[Walddk]

ansoe, on May 16 2008, 11:14 AM, said:

Walddk, on May 15 2008, 02:59 PM, said:

skaeran, on May 15 2008, 08:24 PM, said:

Codo, on May 14 2008, 04:13 PM, said:

1. As far as I know, just countries are allowed to participate. There is just one exception: The members of the common wealth are all able to play under their own flag. Their surely is an historical reason for this, but I don't know it.

In bridge this is pretty new. Until recently Great Brittain could send only one team to the European Championships. The first time England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales could enter their own teams was in 2003.

In football (soccer ) it's a different story.

Not quite correct, Harald. First time we saw England, Scotland and Wales as separate entities was in year 2000 (Olympiad in Maastricht, Netherlands). Then we had the same three (bridge) nations at the European Team Championships in 2001 (Tenerife, Spain) and 2002 (Salsomaggiore, Italy).

As an aside, Italy Open fielded the exact same team in Salso and won. Team photo here ...

http://www.eurobridge.org/competitions/02S...lsomaggiore.htm

Roland

This is not correct. Irish teams, ( Open and Women's) have played in European Championships for 60 years.

Who wrote anything about Ireland? skaeran mentioned Great Britain, then England, Scotland and Wales. Not a word about Ireland, not by me either. The Republic of Ireland is not part of Great Britain.

In the Camrose Trophy (open) and Lady Milne (women), the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland play as separate entities, unlike other international competitions where the Irish Bridge Union sends one team to represent the island of Ireland.

That's how it has always been. Nothing new there.

Roland

[skjaeran]

Walddk, on May 16 2008, 04:49 PM, said:

ansoe, on May 16 2008, 11:14 AM, said:

Walddk, on May 15 2008, 02:59 PM, said:

skaeran, on May 15 2008, 08:24 PM, said:

Codo, on May 14 2008, 04:13 PM, said:

1. As far as I know, just countries are allowed to participate. There is just one exception: The members of the common wealth are all able to play under their own flag. Their surely is an historical reason for this, but I don't know it.

In bridge this is pretty new. Until recently Great Brittain could send only one team to the European Championships. The first time England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales could enter their own teams was in 2003.

In football (soccer ) it's a different story.

Not quite correct, Harald. First time we saw England, Scotland and Wales as separate entities was in year 2000 (Olympiad in Maastricht, Netherlands). Then we had the same three (bridge) nations at the European Team Championships in 2001 (Tenerife, Spain) and 2002 (Salsomaggiore, Italy).

As an aside, Italy Open fielded the exact same team in Salso and won. Team photo here ...

http://www.eurobridge.org/competitions/02S...lsomaggiore.htm

Roland

This is not correct. Irish teams, ( Open and Women's) have played in European Championships for 60 years.

Who wrote anything about Ireland? skaeran mentioned Great Britain, then England, Scotland and Wales. Not a word about Ireland, not by me either. The Republic of Ireland is not part of Great Britain.

In the Camrose Trophy (open) and Lady Milne (women), the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland play as separate entities, unlike other international competitions where the Irish Bridge Union sends one team to represent the island of Ireland.

That's how it has always been. Nothing new there.

Roland

Uh, I did in fact write Ireland, but that was inadvertent - it should of course be Northern Ireland.

[Walddk]

We have a complete timetable now. I have set it up the way we do it on our vugraph schedule web page. All times are GMT. Add 1 hour for London, 2 hours for Paris and 10 hours for Sydney. Subtract 4 hours for New York and 7 hours for Los Angeles.

49th European Bridge Team Championships 2008 http://www.eurobridg...Information.htm

