In preparation for USA 1’s first day of the seven day round robin qualifying round, USA 1 attended the opening ceremony/dinner and then returned to the team suite to watch South Park and eat peanut butter sandwiches. When USA 1 won the 2009 Bermuda Bowl in San Paulo, Brazil, the television show Two and a Half Men was the stress buster for a lot of the team. Although it is still a favorite, South Park is winning the popularity contest this Championship. It was an early night since the 10.5 time zone change has still got a hold of most of us!
Of course, USA 1 woke up at the crack of down so breakfast was early filled with lots of excitement and the desire to get the first match started. Argentina was our first opponent of the day. They are a formidable team but rather new to the world level competition. It seems their nerves got the best of them and the final was 77-27. Can’t really blame them…can you imagine sitting down for your first ever Bermuda Bowl and staring at Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell? Nope, me either!
Match 2 brought the Host Country India who gave a good fight but couldn’t quite overtake the power house pairs of Steve Weinstein/Bobby Levin and Nick Nickell/Ralph Katz losing 44-29. There are some advantages to being a host country team – like it’s your natural time zone, you are used to the food and sometimes you even get to sleep in your own bed at home! These are huge factors when you are looking at a 14 day tournament where stamina plays a tremendous role in who out performs the field. If you look back on the history of the history of the championship tournaments, you will see that the host country teams and pairs outperformed the rest of the players. Big Shout out to the India Bridge Federation. Incredible hotel, good variety of food and very friendly people. USA 1 wishes India the best of luck with the rest of the tournament.
The final match of the day was our first showdown with one of the three replacement teams. Sweden finished 7th in the European Trials which sent only the top six teams to India. So when the Israeli team withdrew, Sweden packed their bag but unfortunately, with the short notice one of their top pairs (which was on the qualifying team) were unable to make the trip due to obligations at home. More collateral damage done by the cheating pairs. But for the four teams with cheating pairs that finished ahead of Sweden in the European Trials, Sweden would have fielded a must stronger team. Although they are happy to be competing after all, the circumstances are less than optimal for them. USA 1 got out of the gates ahead of Sweden 31-0 after 10 boards of the 16 board match, but Sweden came storming back to lose by only one imp.
Unlike the pair events, the players do not know their current standings after each round ~ even though the spectators do. You can watch the running scores of every match in all three events on the Results and Bulletin Page. Since all three events play the same boards at the same time, it’s fun watch as the results come in across the screen and compare the different strategies of the Open vs Women vs Senior players. The time zone difference will make it very difficult to watch the bridge in real time but if you happen to be awake during our playing time (11am, 2:30pm and 5:20pm Chennai time), you may find USA 1 (or your other favorite team) on the Bridge Base Online Vugraph and if not, you can watch their running scores on the Results and Bulletin Page.
A good Day 1 for USA 1 going 3-0 and standing 3rd out of 22 teams. At the end of Day 7, the goal for all of these teams is to be in the top 8 to continue on to the KO round of the Bermuda Bowl. Unfortunately, BB USA 2 did not have a good day at the office ~ losing all three matches and standing 19th out of 22 teams. There is a lot of bridge left, we will see how the mostly older junior team made up of Vincent Demuy, Paul Fireman, John Hurd, John Kranyak, Galvin Wolpert and Joel Wooldridge do on putting the three sets behind them and climbing out of the hole they have dug themselves. I’m betting tomorrow will be a better day! For all of the team rosters, check out the Registration Page which has all three events and all 32 countries rosters.
In the Venice Cup (Women), USA 1 is standing 3rd after winning all three matches, while USA 2 is just out of qualifying in 9th place. 6 more days…18 more matches…Lots of hands and lots of lead changes along the way! Very similar standings in the D’orsi Bowl (Seniors) where USA 2 is in third place after sweeping their opponents and USA 1 is in the last qualifying spot for the day. I expect at least 3 out of 4 of these teams will make it to the KO round of 8 once the seven day qualifying round robin is over. Perhaps even 4 of 4!
USA 1 went to a team dinner at Pan Asian in the hotel. Lots of bridge hands were discussed until the desert menu came along…I actually took a picture of it for all of you ~ We particularly liked the Plant of Mint desert but we were all too chicken to order it. Everyone did, however, order the Banana Caramel Cinnamon ice and were brought two spoons and a fork. We are still wondering why one spoon wouldn’t have been sufficient to eat the one scoop of ice cream which was placed in front of each of us!
Time for sleep! See you tomorrow… for Day 2 of the 2015 World Championships!
