Bermuda Bowl

I haven't felt much like blogging lately, but I thought I would keep this thing alive by commenting on the World Championships. I don't rub elbows with very exalted company, in bridge circles, so I have no more information or insight than the average Joe Public bridge player. But I have enough experience and a varied enough background to make these international competitions  fascinating for me to watch. I'm spending as much time as I can on VuGraph at BBO, and I find myself unable to stick with just one match at a time. I can't resist flitting across the three or four matches that seem the most interesting match-ups.

Before it started, I picked Italy to win over USA2, with the Netherlands and USA1 as the losing semi-finalists, and Germany, Japan, Norway and China losing in the quarter-finals. Those picks aren't looking too great at the moment. We're about two-thirds through the round-robin, and Japan, USA1 and Germany have a lot of work to do to make the quarter-finals. Instead, Bulgaria, Russia and Argentina are currently in the top eight in the standings.

It's amazing to me how good the teams are, generally. I don't get over-awed and fawn like some bloggers I could mention, but I appreciate that some pairs are a class above the average expert. And it seems to me that a lot of the teams are fielding two or three pairs that are genuinely that good. I mean, Chagas and his pals from Brazil are not what anyone would call deadwood in any competition, and they're currently languishing 18th out of 22 teams . I mean, holy shit, 18th? I've been reading the blogs of Sartaj Hans and Cathy Chua and one or two other people who generally are concerned with how Australia and New Zealand don't seem to be able to step up to the winning circle at these very top levels. I have to admit, looking through the results so far, it does indeed look as if the 22 teams are separating into the top 8 or 10, the next 8 or 10, and the bottom 3 or 4. And Australia and New Zealand seem to be firmly planted in the middle, and if you don't get into the knock-out, you're not going to win. But that doesn't mean they're all chumps, either. When you look, they're both ahead of Brazil - in fact, they're both ahead of USA1, which must be rattling some cages in ACBL-land. USA1 cleaned everybody's clock in the US Trials, and comprise some of the best players in America, and realistically they have no chance of making the knock-out at this point. That must hurt.

To look on the brighter side, I'll say that I don't think Fantunes or Meckwell have really turned it on yet, so my Italy-USA2 final still looks very possible to me and still looks like a cracking match. I'll also say that I've been very impressed by Norway. I knew they were good, of course, but they're actually missing a couple of their best pairs for this competition, and they still look capable of kicking pretty much anybody's ass. Boye Brogeland seems to be one of relatively few players in this round-robin who aren't afraid to pull out the red card when the opponents are getting out of line - good for him.

I haven't seen much of the women (Venice Cup) or the seniors (D'Orsi Senior Bowl). I watched a little of Sabine Auken and Daniela von Arnim a couple of days, and was distinctly under-whelmed. They seemed to be playing very much below their best. And I haven't really looked at the seniors at all. But I'll have to take a look now - England are currently at the top of the standings, and it would be distinctly unpatriotic to ignore them. Rule Britannia!