[nathan2008]

 mgoetze, on 2012-June-18, 05:51, said:

What's the o/u on Bessis-Bessis Butler?

-0.43. It seems that T. Bessis plays better with Del Monte. But unfortunately they are not from the same country .

Fantoni Nunes are incredibly hot. They are killing opps like what C. Ronaldo did against Netherlands. Monaco is on the way to win their first european champion. (Of course not the first time for players!! maybe first time for their boss lol)

[MickyB]

 nathan2008, on 2012-June-18, 06:17, said:

Monaco is on the way to win their first european champion.

Their results against the likely qualifying teams aren't that huge. They'd have been better off beating Wales 25-5 instead of 25-0!

[Tomi2]

 MickyB, on 2012-June-18, 07:22, said:

Their results against the likely qualifying teams aren't that huge. They'd have been better off beating Wales 25-5 instead of 25-0!

hmm, after leading 72-0 halway against Poland their plan seems to be to win every match 25-0

[Aberlour10]

 Tomi2, on 2012-June-18, 08:27, said:

hmm, after leading 72-0 halway against Poland their plan seems to be to win every match 25-0

Tja. No mercy , they finished 25-0. Poland demolished NED few hours before with 23-7 so the polish players
had not a "black bad day" for sure....so Monaco showed probably an outstanding performance, once again.

[jallerton]

 JLOGIC, on 2012-June-09, 13:00, said:

Changed to danish women from german cuz jallerton had them. GOGOGOGOGO

 JLOGIC, on 2012-June-18, 04:16, said:

F U so far jallerton!

Sorry, Justin, but I have never claimed to be an expert in Ladies' Bridge! Anyway, you and I had the Danish Ladies in 6th place, so we only lose one point. I'm more concerned about some of my other predictions!

[jallerton]

I see that the Turkey Open team and the Turkey Ladies team are both doing well and yet not a single entry predicted either of these teams to be in the top six.

On reflection it was possible to work out that this was a mistake. Anybody who logs on to BBO regularly should know that there are more Turkish experts than there are experts in the rest of the world put together!

[paulg]

 jallerton, on 2012-June-18, 15:30, said:

Sorry, Justin, but I have never claimed to be an expert in Ladies' Bridge! Anywsy, you and I had the Danish Ladies in 6th place, so we only lose one point. I'm more concerned about some of my other predictions!

A number of women in Scotland, and perhaps from elsewhere, take great exception to the use of the term 'ladies' rather than 'women' in this context. So great that they have complained to the EBL about the championship website where the term has been used for the running scores. The EBL are apparently looking into the issue.

I know the Gold Cup final has been moved southwards, but a warm welcome to Scotland will still be extended by Scottish women if you refrain from using 'ladies' in future posts.

[JLOGIC]

Huge swing on whether Ireland gets in or not, since Israel got 1 vs them. They currently stand 8th and have to play Hungary who is in 7th, and...Italy!

Greece is in 9th, and they are a big swing for the field too. Sweden is actually not doing that great against qualifiers, but they have a 25 ball against greece. On top of that, greece gave turkey a 6 ball and italy an 11 (not horrible for italy, but still their worst result). Since greece has latvia and belgium left, two teams who are not doing well, they rate to make it.

Group B is even more exciting, with 8th through 11th being within 4 VPs of eaach other! Needless to say France against Denmark will be a HUGE swing for qualifaction purposes. If France can do well there they are looking good as their other match is vs the last place team. Iceland has a bye which is good for them, but their other match will be against Russia who is in 3rd. Again, if they take care of business there they are in, but that's easier said than done. Denmark has the toughest of the 4 teams bunched towards the last qualifier, having to play Poland as well as France.

And then there is Wales. Ah Wales, you fascinate me. You intrigue me. They have to play Switzerland also, who is only 9 ahead of 8th, if they crush them maybe they will knock them out. It would be fitting of Wales.

Wales has some exciting implications. They got 0 against Monaco, so Monaco is rooting for them. They also got 25 against France, so if France and Wales BOTH make it thats bad for France. If France makes it theyre definitely rooting against Wales. Wales also got 25 against Romania who is going to qualify. I like your style Wales. They got 7 against Iceland, so if they Q they are rooting against Iceland pretty hard.

As far as Monaco, they don't really care who Qs, unless switzerland can get knocked out. They got 24 25 25 25 against 8-11th, but only 16 against the swiss.

[JLOGIC]

The most awesome thing about Wales is that they lost to ALL of the bottom 3 teams in their groups. They are the opposite of fish killers

[jallerton]

 paulg, on 2012-June-18, 15:56, said:

A number of women in Scotland, and perhaps from elsewhere, take great exception to the use of the term 'ladies' rather than 'women' in this context. So great that they have complained to the EBL about the championship website where the term has been used for the running scores. The EBL are apparently looking into the issue.

I know the Gold Cup final has been moved southwards, but a warm welcome to Scotland will still be extended by Scottish women if you refrain from using 'ladies' in future posts.

Sorry, Paul, apparently it is impossible to avoid offending people whatever one says these days! I was taught that "lady" is a polite term so I am very surprised if any female adult objects to the word. Do you know if any of the people you refer to are planning to watch the tennis at Wimbledon next week? There is a popular competition called the Ladies' Singles. Will the Scots be supporting Andy Murray in the Gentlemen's Singles?

