GNT

I’ve been a bit busy the past few weeks, one way and another. Part of the busy-ness was working towards flight B of the Grand National Teams. Since we did so well at the regional, Elwood and I decided to stick with the same team for the GNT. The opening salvo was yesterday, but sadly the team’s performance was not up to snuff, and we got knocked out.

It was very disappointing. We were in a three-way match, playing 24 boards against each team, and all three teams won one match and lost one match. The tie was then broken by total IMPs. One team was positive, one totaled -3 IMPs, and we finished at -10. But we actually beat the team that finished positive, and lost to the team that finished at -3.

What was particularly galling was that Elwood and I were distinctly unimpressed with the pair at our table, who seemed to be a scratch partnership with unclear bidding agreements, and one of them also displaying distinctly questionable judgement. But in the second quarter, he punted four times in the six boards, and generated about +25 IMPs when some unlikely games made. We got some swings back from boards where his optimism ran into normal luck, but the damage was done. Either his team-mates at the other table were good, or our team-mates had a bit of a bad day, (or more likely, a bit of both), but in the sessions where Elwood and I felt we had done well and expected to get some ground back, the gains didn’t materialize. Now, the elimination margin was 7 IMPs, but that was between us and them. So in fact, if we had managed a 4 IMP swing somewhere, +4 to us and -4 to them would have squeaked us through. In twenty four boards, there can’t have been more than about a dozen opportunities for such a swing.

Meanwhile, the third team comprised fellow Manhattan Bridge Clubbers, and Elwood and I were a little nervous about facing them, judging them to be a pretty strong team by flight B standards. And yet we did to them what the other team did to us, score-wise. A big second quarter opened a lead that they never looked like closing. In this case, the swings came from a misplayed game and from better judgement in the bidding. We got swings of 6, 5, and 4 IMPs by going plus at both tables when the pair at our table over-reached or over-competed.

Oh well.