Friday_04

With some participants already departed, it is worth looking at how Australia performed in previous world tournaments.

The Bemuda Bowl, Venice Cup, and d'Orsi Trophy are held every odd year. The previous event was held in Chennai, India in 2015.

The open team finished 13th out of 22, and the womens team finished 12th out of 22.

However the senior team, consisting of Brown-Kanetkar, Buchen-Christie, Haughie-Klinger, npc Neill finished 2nd of 22 in the round robin, the highest placing in a round robin ever achieved by an Australian team at a world championship event, just over 12vps behind USA1, but almost 36vps in front of Sweden who finished 8th, the last qualifying place.

After USA1 had chosen Norway, Australia chose Sweden as its quarterfinal opponent, starting with a 10imp carry over. After one third of the quarterfinal, Australia was up 134 to 62. Australia was still up 165 to 142 at the two thirds point. However by the end Sweden were victorious 253 to 195.

 Last year the World Bridge Games were held in Wroclaw, Poland. Unlike in odd years, for these events, any country can enter.

In the open for the Vanderbilt Trophy, Australia finished 8th of 18 in one of three sections, when only 5 qualified for the knockout stage.

In the womens for the Torlontano Trophy, Australia finished 8th of 18 in one of two sections, qualifying for the knockout stage. They were chosen by USA, losing in the round of 16.

In the seniors, Australia finished 9th of 23, qualifying for the knockout stage. They were chosen by USA, losing in the round of 16.

In the mixed, a new event, Australia finished 9th of 23, qualifying for the knockout stage. They were chosen by Germany, losing in the round of 16.

So what are our chances this year? Based on previous performances both the open and womens teams will need to play at their best to qualify. However the senior team, with 3 members of the 2015 team participating, can be expected to have a good chance of making the knockout stage.

Posted by David Hoffman on Sunday, 6 August 2017 at 17:12