2008-06-15 08:30 Open Teams, Qualifying 1
2008-06-15 12:15 Open Teams, Qualifying 2
2008-06-15 15:35 Open Teams, Qualifying 3
2008-06-16 08:30 Open Teams, Qualifying 4
2008-06-16 12:15 Open Teams, Qualifying 5
2008-06-16 15:35 Open Teams, Qualifying 6
2008-06-17 08:30 Open Teams, Qualifying 7
2008-06-17 12:15 Open Teams, Qualifying 8
2008-06-17 15:35 Open Teams, Qualifying 9
2008-06-18 08:30 Open Teams, Qualifying 10
2008-06-18 12:15 Open Teams, Qualifying 11
2008-06-18 15:35 Open Teams, Qualifying 12
2008-06-19 08:30 Open Qualifying 13, Women RR 1
2008-06-19 12:15 Open Qualifying 14, Women RR 2
2008-06-19 15:35 Open Qualifying 15, Women RR 3
2008-06-20 08:30 Open Qualifying 16, Women RR 4
2008-06-20 12:15 Open Qualifying 17, Women RR 5
2008-06-20 15:35 Open Qualifying 18, Women RR 6
2008-06-21 08:30 Open Qualifying 19
2008-06-21 12:15 Women RR 7, Seniors RR 1
2008-06-21 15:35 Women RR 8, Seniors RR 2
2008-06-22 08:30 Open Finals R 1, Women RR 9, Seniors RR 3
2008-06-22 12:15 Open Finals R 2, Women RR 10, Seniors RR 4
2008-06-22 15:35 Women RR 11, Seniors RR 5
2008-06-23 08:30 Open Finals R 3, Women RR 12, Seniors RR 6
2008-06-23 12:15 Open Finals R 4, Women RR 13, Seniors RR 7
2008-06-23 15:35 Open Finals R 5, Women RR 14, Seniors RR 8
2008-06-24 08:30 Open Finals R 6, Women RR 15, Seniors RR 9
2008-06-24 12:15 Open Finals R 7, Women RR 16, Seniors RR 10
2008-06-25 08:30 Open Finals R 8, Women RR 17, Seniors RR 11
2008-06-25 12:15 Open Finals R 9, Women RR 18, Seniors RR 12
2008-06-25 15:35 Open Finals R 10, Women RR 19, Seniors RR 13
2008-06-26 08:30 Open Finals R 11, Women RR 20, Seniors RR 14
2008-06-26 12:15 Open Finals R 12, Women RR 21, Seniors RR 15
2008-06-26 15:35 Open Finals R 13, Women RR 22, Seniors RR 16
2008-06-27 08:30 Open Finals R 14, Women RR 23, Seniors RR 17
2008-06-27 12:15 Open Finals R 15, Women RR 24, Seniors RR 18
2008-06-27 15:35 Open Finals R 16, Women RR 25, Seniors RR 19
2008-06-28 08:30 Open Finals, Round 17

20 boards per session in all series. We will be broadcasting from 10 - 20 tables in every session, depending on schedule. Overwhelming? Yes. Software issue? No; we can accommodate up to 32 tables at a time.

Roland

[joe_costa]

A couple of people earlier in this thread asked for a translation of the interview with Maria Teresa Lavazza.
There is a translation on rec.games.bridge:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.b...ca888819f48e5b2

Copy/pasted it here for ease of reference:

Maria Teresa Lavazza:
"In Shanghai I started to think it was time to make some changes. The
Italian team needed a jolt. Something that would bring back that
hunger for winning that has always been characteristic of the Blue
Team (...) Aside from the bitterness about the bad result in Shanghai,
I noticed from the start of the tournament a certain atmosphere within
the team. My impression was that our players, some more, some less,
had started to think that all they had to do, in order to beat
anybody, was just to sit down at the bridge table. A little bit of
self confidence doesn't hurt, but complacency can be really harmful
(...)"
"If changes had to be made I couldn't go about it without including in
the team a player that, according to all the other members of the
team, is truly great. I am talking, of course, about Antonio Sementa
(...)"
"At the same time Bocchi and Duboin told me they wanted to terminate
their partnership. As I was already looking to include Sementa, I
thought too much change could be destabilizing (...) So I have asked
Bocchi and Duboin to play one last time as a partnership for the
Italian team. Both agreed fully (...)"
Interviewer: "So I guess that if you didn't want to exclude Lauria-
Versace and include Sementa, you had to sacrifice Fantoni-Nunes"
"I don't like the word 'sacrifice'. It's true: I never considered
excluding Lauria-Versace. Apart from anything else, Lauria is like a
great wine: the more he ages the better he is. I will always call him
to the national team, as long as he is available (...)"
"Fantoni and Nunes have contributed a lot to the national team in the
past and I am sure they will continue to do so in the future"
Interviewer:"Why did you choose Angelini? He hasn't played with
Sementa for over a year."
"True. But before that they had played together for over 10 years.
Between 1998 and 2006 they won a Rosenblum, a European Championship,
four Champions Cups, and an infinite numbers of Italian Championships
and Coppa Italias (...)"
"Angelini joins the team for these European Championships in
recognition of his great passion and dedication to bridge. After all,
equal to mine. To be even clearer, I deny in the most absolute terms
that his joining the team has brought any financial rewards to the
Italian bridge federation (...)"

[Walddk]

Here is the draw for the European Team Championships starting Sunday next week ...

http://bridge.ecats.co.uk/Documents/files/.../TeamsDraws.pdf

Group B seems a little stronger to me, but not by much. Nine teams from each group will advance to the second stage of the round-robin.

