Mexico vs Canada Playoff Results
It is very sad to hear that the Canadian Open team lost to Mexico in the playoff this weekend. The team consisted of
Nicolas L’Ecuyer, Kamel Fergani, Darren Wolpert, Jurek Czyzowicz, David Grainger, Daniel Korbel with NPC Nadar Hanna.
I know how hard you fought and how hard it is to lose by such a small margin (11 imps). This is a good young team and they will be back in the future.
As reported by Mike Yuen http://mikeyuen.bridgeblogging.com/?p=659 the Women’s team easily won. Pamela Nisbet was sending me frequent updates and I thank her for that.
The Canadian Women have never lost but the Open team did lose once before. Some times we take for granted the need to earn the Bermuda Bowl spot but obviously Mexico has a good team and this challenge can’t be taken lightly. We congratulate Mexico and wish them well.
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Why isn’t the CBF lobbying for an automatic spot in the Bermuda Bowl. Are there any other countries required to do this? This is ridiculous.
Actually, Canada has an incredibly easy entry to the BB and VC compared to most countries. We are not required to compete against the USA, simply to win a head-to-head against one other country, Mexico. In fact, in the last 20-odd years, this is the only the second time a Canadian team has not been successful in reaching the WC finals. Compare this to Europe, where 40-odd countries play off for 6 places. Indeed, there are those who argue that Canadian bridge would be better off if we had to work harder to get to the WC finals, and I’m not saying they’re wrong. We certainly have no claim to an automatic spot, especially considering how badly our Open teams have fared over the last little while.
When I compare our situation with the Americans it does seem harder to get a Bermuda Spot here. There were 24 teams entered in the CNTC and 27 teams entered in the USBF Open teams. If you were in the USBF you had two chances to win. If you were in the CNTC you had one chance to win and then you had to defeat Mexico. So based on pure math you would be better off if you were trying for an American team.
However, I believe that the very best teams in the USBF Open teams are better than any of the teams in the CNTC. You could also argue that it is not unreasonable to expect that the winning Canadian team should be able to defeat the Mexican team if they are strong enough to do well in the Bermuda Bowl. Or to put it another way suppose that Canada/Mexico had a choice. Join the US trials and pick three teams out of the pool from North America or continue in the current system. Which one do you think would give Canada the best chance?
The Women’s teams might be a different story I don’t know but then again Canadian women have never lost to Mexico.
As someone who has had multiple failures and occasional successes in both the USA and Canadian Team Trials, I can assure you that it is MUCH harder for a talented team to qualify to play for the Bermuda Bowl for the USA.
Really sad that this year’s CNTC champs lost. I thought that team had a real chance to get somewhere in this year’s Bermuda Bowl.
Fred Gitelman