14th World Bridge Games
Captain's Log, Stardate 120813-4
I'm not sure how I feel about today - 15-15 against Botswana was disappointing, 16-14 against Greece was OK and 10-20 against Monaco was better than I was hoping for. Tonight we had our team dinner (an Italian restaurant as David is unable to eat French) and I believe a good time was had by all (I know that I am certainly above the legal limit for driving). Tomorrow we play Finland, Israel and China. Although I think its fair to say that none of the three pairs has played to the best of their ability we have also been unlucky - every available grand has been bid against us and lots of making slams - even some quite poor ones. Monaco bid one that was 40% against us (making). In the end though if you are going to be competitive you need to play significantly better than our team has.
The good news is that our Women are very much in the mix for a qualifying spot - they play Scotland in the morning (6.30pm Australian East coast time) - in theory this match is being shown on the bridgecardreader site - however to the best of my knowledge no-one has been able to get the site to do anything. According to my calculations they need a 16-14 win to guarantee their participation in the knockout stages - although they have quite a good chance of progressing with a draw or a small loss.
After tomorrow I have at least two days off and hopefully more before playing with Candice, Barbara and Howard in the Mixed Transnational.
Michael Wilkinson