Rounds 2 and 3

Not that I have said anything offensive but the Chinese do not allow access to my blog from within China. I guess I could say something offensive about that but .....

So for the technofiles out there I am remote desktopped into the DBBC Computer and doing all of this through that medium but it is a bit slow.

Anyway.

I went out for the first hour of the match against Netherlands (Team Orange). When I returned I logged on to www.swangames.com which has all of the scoresheets 'live' from the table. The bad news was that we were 34 IMPS down - Yuk. My patience (not that I am known for this) was rewarded when we picked up 33 IMPS to draw the match against one of the more fancied teams. So despite not having a win the team was upbeat.

Little did we know....

Next was the match against USA 1 - certainly one of the fancied teams for the event. Katz, Jacobs, Garner Weinstein with Rosenberg Mahmood sitting out.

The match started quietly enough - 29 IMPS turned over in the first four boards without much in the match. The real action was about to come when we lost the match by 42 IMPS or 5-25. Unfortunately the one IMP on the last board cost us a VP.

In future I will have to discuss hands by referring to the website as trying to format them on this medium is very hard.

I am writing this using a wireless internet access at the Japanese restaurant near the venue. The team shared a Sashimi and Sushi followed by scallops, pork chops (not me) and other Japanese delicacies.

I for one am most tired. The captaining job while it sounds easy is very tiring. You don't get a match and the administrative duties are an important part of the job.

Tomorrow it will be Ireland USA2 and South Africa. No matches in this tournament .are easy but we will have played 4 of the fancied 8 teams after round 5. I don't see this as too positive and we will certainly have to get 40-50 tomorrow to stay in touch.

Wishing you all the best from a warm and humid Shanghai.
David

Round 1

We arived at the venue full of excitemnet and anticipation. We checked into the team room which we managed to get at the venue at the last minute. We will use this room as a base for players who are sitting out, scoreups and general chill out. It is full stocked with drinks, nuts, cheese, ham (for some) nd other comfort food. It is essential to have a home at the venue as being homeless simply adds one more layer of difficulty for the team to deal with.

Our hopes for a flying start were a little dampened by a 13-17 loss to Pakistan who we rated ourselves as some chance of beating. The 11 imps loss was about equally shared at both tables so nothing for the captain to do in terms of adjusting the lineup. Here is one board from the match:

Q 2
A J 5 2
K 2
10 9 8 3 2
10 7 5 A 9 6 4
K 7 4 10
9 7 6 5 4 3 A J 10 8
7 Q J 5 4
K J 8 3
Q 9 8 6 3
Q
A K 6

The uninteresting auction led to 4H at both tables where both West's led the C7. At Warren;s table East ducked leaving declarer on dummy where he simply played HA and another hoping for hearts being 2-2 and making the contract. We can see that overtaking and finessing the club is the winning play as you can discard the club loser on the DK anyway. At the other table Murray covered dummy's club ten placing declarer in his hand and able to take the heart finesse. However, again fearing a club ruff declarer again played HA and another also going one down.

The next match is against Netherlands who are always a very tough unit to play against. Part of their success is constantly playing and practicing.

More soon
David

Well here we are the day before the event.

Yesterday we had a practice against the three New Zealand Teams and the Brazilian Open Team.
This was followed by an excellent meal at the local Noodle House - $A5 per head which was well within our budgets. Actually in the ‘Super Brand Mall’ opposite the venue there are two levels with I am guessing 20 restaurants so expect to see us there again. Tonight we have booked for Japanese and Korean may follow soon.

Today the team is practicing against the three New Zealand teams and the Australian Seniors so 7 tables. They have elected to play the same direction mixing the teams about. So my three pairs are all E/W with the New Zealand Seniors all N/S as team mates. Anyway the purpose is that they can then discuss the hands more meaningfully.

The captain’s meeting is at 14:30 today and will deal with all of the administrative issues. For the first time the event will be paperless. The captains will all have home pages where they can get their team scoresheets after each match.

By the way (or BTW for you computerheads out there) Swan games will be having live scoring similar to that provided by Matthew McManus and including all the play provided the scorers can keep up with it. Go to www.swangames.com to see this in action.

Also don’t forget that you will be able to watch up to 8 tables at once, including Australia from time to time at BridgeBase Online www.bridgebase.com.

Tonight is the opening cocktail party and ceremony so after the captain’s meeting it will be back to the hotel to change into the team uniform and back to the venue.

Tomorrow’s matches are against Pakistan, Netherlands and USA1. Pakistan will likely be the easiest of these matches but all should be quite tough. Netherlands and USA1 are both short priced to make the final eight so we will have to battle hard to do well against these teams.

Again my keyword is focus. All we need to do for reasonable results is play our normal games and remain focused.

Anyway that’s all for now. Catch you all soon.....

Nearing the Event

So here I am on the plane to Shanghai so with an abundance of time I thought I would prepare my next Blog entry to upload when I get to the hotel. Well that's what I thought not realising that in China the Blog page is censored and when you can get it up and running it is all in Chinese. So here's hoping

My personal situation makes this journey somewhat harrowing but when the team and other good bridge friends from around the world arrive over the next few days I am hoping things will improve.

