Day 2 - Summer Heat in Seoul
Liam Milne
Another sunny 30 degree day in Seoul. Last night I risked the welfare of my teams by having some traditional Korean food at Kwangjang Market - luckily they all made it through! Kimchi and pork dumplings, mung bean pancakes, rice cakes in spicy sauce, Korean rice rolls, and as much seafood as you could wish for. Good for their constitution, I say.
Before I update you on the progress of our teams, I want to point out that there is a big match worth watching today. 12:30PM AEST, and 2:30PM NZT... it's the Trans-Tasman clash between the Australian and New Zealand Open teams. It's live on vugraph. I'll be commentating and I am sure it will be an exciting match! See you on BBO.
So far I haven't talked much about our Seniors' teams. We have two of them over here playing for Australia:
Australia Seniors 1 (as decided by the Playoff): see below picture.
Australia Seniors 2 (self-funded): Andy Braithwaite (captain), Arjuna Delivera, Simon Hinge, Robbie van Riel, George Smolanko and Jon Free.
2017 Australian Seniors 1. L-R: Peter Buchen, Terry Brown, Avi Kanetkar, Pauline Gumby, George Bilski (NPC), Warren Lazer, Bruce Neill.
The Seniors' teams both had tough days at the table today. Australia 1 had a big loss (2.81) to Chinese Taipei 2 and a little win (11.58) versus China before lunch, but then were blitzed by China Hong Kong 1 in Match 7. Unfazed, they finished with 14.85 against India.
With 29.24 from the day, and 85.92 total, Australia Seniors' 1 are lying 6th out of 16 teams going into Day 3 with an average of just over a draw per match. Here's hoping for better luck today!
For Australia 2, the day started with back to back 19-IMP (4.94) losses to Thailand and Singapore. They bounced back with a nice 16.55 victory against Chinese Taipei 1, and closed the day off with 16.38 against a strong Japan 1 squad. Nicely recovered for 42.81 from the day, a bit above average.
With a much better day than the previous, Australia Seniors' 2 have 73.72 VPs in the bag and are lying 11th of 16. They play an Indonesian squad in the morning, before the all-Australian derby in the second match (12:30pm Australian time).
After a disappointing start yesterday, the Open team pulled up their socks today. They had a small loss (7.29) against Chinese Taipei, but firmed up their position with two big wins (18.87, 20.00) against China Macau and Kuwait. In the final round of the day, the Open team had a medium loss (5.81) to Indonesia, but still had a decent day with a haul of 51.97 VPs.
The Open team finish Day 2 with 89.00 VPs, 6th out of 15 teams. They have a bye tomorrow, followed by the Trans-Tasman clash against New Zealand. They will be hoping to get some nice scores out of Korea 1 and Singapore during the rest of Day 3.
The Ladies continued their solid performance with three wins for the day: 17.63 against India, 19.47 against Singapore and 10.66 against China Hong Kong. They are lying third with 85.23 VPs behind China and Chinese Taipei, neither of whom they have played. The last two matches of this first round robin (last match on Wednesday and first match on Thursday) will be very important when it comes to determining the final standings.
The standings in the Juniors series after Day 2
The Juniors had a disappointing, but not disastrous, day with three losses. They scored 9.03 against Philippines, but had a big win (17.77) versus Japan. Against two of the stronger teams in the event, Chinese Taipei and China Hong Kong, they registered 8.13 and 3.12 to finish the day with 38.05 from four matches. Despite the three losses, their day was just under average, and they are lying 5th (above).
Our Girls had a close loss to China in the morning (6.87) over a tough set of 28 boards. A few hands either way could have decided the match. In the afternoon, they played Chinese Taipei, and won the first half by 23, but sadly lost back 26 to lose the match by three: 9.30.
They are third behind China and Indonesia. Big match in the morning - they face off against Indonesia over 28 boards.
A reminder if you would like to look at the live scores for yourself, you can do here. Just click on the current round. If you want to see the scores come in live, you can also do so.
Looking at the above image, the 5 on the left hand side is the table number. Click on that to see the scores come in from the Bridgemates. You can see that NZ is up 27-0 after 6 boards - the second number on the left is the number of boards that have been compared (i.e. played at both tables). The numbers on the right hand side are the provisional VP scores.
Speaking of New Zealand, their Open team started Day 2 in the lead, a nice place to be. They had an average day, 40.29, and have 100.09 total: fourth place, and only 7 VPs off the lead. One of their players, Matthew Brown, had his 21st birthday yesterday, one of the babies of the field! Hopefully today he can receive a nice present in the form of lots of IMPs - except against Australia of course!
The other team from New Zealand, the Ladies, are lying midfield with 56.06 VPs from six matches, a bit under average. They started the day of 3.97 against Chinese Taipei, followed by a sad 1.02 against the Chinese crack squad, but recovered somewhat with 14.64 against Japan. They play India, Korea 1, and Singapore today - good luck!
All the best to all of our teams over here. Check in tomorrow for more news and results from Seoul!
Posted by Liam Milne on Wednesday, 31 May 2017 at 11:17