The second match on Day 2- India was not one which could be taken lightly. India have a fine record in international tournaments which is surprising as there are a very limited number of Indian bridge players. That said though they were running last so perhaps their morale or lack of it was going to benefit us.
The lineup was Warren-Pauline and Bruce-Jedi. My thinking behind this was that Jedi expressed a mild desire NOT to play against Poland which made the lineup for this match almost automatic.
The team did us proud defeating them by 21-9 and we could hold our heads high now being 4th on the Leaderboard - 17 above 9th - remember we need to finish in the top 8.
What was pleasing in the last 5 matches (all wins) was that the team seemed to be settling down to playing solid bridge. Reaching good slams
http://www.swangames.com/rama/boardreview.php?eventid=283051&roundno=1&segno=8&boardno=19
which was missed at the other table. Again we lost 6 imps on the last board to drop a VP - the team asked if I would like to start scoring from the bottom board up? I declined.
Now came Poland. Now with Poland the last thing you want is swingy boards with lots of competitive auctions etc. as they I think that this favours them. Regrettably we got a very swingy set.
I watch the scoresheets come up board by board and rub my hands in glee at board 2 - 6Sx +1660, but no same score in the other room. A sacrifice in 7H is sensational but hard to find as it wasn't clear who was sacrificing on this hand.
http://www.swangames.com/rama/boardreview.php?eventid=283051&roundno=1&segno=9&boardno=2
Strangely Argentina doubled Trinidad and Tobago in 4S which made six for 1190 and Indonesia vs Netherlands at both tables scored up 5Sx making six for 1050.
A run of 5 board early in the match cost is 40 imps from which it was hard to recover. We lost by 20 IMPS and 10-20 in VPs. So a 52 VP day which was enough to see us in 5th spot but now only 7 ahead of ninth place.
So now we face China, New Zealand and Indonesia. China will be tough but they play a fairly straight up and down style which will suit our players. While I would like to think that New Zealand would be a soft match, my captaining history suggests that we need to be on our guard. Put simply we under perform against NZ maybe because of the sporting rivalry which underpins the psyche going into the match - something I will try and diffuse.
The Indonesians this time are not their normal crew, some of whom are now competing in the seniors. That said my form man (Peter Gill) suggests that the team is very competitive.
Still to play after today with current positions:
Norway (3)
Sweden (17)
Japan (9)
Brazil (7)
Argentina (10)
Trinidad Tobago (20)
Italy (4)
Chinese Taipei (18)
Egypt (15)
The official website is http://worldbridge.org/tourn/Shanghai.07/Shanghai.htm where you will also be able to find the daily bulletins
Anyway that's all for now
Best
David
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