I have a reasonable amount of experience in captaining teams for big-time events and I am pleased to report that this team of Pauline Gumby/Warren Lazer Bruce Neill/Richard Jedrychowski and Murray Green/Andrew Peake have shown more commitment to practicing and preparing themselves for the event than any other team I have been associated with.

Another two factors which I view as positives for our team is that Christy Germboux is flying to Shanghai to be the recorder for our team and the team have all contributed towards a room at the venue for scoreups, chill out between matches and a home for the pair sitting out. This is made more important by the fact that the BB this time comprises three 16 board matches per day starting at 11:00 and finishing around 20:00 – so with 16 boards the pair sitting out has limited opportunity to do very much if they leave the venue.

Actually our hotel (The Sofitel) is 4km from the venue due to the fact that Australia holds their trials very late compared to other countries. This invariably results in difficulties in getting rooms at the venue.

This took the form of:

• three online matches versus Cayne team from the US/Italy
• three online matches versus Indonesia
• three training sessions with guest speakers including Peter Gill, Sartaj Hans, Ishmael Del’Monte, and others (who we would like to thanks for the generosity they have shown with their time.
• partnership Bidding practice using the Bridge Base Online Partnership practice rooms
• participation in a large number of events since the time they won the right to represent Australia and leaving for Shanghai

So what can we expect to be the outcome of all this practice – a well prepared unit with a lot of espirit de corps.

In furtherance of that theme and in keeping with my normal objectives I am planning a practice on the Friday and Saturday after the team arrives (round robin starts Sunday. Teams that have shown interested include Ireland, Brazil, USA and Trinidad and Tobago. My challenge here is to get a venue and equipment but in the past the WBF have been quite accommodating to our needs in the past so I am hoping for a positive outcome. Interesting and on this note some teams don’t arrive till the Saturday – something I simply cannot understand. How can people arrive from all around the world the day before a World Championship and expect to be match fit – beats me.

Another positive aspect of this team is that I believe that they don’t hold the lesser teams in contempt – certainly a failing in teams I have played in and captained. If the field was ranked then I expect that Australia could be in the lower half and maybe if one were savage the bottom third although I would challenge that notion. So our right to treat others with contempt is limited.

An example of this attitude backfiring is when in the late 1970’s I played in the NOT with Gerda Stern, Tom Kiss and Egon Auerbach and we made it to the later stages of the finals and members of the team who had chosen us for what I am guessing was the quarter-finals were heard crowing at the bar about their good fortune – you can guess what happened the next day.

The team met on Sunday night as a sort of final drinks before the more serious environment of the Bermuda Bowl. They types of things which we discussed included:

• approach to lineups such as rotation not being automatic
• team discipline issues like retiring times, drinks with meals etc.
• the need for pairs to move from the playing area directly to the scoreup and not hang around the doorway discussing hands

Previously discussed team disciplines mainly based on my past experiences and advice from the wise Maurie Stampf of Israel:

• no expressing an opinion as to how you went before scoreups
• no hand or result discussions until after scoreups
• while as captain I generally ask players if they have views regarding lineups I am not prepared to hear any opinions after a match such as “I think we should have played that match”
• a curfew not expressed in a specific time but sensible having regard to the 11:”00am start.each day.

The question I keep being asked is “what are our chances of making it beyond the qualifying stages:. As I previously noted it would be unreasonable of me to express a view on this subject but the team believes that we are 25%-33% which is probably close to the mark. To achieve this milestone we will need to have all three pairs playing at the top of their game. In this regard toredness shouldn’t be a problem with the relatively light playing schedule – 32 boards per day average per pair. The real key issue for me focus focus focus. We have to lower our error rate. Allowing a vulnerable game to make by sloppy defence is the difference between drawing a match and losing 18-12 so you have handed that opponent 6VPs against you and each of other teams 3 VPs – this is out challenge.

So there we have my pre-tournament thoughts. I should perhaps temper my comments by saying that they are mine and mine alone and I am sure the team would perhaps disagree with some of my theories and ideas noted above.

Regards from Shaghai

Team and Event Details

Hi There

My name is David Stern and I am the captain of the Australian Open Bridge Team competing for the 2007 Bermuda Bowl. This tournament is held in Shanghai starting 29th September 2007.

Our Team is:

• Pauline Gumby and Warren Lazer
• Bruce Neill and Richard Jedrychowski
• Murray Green and Andrew Peake

They qualified via the Australian team Selection trial winning by just one IMP.

The Bermuda Bowl comprises 22 teams playing a round robin of 16 board matches finishing 6th October 2007. This is then followed by quarters and semis and a final.

Participating Teams (by Zone) are:

Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden
Canada, USA 1, USA 2
Brazil, Argentina
India, Pakistan
Trinidad & Tobago
China, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan
Australia, New Zealand
Egypt, South Africa

The website for the event is http://worldbridge.org/tourn/Shanghai.07/Shanghai.htm

For teams not making the quarter finals there is an open event known as the Transnational Teams. This even comprises 15 matches of 10 boards with semis and a final.

I am planning to keep a blog before and during the event. Let me know if you have any questions or would like to know anything about the team or the event.