Calypso

I am so much more nervous as a captain when we play teams running last like Trinidad and Tobago. I guess it is because "hey if we lose badly to Italy" many will say well that is expected but our expectations should be so much greater against the lower teams. Again some disappointment at a 15-15 result. Murray/Andrew had a fine match while Bruce/Jedi were not up to their previously excellent standard.

It was suggested that the team room has become a bit of a thoroughfare for our supporters and others so for today we have agreed that the room should be team only - fair call as long as it includes me!!!!

I felt a bit down about this result last night so had room service of Sushi/Sashimi - brain food - and a very quite and very much needed early evening back at the hotel.

Down to Italy. Well I am mildly comfortable that we will achieve a respectable result against this team. They are comfortably in first place and will therefore be quite relaxed - not to say that they wont be playing their best game but they are not like a wounded lion trying to qualify. In terms of lineups I have decided to go with Warren/Pauline whose natural vs natural style should work well and while I might have considered Murray/Andrew we have an appeal at 10:00am and going from appeal to immediate play is not optimal so it will be Bruce/Jedi.

I am hard pressed to imagine that we will suffer any loss at the appeal. The hand is
http://www.swangames.com/rama/boardreview.php?eventid=283051&roundno=1&segno=17&boardno=32
At a point in the auction North bid 4D. Murray (East) who was told that the bid showed shortage doubled this suggesting, as well documented in their notes, a sacrifice. South on the other side of the screen had explained 4D as a suit which now totally changed the meaning of Murray's double. Anyway the varying explanations certainly disrupted the auction. The directors reversed the final result of 4SXX -880 to 5DX -200 and the Argentinians, not unreasonably I guess, are appealing the board. I have prepared a solid case based on bridge logic and law but we'll see.

The last two matches are Chinese Taipei who, although running 17th defeated USA1 (2nd) 18-12 last night and Egypt running 14th who are a very competent outfit. So nothing is easy on this last day. If you want proof of this

We are 22.5 VPs ahead of 9th spot but..... only 19VPs cover 6th to 15th. So if we were to have a poor result on either of our first two matches we would be in this major ruck of qualifying contenders - soemthing I am passionate to avoid. I keep getting messages asking what I am expecting today - my answer - TO QUALIFY.

Oh well enough finger work and time to face the dawn.

Keep well
David

PS: I have changed the blog to allow anonymous comments so if you feel like commenting please do. David