Wednesday, September 26, 2007

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

2 comments:

TricksRich said...

Thanks for your comments David which are very insightful. I'm sure all of us wish the team and you all the best of luck....and skill!

Jon and Sheils said...

Hi David. Looking forward to reading your blog to see how things are going. Good bridge and good luck to you and the team.