And coincidentally, Israel and Lebanon are in different groups. The luck of the draw I bet (not). The new format will save the EBL from the embarrasment of having an adjusted result when the Lebanese don't turn up.

Yes indeed, they could meet in RR2, although it's unlikely that Lebanon will advance.

Roland

[Walddk]

Let me stick my neck out and predict that the following teams will come through to the second stage:

Group A:
Turkey
Spain
Finland
Israel
Italy
England
Denmark
Iceland
Netherlands

Group B:
France
Hungary
Ireland
Bulgaria
Sweden
Norway
Russia
Germany
Poland

...

Medalists in the other series:

Women:
1. Netherlands
2. Germany
3. France

Seniors:
1. Denmark
2. France
3. Poland

[Gerben42]

Quote

Group B seems a little stronger to me, but not by much. Nine teams from each group will advance to the second stage of the round-robin.

I think group B is quite a lot stronger!

Rankings of the best 9 teams in Group A in Warsaw:

1, 5, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17


Rankings of the best 9 teams in Group B in Warsaw:

2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 18

And #18 was Russia who are a lot stronger this time...

[glen]

ulven, on May 14 2008, 01:42 PM, said:

Looks like B-Z is onboard:
http://www.ecatsbridge.com/documents/docde...ean%5COpenTeams

The EBL had a lengthy meeting yesterday, I believe, where the question about representation was a major topic. Don't have any details yet.

Is the 8 player Russia team still a go?

[ulven]

I asked Z (when we met last weekend in Tallinn) and he said some papers where on their way from Polish Fed and Russian Olympic committé. He didn't know then how it would end.

They still both have their residence in Poland.

[han]

I think the five teams mentioned by Gerben (Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Russia) are the favorites and I would be very surprised if another team made it to the finals. Of course I'm rooting for the Netherlands.

[Walddk]

han, on Jun 5 2008, 03:52 PM, said:

I think the five teams mentioned by Gerben (Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Russia) are the favorites and I would be very surprised if another team made it to the finals. Of course I'm rooting for the Netherlands.

You got the format wrong. Han. There is no such thing as 'finals'. 2 x 9 teams qualify from RR stage 1, and then the 18 teams play another complete RR for gold, silver and bronze.

Roland

[paulg]

As many will be aware, I am the Scottish Women's NPC in Pau.

I hope to be updating my blog regularly with our progress subject to Internet connections, my ability to keep some of the team out of the shops and other distractions that may, or may not, be connected to bridge.

Hope to meet some the BBO'ers at the event next week.

Paul

[Aberlour10]

ulven, on Jun 5 2008, 08:33 AM, said:

I asked Z (when we met last weekend in Tallinn) and he said some papers where on their way from Polish Fed and Russian Olympic committé. He didn't know then how it would end.

They still both have their residence in Poland.

They are definitely not on board as player. Adam Zmudzinski figures in Team Russia as a coach.

http://www.eurobridge.org/competitions/08P...amid=Russia@674

[han]

Walddk, on Jun 5 2008, 11:06 AM, said:

han, on Jun 5 2008, 03:52 PM, said:

I think the five teams mentioned by Gerben (Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Russia) are the favorites and I would be very surprised if another team made it to the finals. Of course I'm rooting for the Netherlands.

You got the format wrong. Han. There is no such thing as 'finals'. 2 x 9 teams qualify from RR stage 1, and then the 18 teams play another complete RR for gold, silver and bronze.

Roland

Ah ok. Well then, I expect one of these teams to win, I voted for Italy btw.

Looking forward to the broadcast.

[han]

Let's make a bet Justin, I'll bet on Italy you on Ireland. What odds would you like?

[skjaeran]

I think Netherlands might be hard to beat this time. Our team and Italy's are weaker than normal. Our team should be among the top six, and qualify for next years Bermuda Bowl, and might fight for a medal if all three pairs do well. The new format is to Italy's disadvantage I think. They won't benefit from clobbering all the weaker teams, since there's no carry over to the second round.

[vincenzo]

It could be interesting to make a poll in Italy to check how many bridge players agree with MTL decision ....

Agree with Roland .... this is politic .... not bridge ..... I can't tell more for the moment ..... I think that many persons in Italy hope that italian team will not overcome the round robin !!

Vincenzo

[pclayton]

Jlall, on Jun 11 2008, 02:06 PM, said:

han, on Jun 11 2008, 03:04 PM, said:

Let's make a bet Justin, I'll bet on Italy you on Ireland. What odds would you like?

Since it is such a long event, I would need 8:1

Ireland was one of my dark horse picks in the BB.

I'm not making that mistake again.