Yesterday’s match against the team of Cefalù was our last one in this tournament. The team bearing the name of this picturesque Sicilian town managed to kick us out of the competition by beating us 55-30. You may examine our results here https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tview.php?t=50748-1606335471&u=antepa
The match started badly for us. In the first two boards, our opponents managed to make us overbid and defended fiercely. In the 6th board, they bid game and made it, while the other opponents’ pair defending, managed to lead spades, leaving no extra trick for our pair. However, on board 7, they let us know that their team is prone to making huge mistakes. The same message was sent to us on board 16.
On board 17, however, the majesty of the Gazzilli convention was employed by the Italians, in order to bid and make game; it was an excellent choice for their team. The next deal was quite straightforward and, in my opinion, revealed an issue with our play as we failed to make a game in hearts contract.
In the 19th deal, they overcame their vulnerability and managed to bid and win the game in spades; their missed bet on slam in the 21st board was their last mistake.
Overall, I think that they had a better functioning as a team and that they successfully exploited our mistakes. Of course, as Greer put it, there was an issue with the disclosure of their bidding and playing system, that was made worse by the cultural gap (their inability to express themselves clearly in English and our lack of language skills in Italian).
I will let Paolo know about it, I think it is a fair request that all teams register a convention card with the BBO, before taking part in any teams competition of this size, friendly or not. Whether in yesterday’s match what happened was unfair or cheating or not, is left up to you to decide and let me know.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank you once more so very much for your participation and effort. It’s always a pleasure to having you in either team competitions or in casual bridge playing on BBO. I hope that you are all fine and keep up the good spirit, in spite of the rather dire circumstances surrounding us. See you all on BBO.
The Kampala Team's School of Bridge 