Everyone's a Winner
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Bulletin 16 Saturday evening, 30 June 2007 EVERYONE’S A WINNER Philippe Vanhoutte & Patrick Grenthe France (Gold) Bep Vriend & Carla Arnolds Netherlands (Gold) Jean Marie Py & Patrice Piganeau France (Silver) Nevena Senior & Sandra Penfold England (Silver) Christo Drumev & Ivan Tanev Bonev Bulgaria (Bronze) Gunn Helness & Siv Thoresen Norway (Bronze) Victor Aronov & Julian Stefanov Bulgaria (Gold) Nick Sandqvist & Artur Malinowski England (Silver) Vladimir Marashev & Ivan Tsontchev Bulgaria (Bronze) 3rd EUROPEAN OPEN BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS Antalya, Turkey A Lot of Sun but no EBL Seniors Open Forum Vacation in Antalya Friday, 29th June, 2007 Technological improvements do Chair: Guido Resta (Italy) not always make life easier. Be- Board: Nissan Rand (Isr), Goran Mattsson (Ger), fore the cellular phone age no- Patrick Jourdain (Wales) body had to worry about the ille- Technical adviser: Maurizio Di Sacco (Ita) gal transmission of data by using Secretary: Marina Madia one. At this moment many play- ers still don’t understand why The Chairman said there was little time but the meet- strict measures have to be taken ing was to present the EBL Seniors Committee thinking to avoid such abuse. Before the bridgemate age, last and give seniors a chance to express their own views. boards in a session were entered the same way as pre- These were the points the committee was supporting: vious ones, not forgotten. The number of participants also created headaches. It is not easy to play four ses- • A delay in increasing the age limit from 58 to 60 sions with 22 or even fewer pairs not playing barome- years to allow people born in 1950 and 1951 to become ter, as we did in the seniors. seniors earlier than if the limit was increased again in And not many of us will be able to cope with 60 or so 2008 and 2009. Objective: Some new faces. more pairs in a Mitchell qualification, who drop into the • Supporting the Seniors Congresses of European Fed- third out of four sessions when those pairs can’t just erations not only with EBL Masterpoints but possibly with play each other because they are so much stronger than some title such as EBL Seniors Grand Prix. There was also the average in the event. So we had to merge them into a proposal being considered that the Italian BF Seniors existing lines, taking out other pairs and of course we Congress in Riccione in 2008 might become an EBL Open didn’t want pairs meeting each other twice. Try it, it ap- for Seniors. Such a Congress could include Mixed Senior peared to be possible. The power cuts didn’t help much Pairs, Ladies Senior Pairs, Open Senior Pairs etc. but noth- either but we survived them, though I heard some curs- ing that would conflict with the national Senior Teams at ing going around a couple of times. the main European Championships. The reason we could solve these problems is that the • Points from Antalya: running a Senior Teams and Pairs basic requirements were fulfilled. We played in beautiful in parallel with Open events five times the size was im- playing rooms, had playing material of the highest quality practical. The amount of bridge and cost for Seniors and the expertise of our staff is outstanding. Some TD’s should be reduced. If the Senior events were cut from were experts in movements, the duplication was done nine days to six with the Senior Teams starting at the without any real mistake, the scoring staff, both for the same time as the Open Pairs then Seniors would have teams and the pairs, handled the bridgemates, scoring sta- the choice of coming for one week or of entering the tions and the scores themselves with great precision. There Open teams with the option, if not reaching the knock- were Italians in almost every department who didn’t need outs, of playing in both the Senior Teams and Senior much instruction to exercise their jobs. And once again, Pairs. (This same schedule could also apply to the Wom- well done the Turkish Federation, which had previously ens events.) demonstrated that it understands what is needed to make • Points from Verona to be advised to the WBF: (a) such an event a great success. This time we cooperated qualifying rounds in Senior Pairs should be a maximum also with Bentour, the tour operator who had a big task in of four sessions (possibly three) before a cut, with those the organization and fulfilled it in a flawless way. By expe- missing the cut able to start something new; (b) all Se- rience my expectations working with