Polish Juniors
Team Profile

Andrzej Aleksandrzak (52), npc

He has a science degree in chemistry. Some players call him “White Bear” (imagine him wearing a white coat and guess why). He has been a coach of the Junior National team for two years. Unfortunately, his expecatations from this present team probably won’t come true.

Anna Grunt (24) and Anna Sarniak (24)

are the lethal weapon of the Polish team. They have a common first name so to distinguish them they are called “Dluga” (Long, in English, because at 184 cms it is too much for the Tall nickname) and “Mala” (Small, in English). They both study mathematics so can easily use their analytical skills in the field of bridge. They are always very cheerful and with a smile on their faces can kill you on another difficult - for you, of course - board.

Piotr Lutostanski (22)

is a student of economics at the University of Warsaw. He is the most skilled player on our team and should be a leader (but see the Disaster Corner). He is crazy about beautiful girls and likes good alcoholic drinks. You can find him and his partner easily - just look around. If you find two boys both walking around complaining about their partners it means that you have found them.

Piotr Kucharski (24)

is studying Physical Education in Radam, his family town. He is the partner of the above mentioned player (so you know how to find him). Together with “Lutek” he achieved fourth place in the World Junior Championships in Nymburke. He loves playing basketball but, unfortunately, he can’t say the same about playing bridge with Lutek. One thing more: everybody calls him “Champion”, but nobody knows why.

Jacek Baranowski (22)

is studying Environmental Protection. He has played with Marek Rozkrut (23) for eight years, except for one year when Marek was too old to take part in the Schools category in Vienna. Then Jacek played with Lutek and they gained the bronze medal. Jacek loves women (especially his wife and would-be daughter - she will arrive in September), good wine and playing bridge.

Marek is studying Economics in Cracow. Together with Jacek Baranowski, he plays in the Polish First Division, which should bring benefits in the near future. Marek loves everything that relates to the Spanish culture (especially women and the beautiful language). Moreover, he is keen on different sporting activities and indulges himself in drinking good beer.

Dutch Schools
Team Profile

Claudia van der Salm, 18. econometrics student in Groningen. Learned bridge through minibridge, and enjoys the game but also sailing and surfing. Ýn regular bridge she likes the competition of matches and tournaments and especially at the level of a European Championship. She likes the looks of boys from the Scandinavian countries - guys, don’t take advantage of this fact!

Her partner is Albert Nijholt, 19 from Aldeboarn in Friesland. This small village is the origin of minibridge, invented by Ýds Hemminga in 1988 . Albert studies history in Groningen and plays football, tennis, checkers (like all people from Friesland), darts and billiards - wonder how he finds time for his studies. Albert certainly likes the girls from Belgium and loved to come to this championship because of the free trip to Turkey.

Erwin Barendregt, 19. Studies Informatica and in fact has already taken a swim one time. The fact that he was ‘jonassed’ (chucked involuntarily) is only of small importance. Erwin is a quiet one, to be understood better if you know that he is the last of three bridgeplaying brothers who already have left the age of juniorhood.

Erwin partners Richard Ritmeyer, 19, and starting his studies in social sciences. He likes to play tennis but is very fond of bridge. Richard plays for the new bridgeclub in Onstein, the castle of bridgemecenas Hans Melchers who also sponsors a semi-professional bridgeteam. Richard is interested in the psychological aspects of the game at the table itself.

The youngest pair consists of two players from Leidschendam, the biggest bridgeclub in the Netherlands, owning its own premises, with five afternoons and six evenings open for bridge. Tim Verbeek, 15, is sure to play a strong match when his hair is combed well. He likes the Tour de France and thinks he has the nicest smile of the tournament. Especially keen on throw-ins and squeezes and convinced you can win any hand that way. Tim’s partner is Danny Molenaar also 15 specialised in a very Dutch sport called Korfbal (a sort of basketball with teams formed by boys and girls together). He enjoys the challenge of beating opponents and sees bridge as an easy way of making trips abroad. The Israelian girls have the greatest attraction to him.

Bas Tammens, 16, has many functions in Antalya; coach and scorer of the Schools team, scorer and mascot for the junior team. He plays football, chess and takes part in the fridaynight skate. He feels that the championship is too exciting for himself as a spectator and seeks his place as player in the Schools Team of 2002.

Captain Dejan Markovic, 32, married to Yasmina with two sons, Dylan (6) and Daniël (4), has in fact travelled to Turkey because ‘U’-20 trainer Frans Borm has the Bergkamp-disease and will not travel in a plane. Dejan was himself a junior in Palaiseau (1992) and won the Dutch pairs championship in 1998 (with Vincent Ramondt, a junior who qualified for the Olympiad 2000!). Dejan works for Bridge Better, the Dutch magazine with a circulation of about 20.000.

