Dear friends,
As you well know, last Wednesday match with the team of Dubrovnik was a good one for our team, as we had hoped and expected. The final score was 31-12 in favor of Kampala; however it was not at all obvious from the beginning that it would end up well.
On the contrary, up until the 10th board, they had managed to, really, make us worry: following a successful double on a difficult, but makeable contract that I failed to make on the second board and an unfortunate 1NT bid on my behalf (2NT was, obviously, the bid – mea culpa) on board 9, Vedry and his team mates found themselves ahead of us, despite some small gains from obvious better play that we had on a few contracts. Our stress was bigger, given that Sandra and Marcello were both recovering from illness and I was traveling, playing from my mobile phone.
Starting with board 11, I felt that I had to, and also could make up for my mistakes; therefore, boards 6 and (especially) 11 reflect this risky attitude to bidding, coupled with the excellent defense from Sandra and Marcello, that, eventually and fortunately, paid off. On board 15, Øystein rightfully chose to pass my 1NT bid, despite having 8hcps (nominally), while Sandra and Marcello, once again, defended properly against our opponents’ attempt at making 3NT.
You may download last week’s results here (lin file), or view them (temporary display by BBO) here. Rejoice! The ranking in our group so far places us first, and we also have one match less, as the team of Bakirkoy simply failed to play or even contact us. Take a look:
On Wednesday, 2 of November, we are facing the team of Zadar. They are hosting us, therefore BBO user Casper_zd (the captain of the team) will, most probably, be hosting the team match. These guys have only managed to beat the team of Amed so far (the folks that we faced in the first match in this edition of the ICL), They are playing, seemilngly, natural systems.
Please, let me know if you’re available to play on Wednesday. Wishes for a happy week and a happier November.
The Kampala Team's School of Bridge 