hotels were low. I nior events other than the knockouts should have at have to review that opinion: Kremlin and Topkapi were least one, preferably two, half-days free per week. This highly cooperative; no request was too much for them. would increase enjoyment for those who had other If this all sounds as if life was easy, it was not. You can’t things to do such as watch Viewgraph, hold meetings, or imagine how many unexpected things come up, how see the locale outside the venue. many split second decisions have to be taken, how many Mrs Hiron made an impassioned plea against isolating things have to be done in the normal development of Seniors into their own venues and events, not alongside such a championship. I am really proud to be part of Open and Women. This would, she believed, be against such organization, which created a championship to be the long term interests of bridge. The Chairman assured remembered as a delight. Mrs. Hiron there was no intention of removing Senior And yes, we always can improve things, hopefully your events from any existing EBL event. The aim was to in- opinions will help to do so. See you in two years time crease participation of Seniors, and give them more op- and bring your friends with you, we are ready for a big- tions when faced with the decision of whether to play ger event. Open or Senior. Ton Kooijman Other proposals received general support from the meeting. 2 15-30 June 2007 3rd EUROPEAN OPEN BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS Wishful Thinking Championship Diary - Solution Final Antalya Edition Ron Tacchi’s photographs Can West make Four Spades if he is allowed to give were as brilliant as ever North and South the appropriate hands (consistent (make sure you look at the with the bidding…West opened One Spade, North Internet version to really ap- overcalled One No-trump, and East ended the bidding preciate them) and he partic- with Four Spades). ularly enjoys it when French players win a medal thanks to North leads the diamond king. the largesse of Le Bridgeur. Our golfing correspondent, Giorgi Uchava and Rati Burdiashvili of Georgia (appar- Patrick Jourdain, despite a ently in cooperation) were drawn as winners among the disappointingly large number correct solutions. They suggested: of setbacks, provided us with some excellent copy, es- pecially on the Seniors. [ Q J 9 8 ] 9 8 7 Barry Professor Sploofus Rigal did a splendid job, not { K Q J 10 least in the proof reading department. }A K [ K [ A 10 7 3 2 Peter Ventura produced a number of splendid articles, N as did Jan Van Cleeff — who also made a number of ex- ] A Q 10 ] 5 4 3 2 W E cellent photos available. { 6 5 4 3 2 { A } 10 3 2S } 6 5 4 P.O. Sundelin, multi tasking as a member of the Ap- [7 3 peals Committee and VuGraph commentator con- ] K J 6 tributed in his inimitable way as our bidding theorist par { 9 8 7 excellence. He even brought us an ice cream — but it melted on the } Q J 9 8 7 way back! If this is the full deal East wins trick one, takes two George Hatzidakis was our outstanding Layout Edi- heart finesses and two diamond ruffs. A heart to the ace tor, who gave life to our usual turgid prose. is followed by a fourth diamond, ruffed with the trump seven. Herman De Wael is not an official member of the team, but we have adopted him, and he is a mine of in- Finally the thirteenth heart is ruffed with the king, and formation, some of it useful! He claims to be the only West’s fifth diamond allows dummy to make a trick with player ever to have gone wrong in a one-card ending. the spade ten either directly or later if North ruffs in with an honour. Mark Good morning Dr.Falcon Horton Editor People are in the Bulletin Office. They think it’s all over. It is Medical News now. We have the latest news on Max Rebattu; he is in an in- Thank You! duced coma to allow him plenty of time to rest and On behalf of the journalists present in Antalya I would recover. He will be woken like to thank the European Bridge League and the Turk- up on Wednesday when ish Bridge Federation for the facilities offered in the doctors will review his Press Room at the 3rd EOC. We were impressed by condition. If all goes ac- the hospitality given and service rendered. cording to plan he will be able to fly home at the weekend. Jan Swaan, Press Room Manager 3 3rd EUROPEAN OPEN BRIDGE CHAMPIONSHIPS Antalya, Turkey Some final boards — Session 4 by Peter Ventura This Championship has come to an end, but there are still knew that it was likely that the save wouldn’t cost too much, some boards to report from the final.