Wow! For the last two days, I feel like I was invaded by the most boring videos I’ve ever watched, until the pattern started to become clear on several signals. For those that watched the two videos that I posted two days ago, did you see anything? I don’t blame you if you didn’t get all the way through them…
There are now 176 hands with the polish pair of Balicki and Zmudzinski bidding and 106 hands with them defending. These videos are all from the 2014 European Team Trials which qualified 6 teams to the 2015 Bermuda Bowl which is going on now in Chennai, India. From these same videos, three other teams withdrew before the 2015 Bermuda Bowl started – Germany, Monaco and Israel but for some reason ~ better known to the politicians in this saga ~ the Polish Bridge Federation has chosen to not “Do the Right Thing” and withdraw their team from the event. Eventually, what most are predicting is that the Polish Team’s final position will be vacated (similarly to the German Doctors’ Team from Bali) and then the billion dollar question will be who should actually be the winners. It wasn’t so clear in the D’Orsi Bowl event and won’t be any clearer once the 2015 Bermuda Bowl ends. Hmmm…Let me try to explain.
The conditions of contest for the Bermuda Bowl and D’Orsi Bowl are very similar (although more boards are plated in the Bermuda Bowl Final). There are 7 days of round robin play in which every team plays each other for 16 boards. At the end of the round robin phase, the top 8 teams move on to the Quarterfinals (which btw start today ~ in about an hour). Well, Poland played each of the other 21 teams. Take a look at the photo finish for 8th-10th place:
Given that Japan missed the final spot by less than .14 and Brazil was just a couple of points out…if you take the results of Team Polands’ matches out of the equation, then who really qualifies. The WBF Conditions of Contest actually say that if the team completes the Round Robin and then withdraws, all the teams keep their results again Team Poland. So to this end, the final results are as stands. But you have to wonder what the results would have been if Team Poland had withdrawn like the other teams PRIOR to the Round Robin Phase and Team Netherlands had taken their place?? Fast forward to today, if Team Poland withdraws from the KOs in the next day or two, then Japan will have missed an opportunity to play in the KO stage of the 2015 Bermuda Bowl.
Let’s go forward in time. Today’s Quarterfinal match-ups are as follows:
Bulgaria vs Sweden
USA 2 vs China
England vs USA 1 (my team)
France vs Poland
Now let’s say France loses to Poland today and then beats Bulgaria in the Semis and then face off with USA 1 in the finals. FYI – This is just an example. I only wish I could predict the future. Then Team Poland is stripped of their medal. Who says that France might have beat Bulgaria or Bulgaria might have beat France. Or perhaps USA 1 may have beat Poland in the Finals but might have lost to France or Bulgaria in the Finals? Given you could substitute any one of these teams in this scenario – Being the Captain of USA 1, I have to take them to the finals ;-)). In other words, the Championships are ruined because the true Champion will never be realized since to do so would be to start the two week tournament at the beginning!
For those USA fans – ALL SIX TEAMS made it to the Quarterfinals!
Today’s Venice Cup (Women) Quarterfinal match-ups are as follows:
Denmark vs France
USA 1 vs England
Italy vs Netherlands
USA 2 vs China
Today’s D’Orsi Cup (Seniors) Quarterfinal match-ups are as follows:
USA 1 vs Norway
Ireland vs USA 2
Poland vs England
Australia vs Sweden
I’ll keep you posted as the story of “Do the Right Thing” continues…
Go TEAM USA 1!
