Please join me in expressing our appreciation to all these top professionals who miss no opportunity to come and offer their expertise to youth bridge.

Our great team of Tournament Directors, headed by Chief Antonio Riccardi, Assistant Chiefs Marc van Beijsterveldt and Eitan Levy, and Giulio Crevato-Selvaggi.

The Appeals Committee headed by Patrick Jourdain.

The Main Office, under Manager Gianni Bertotto, with Gianluca Barrese, Hassan El Marugi.

The Duplication Team, under Vanessa Allodi, with Deborah Corsaro and Eleonora Sirocchi.

The revolutionary Tournament Management System which provides instant information in a paperless environment was handled by Fotis Skoularikis and Yagkos Papakyriakopoulos.

Our Vugraph system entering a new era, thanks to the inimitable Gianni Baldi. Thanks for your expert commentary, Barry Rigal, Patrick Jourdain and John Carruthers.

The computer system & Vugraph operators Duccio Geronimi, Manolo Eminenti, Chicco Battistone, Bas van Beijsterveldt, Luciano de Simone, Eria Franco, Mara Giannelli and Marianna Sorrentino.

The superb Daily Bulletin, edited by Brian Senior, Peter Ventura and Furio Meneghini, with George Hadjidakis on the layout, and our demanding photographer Maria Ploumbi. Thank you John Carruthers, IBPA Bulletin Editor.

Our able hospitality team, with Sylvia Valentini, Carlotta Venier, Thomas Schoenfeldt, and Marina Madia on the Secreatriat.

Last but definitely not least, the driving souls of the championships: Beppino Menegaldo, and the on-site organizer, our good friend Paolo Clair.

No, I have not forgotten the person who drives it all – the person who is to be blamed whenever there is nobody else to blame. Once again, we could not blame him for anything, and I am indeed very proud with the performance of my close friend and collaborator Dimitri Ballas.

Now, my dear friends, I would like to reflect on the past and share with you some personal thoughts, feelings and experience.

I entered the wonderful world of youth bridge in 1977 when I visited the 2nd European Junior Camp in Budapest and met its founder and spiritual father of youth bridge, André Boekhorst of the Netherlands. André was a great man! He conceived the idea of promoting bridge among young people, and actively did so for many years. Under his guidance and insistence, the 1st European Junior Team Championship took place in 1968 in Prague, at very difficult times for Europe. The EBL was skeptical about it, but nothing could stop André; junior bridge was off the ground.

In 1976, another event was launched: the European Junior Camp. I missed the first event, but attended the second – and every other such event ever since. In 1978, André invited me to join the EBL Youth Committee, and I was honored to accept. I served under André on the Youth Committee for 7 years, during which we attended all events, championships and camps, held regularly, each every other year.

In 1985, André decided to retire from Junior bridge after 17 years of service. He did so to devote himself to general bridge promotion. He asked me to succeed him as Chairman of the Youth Committee which I did reluctantly. It was such a delight to serve under André, and none of us, the members, wished to see any changes. However, André had made up his mind and we were facing a one-way street. So, I became the second Chairman of the EBL Youth Committee, and by far the youngest person ever to be elected on the EBL Executive Committee. It is sad to relate that, today, I continue to be one of the youngest members of the EBL Executive!

To succeed André Boekhorst was not an easy task. Such was his personality and achievements that made it a great challenge to survive in comparison. But, I had inherited something very important from him: a total devotion to the cause of youth bridge. This was my strongest weapon in the years that followed. André had set up the course, so it was clear that we had to move in the direction of youth bridge development; how we could achieve that, and at what speed, was less clear.

The European Youth Programme continued going from strength to strength: the Junior Championships, held every two years and the Camps at the same rate, in the years in between. In 1991, we enhanced the Camps by launching the Junior Pairs Championships, held immediately before the Camps. In 1994, we enhanced the Championships by introducing the Schools series. The Girls series followed in 2004, after an idea of Gianarrigo Rona.

At the same time, I turned my attention to youth bridge at world level. This was not only good for youngsters in other parts of the world, but very positive for the European Juniors too as we could now have world medals to prove our superiority. Thanks to the dynamism and immediate cooperation of the President of the World Bridge Federation at the time, Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, the World Youth Teams Championship was approved in 1986 and launched in 1987. This was to be the flagship of youth bridge competition, run along the lines of the Bermuda Bowl and the Venice Cup.

