Belgium Team Profile

Two years ago in Vienna, there was no Belgian team for the first time since 1974. The Austrian principal town was judged too expensive by the Belgian federation, and the junior team to be sent wasn’t good enough, they said.

So first of all, we are very glad to be here in Antalya. As a matter of fact, you cannot expect youth bridge to flourish by keeping your players at home, so that participation in major events is compulsory if you want to learn. So now we will present the renewed Belgian team.

It is not uncommon for two brothers to be playing in the same team, but in Belgium we have done one better, we have three brothers in the national squad, and they all come from Antwerp, the second Belgian town.

Steve De Roos (19) is a student in commercial engineering. He is a real danger for every beautiful girl in the neighbourhood, and is never afraid to double the opponents when he likes his cards, which seems to be regularly the case.

His brother Daniel (21) is also a student, he is a civil engineer in chemistry. He likes parties, so he says, but you should not mention that to him at the at the table, as he often tries to suppress the enthusiasm of his younger brother, with whom he captured the Belgian junior title four years ago, retaining it the following year. The last two years were less successful.

Third brother Timothy (simply say Tim) is 23. As he works for Bayer Antwerp, his arrival in Antalya was delayed by some hours. Fortunately, he found a flight that would get him here in time to play the fourth round. He used to be an excellent 800 metre runner, and as a consequence of concentrating his efforts on running he started learning bridge later than his two brothers.

His partner is Els Toutenel (16); they have partnered each other for two years and were the last of the Belgium pairs to qualify to be here. Els studies Greek and Latin at school, a rarity nowadays. Dont believe the jealous guys who tell you she is only here to disturb (principally Dutch) opponents with her magic décolleté.

Tom Cornelis (23) is the most experienced player in the team. He plays in the Belgian second division. He speaks three languages fluently, studies computer science in Ghent, his native town, and describes himself as a fanatic theoretician. He found out a system to bid slams with half controls and thirds of points which can be described in a five-way Blackwood.

Unfortunately his partner, Steven De Donder from the small town of Lokeren (football freaks will know about this place) sometimes forgets this remarkable system. Nevertheless, this young fellow of 20 years and 191 cm (I think only Dutch players do better) is making a very strong impression on his first international appearance.

Non-playing captain Jean-Francois Jourdain (38), nicknamed Pitch, represented Belgium as a youth international, at both chess and bridge. This last occurred in 1986 (Budapest) and 1987 (Valkenburg), but these are not the best memories of the Belgian team. He started to work with the youth players two years ago. The rules he fixed with the players seem to be very efficient. He gets bought a drink each time a player lets through a doubled partscore, goes down in a Grand, gets penalised for arriving late or who for -1100. At the same time, he buys all the team a drink each time they win a doubled partscore, set up a double squeeze or simply win a match.

He promised champagne in the case of a 25-victory or if the Netherlands were defeated, which has already cost him bottles! It tends to work out about even since Belgium is doing well here up to now, but we all know the road is still very long for our young team.