Some weeks ago, I invited folks to place bets on the result of the upcoming Bermuda Bowl. The tournament finished yesterday, so we can now see how everybody did. But first the results, in case you haven’t seen them:
Open
- Italy
- Monaco
- Poland
- USA 1
- Canada, China, England and The Netherlands.
Italy won convincingly, in a match that was already over before the last session started. The USA had its worst performance in 20 years. The Dutch were dethroned by Poland as champions in the quarterfinals, with a huge loss (120 imp’s over 80 boards). Unfortunately, the Poles couldn’t keep up their momentum as the next day they were trashed by the Italians and withdrew after 64 out of 96 boards.
Women
- USA 2
- England
- The Netherlands
- China
- France, Poland, Turkey and USA1.
One of the players in the USA2 team had a lot of trouble getting her visum for Indonesia. She took revenge by winning the event in a close match. There were some comments on the tactics employed by the USA2 team. Trailing by some 50 imp’s after 4 sets, they turned the match around in a wild set (82-33, or about 7.5 imp’s/board). I might post an analysis later this week, as it seems to me that the imp’s were mainly generated by the English playing badly, not swinging tactics by the US.
Seniors
- Germany
- USA 2
- Poland
- France
- Belgium, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Scotland.
Another close final, only decided in the last set. Belgium and Scotland did very well in their first outing at this level.
The BBBB
4 people sent in a complete entry, which is somewhat disappointing. The comment I got was that this was too complicated, so in 2015, I’ll dream up something more simple. The scores:
- Henk Uijterwaal 70 points
- Floris Vlaanderen 61
- Luuk Hoogeveen 58
- Norbert van Woerkom 49
- XX 30 (but incomplete)
Congratulations to the winner!
Final note: In the Transnationals, the Bronze medal was won by Magie Ticha, Richard Ritmeijer and Jan Jansma and Gert-Jan Paulissen. They play at the same club as I do, so congratulations to them. The Bermuda Bowl won’t be in the clubhouse for the next years but at least there is something to celebrate next Friday.