England Juniors
Team Profile

The team described in Bulletin 2 as “lowly England” has made a little progress since then. Since our IMP quotient has risen above one, we now wish to be known as “Middle England”, or in view of the fact that we are the only team not to have acquired sun-tans, as the “Average White Band”. The players are:

Graham Hazel, who is studying for a PhD in topology. This is not the science of how to do well in Pairs events, but the branch of mathematics that deals with those properties of objects that remain invariant however much the objects are distorted. As part of his research, Graham has been bending the Acol bidding system beyond recognition. He told us the other day that during one of his examinations, he constructed a wonderful proof based on the premise that 4=5. A corollary of Hazel’s Lemma is that a five-card suit is the same as a six-card suit, and this important result has had a dramatic effect on bidding theory, since it explains a number of the pre-empts that have been seen in these championships. His partner is

Jonathan Green, who works for a financial institution and is therefore quite happy with the notion that 4=5, or indeed that 4=3, depending on whether you are buying or selling. He is the keeper of the team mascot, a gorilla known as Cappelletti, but has taken to leaving this animal in his room because he is fed up with people saying “Ah - here comes the team gorilla, and Cappelletti.” His major contribution to theory is a new leading method in which the eight against no trumps shows AKQ98 precisely. There is little danger that partner will misread the position, since you can always discard the ace, king and queen later in the play.

Keith Bennett works for IBM and has made several appearances on Vugraph during these championships. England has only played on Vugraph once, as befits our lowly status, but Keith made several appearances (and disappearances) because he is in the habit of drinking six bottles of water at dinner. He is an avid follower of the BOLS bridge tips, having bid several slams with two top losers on the principle that the five level belongs to the opponents. Keith plays with

Richard Hillman, a demon defender who does not allow anything to get past him and is always alert to the wiles of his opponents. He invariably finds the killing return, and has never been known to miss a trick. If only he could play bridge like he plays table tennis… Richard works for London Underground, an organisation that if it played bridge would long ago have been bankrupted by the fines for slowness and late arrival.

Lior Zivan, who can speak fluent Hebrew and has been doing this at every opportunity in the hope that he will be mistaken for a member of the Israeli team. My predictions for this event have so far been less than infallible, but I will make this one with confidence: his name will not feature in the Bulletin’s anagram competition. Lior is shortly going to China to teach English, the alternative of going to England to teach Chinese having proved impractical. Lior sits opposite

Rachel Wade, who has just finished her University degree. Her unfailing cheerfulness in the face of adversity and calmness under pressure would be a shining example to all of us if we could understand how she manages it.

The team coach is Andrew McIntosh, whose play of K8xx facing Q10x for no tricks and three losers has already featured in the Bulletin and has proved an inspiration to us all. Tosh has spent the week apologising for everything, even though none of it has been his fault - but he is practising for next season, when he will be playing with Tony Forrester.

The captain is David Burn, who after 20 years in the telecommunications industry has finally embarked on the career for which he is best qualified, that of doing nothing. He wishes it to be known that he has captained and coached British teams for the past thirteen years, but he has never seen anything to rival these Championships for the excellence of the setting and the competence of the organisation.

Turkish Juniors
Team Profile

Polat Erdemil

I am 24 years old, and still studying Mechanical Engineering. My job in this team is to find my partner Ilker before the matches, make him sit down in his place, and don’t let him go away during the match! My captain wants me to play, but it’s not so easy if you can’t find your partner! They call me ‘Polly’. For more information you can find me in room 428. Don’t ask me where you can find my partner!

Güray Sunamak

A 25 year old computer engineer. During the university years he spent most of his time by playing bridge, and computer games (especially multi-player ones). He finally succeeded in graduating after seven full years. He now works as an Internet programmer in a Company. He is known as ‘Turtle’.

Tamer Uz

24, an electronic engineer, he has been playing bridge for seven years, and played in Vienna two years ago. His has partnered Toygar for six years. He changes his job very often. He is the creator of the team slogan ‘I like red from black’.

Ilker Erdogan

25, has been playing bridge for three and a half years, and is involved in Business Administration. He is in the army now. Can’t usually be found because of his love of sports, especially football. He is a true fan of the Spanish team’s scorer.

Toygar Alper

25, and has been playing for seven years, the last six with Tamer. He is a bridge teacher, and tournament director. He likes driving, which explains his interest in sports cars.

Özgür Bakan

The coach, who is a fanatic supporter of Galatassaray, was a player in Vienna. He believes that his friends will succeed in this event.

Sinan Tatlicioglu

25, and studying physics. Although his interests are many, including the history of art, poetry, literature and chess, he is too lazy to pursue any of them. He has been playing for four years, and finds it great fun. He is hoping to go sunbathing in Rio next year! He is known as ‘Rabbit’ for obvious reasons.

Özgür Göksel

22, and is studying chemical engineering. Claims to be the youngest captain, and has only been playing for 18 months. He likes preempts, Hendrix, photography, and music. He is known as Kamikaze, but his team name is ‘Neo’.

Karen McCallum

Now known as ‘Kate’, former Venice Cup Champion, who has been coaching the Turkish players. She is renowned for her aggressive approach to the bidding, but claims she is really a pussycat in this area.