[Cyberyeti]

 jallerton, on 2012-June-18, 17:08, said:

Sorry, Paul, apparently it is impossible to avoid offending people whatever one says these days! I was taught that "lady" is a polite term so I am very surprised if any female adult objects to the word. Do you know if any of the people you refer to are planning to watch the tennis at Wimbledon next week? There is a popular competition called the Ladies' Singles. Will the Scots be supporting Andy Murray in the Gentlemen's Singles?

Is the objection that men -> women and gentlemen -> ladies are the pairs that go together so they feel patronised by the combination of men/ladies ?

[blackshoe]

Many years ago, when I was in the US Army, I heard a story about a big party on some Army base. It was open to all ranks. When the base Command Sergeant Major got there, with his wife, he found a sign in the lobby of the venue. It said "Officers and Ladies to the left, Enlisted Men and their wives to the right". The CSM told his wife to go back to the car. Then he went in and told every enlisted couple in the place to leave. Then he looked up the base Commanding General and told him what he did and why: the sign was an insult to the wives of enlisted men, since it implied they weren't ladies.

[paulg]

 JLOGIC, on 2012-June-18, 15:57, said:

And then there is Wales. Ah Wales, you fascinate me. You intrigue me. They have to play Switzerland also, who is only 9 ahead of 8th, if they crush them maybe they will knock them out. It would be fitting of Wales.

Wales has never made the second round-robin but lost out on 9th place last time in a three-way split tie. They will be keen to avoid such heartbreak this time!

[JLOGIC]

My favorite 3 teams now are England, France, and Wales. GOGOGOGOGOGOGO.

As interesting as I find long knockout matches to play for psychological elements, I find this event pretty fascinating to watch the scores of, especially today with so much hinging for so many teams on who qualifies and who doesn't. Must be a really exciting/nervous day for everyone. Also you can root for multiple teams to do well since top 6 is the goal instead of top 1 which makes it fun on more levels.

[paulg]

 JLOGIC, on 2012-June-19, 02:20, said:

My favorite 3 teams now are England, France, and Wales. GOGOGOGOGOGOGO.

As interesting as I find long knockout matches to play for psychological elements, I find this event pretty fascinating to watch the scores of, especially today with so much hinging for so many teams on who qualifies and who doesn't. Must be a really exciting/nervous day for everyone. Also you can root for multiple teams to do well since top 6 is the goal instead of top 1 which makes it fun on more levels.

As was said on bridgewinners, top six is A goal but it is a competition in its own right and being European Champions, or even medallist, is significant for many, especially if you've not achieved it before. It is not (just) a trial for the Bermuda Bowl.

[JLOGIC]

I basically never read bridgewinners unless bob hamman or joe are in the well, too much time on here lol.

Sorry, I did not mean to imply that top 1,2, or 3 was worthless and top 6 was the only goal. I was talking more as a bridgecasualfan just watching and rooting for people to do stuff, you can root for many things to happen simultaneously which is probably quite enjoyable, especially towards the end (one of your teams looks like a lock as top 6? Alright, go for the GOLD. One team is running away with it? Alright, go for a medal. One of your teams is in 8th? Alright GO FOR THE TOP 6 ONE TIME!!!!!!! etc).

This event seems like it would be less fun to play than something like the US team trials but more fun to watch (to me anyways). Dunno if that's true.

ETA: And of course it is a great thing to win a medal for your country in a championship that consists of all the countries from your continent. I get that, even though we have nothing comparable here. Did not mean to denigrate that at all.

[gnasher]

You can also do secondary rooting because of the carryover. For example, if you wanted England to win, you would be hoping for Romania, France and Iceland to qualify.

[mgoetze]

Preliminary scores assuming qualifiers are as after round 16:

Monaco 19+14+16+25+16+17+24+25 = 19.50
England 11+17+14+15+23+24+21 = 17.86
Bulgaria 15+13+17+23+10+21+16+15 = 16.25
Germany 13+9+20+15+12+19+16+23 = 15.88
Ireland 25+9+11+14+11+25+15 = 15.71
Italy 23+15+13+16+17+15+11 = 15.71
Sweden 17+10+13+13+15+19+13+25 = 15.63
Poland 0+16+14+23+23+10+25+13 = 15.50
Russia 16+13+10+25+23+4+15 = 15.14
Netherlands 14+20+7+14+10+21+19 = 15.00
Israel 7+17+20+21+1+21+16 = 14.71
Greece 19+14+15+0+24+7+15+22 = 14.50
Switzerland 14+15+7+16+7+25+14+16 = 14.25
Turkey 14+7+17+18+16+17+6 = 13.57
France 6+6+25+9+5+16+22+20 = 13.63
Romania 13+7+20+20+5+8+21 = 13.43
Hungary 15+9+14+17+13+14+4+8 = 11.75
Iceland 2+9+15+11+17+14+9+10 = 10.88

[MickyB]

I have it now as -

Monaco 156
England 143
Italy 135
Germany 134.5
Russia 127
Sweden, Israel 122
Bulgaria 121
Netherlands 117
Norway 115.5
Poland, Switzerland 114
France 109
Ireland 108
Turkey, Greece 106
Romania 103
Iceland 87

This post has been edited by MickyB: 2012-June-19, 09:23

[fromageGB]

My Euro 2012 prediction
1 Spain
2 Germany
3 Portugal