Bridge is a sport, and as such the element of competition is essential. However, bridge will not succeed, especially among young people, if it does not expand in its other dimension which indeed distinguishes it from most other sports. This dimension is the social character of our sport. We have always been aware of this fact, and this is why, notwithstanding our interest in the top young players and their needs, we have never disregarded the needs of the great mass of lesser players. The spread in three series at the Teams Championships which maximizes participation, and the lack of ‘discriminating’ stages at the Pairs, are examples of this conscious policy. However, the most obvious example is the Junior Camp.

One has to attend such an event to realize how important it is for the development of youth bridge. Many of today’s top players started their careers as Junior Camp participants. What is more important, is that many more or today’s anonymous players might not have been here had it not been for the Junior Camps. The Camps are the only events available to young people, where the bridge playing ability is not dominant. We are very proud with the Junior Camps and what we have achieved through them.

In all these years, our Committee stood for our principles, and we protected and defended the interests of youth bridge in clear priority to our own interests. We stood for the Youth Teams Championships to enjoy technical excellence, albeit not luxury. We stood against the Youth Teams Championships becoming an appendix of the European Teams Championships. We stood for massive Pairs tournaments and against them becoming elite events for a few top players. We stood for the Junior Camps to be enjoyable events and opposed the idea of depriving them of its precious ingredient: fun! Most importantly, we stood against the idea of making an omelet without eggs, meaning, in this case, the absurdness of developing youth bridge more and more while spending less and less – tending to achieving everything with nothing!….. And I spoke several times about the need that my generation undertakes its responsibilities towards the Juniors, making the necessary sacrifice – in time, effort and, of course, money – as the previous generation did for us under adverse conditions….

Eventually, we had to pay the price. So we were informed, in a less than elegant manner, that our appointment would not be renewed.

We are proud for what we leave behind. The 19 teams of the 1986 European Youth Teams have now become 50 or even more. Over 400 Juniors from 34 countries in the Youth Pairs Championship last year in Slovakia, and nearly 200 in the Camp, constituted the largest gathering of young bridge players ever to take place! I was very happy when the International Bridge Press Association (IBPA) recognized our role and named me the Bridge Personality of the Year in 1995. Unfortunately, André was no longer with us to be able to report to him that the job he entrusted us with had been carried out. But, the battle for the development of youth bridge is everlasting. We continued with the extension of the Pairs Championships and Camps to world events, the launching of the World Junior Individual, and the introduction of Schools series in the World Youth Pairs and then the World Youth Teams which led to Piestany 2006 and Bangkok 2006 – probably the most successful youth events ever held. We wish and hope that youth bridge will continue to go from strength to strength, and reach even greater heights very soon.

For us, I would like to conclude by saying that it has been a great pleasure to serve and be with you, our young players, all these years, sharing problems and feelings, and enjoying the unique atmosphere of youth bridge. Indeed, I consider myself extremely lucky with the opportunity I had to work with you and for you for 29 years! I know that the same feelings are shared by my closest collaborators, the people who stood by me all these years, contributing to our noble cause. It is, therefore, appropriate that I invite them to come up to the stage and receive a small token of our appreciation but great thanks from the bottom of my heart. I refer first to our top international team of tournament operators. Please come forward Dimitri Ballas, Patrick Jourdain, Antonio Riccardi, Marc van Beijsterveldt, Eitan Levy, Brian Senior, Peter Ventura and Barry Rigal. Then, the great heroes, the members of the Youth Committee. In the past, Jaap van der Neut of the Netherlands, Tommy Sandsmark of Norway, Hubert Lekawski of Poland, Anna Gudge of England, Henrik Ron of Denmark – and today, comprising the Youth Committee: vice chairman Stefan Back, Thomas Schonfeldt, Andréa Pagani.

Dear Juniors,

This is not an easy time for me. It is the time that I have to say goodbye to you after 29 years, during which we organized no less than 41 European and World youth events for you. This 41st time I am addressing you is by far the most difficult one. Memories, problems, failures and achievements of such a long period cross my mind as I remember the song that says, ‘it was wonderful to be together, but now it is all over’.

Thank you very much Juniors for this unforgettable period; good luck, and good bye – this time, for ever!

Panos Gerontopoulos