Some Other Interesting Websites and handicapping the Senior Bowl
I thought I would get started picking my entries for the CONTEST. I go to the list of participants on the WBF website. Here are the entries for the Senior Bowl.
- Belgium
- England
- Italy
- Poland
- Sweden
- Turkey
- Canada
- USA I
- USA 2
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Venezuela
- India
- Pakistan
- Barbados
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Egypt
- South Africa
I need to pick eight from this crew. The WBF conveniently has a link so I can see the participants. For example England is represented by
Clicking on Paul Hackett I can get a picture and his history although when I actually try to look at his playing record in team events I can’t seem to get it to work. Still the picture is nice.
They maintain two master point systems, really. I is designed to emphasize the current master points and one to show the cumulative master points. All of these are generally won at the world level but they can be in open events like the Transnational Teams. Still they seem to have more meaning then other type of points.
The WBF website has an archive from past championships including the Bulletins. There are many more items of interest although they will not help me to pick me entry. I don’t know why but I always find the sections on systems and appeals well appealing. Psychic bidding remains a challenge. In the WBF you may have explicit agreements about psychics but they are classified as Brown Sticker – the toughest classification and can only be played in very limited events and you lose all seating rights. I don’t really believe that most players who pysche fairly often really do it “randomly”. But I digress. Medals are awarded to individuals who have made a significant contribution to bridge. The gold medla has gone to a varied group, largely Europeans. I see that Prince Albert of Monaco won the Gold Medal in 2003. I really didn’t know that Prince Albert even played bridge (does he, I don’t think so?) so I do a web search and find that he donated a Cup which is won by the champion of the European University Bridge Championship started in 2003. You can find information about this championship on University Sports Federation website. It is neatly listed under world championships between Boxing and Chess.
The WBF has a pretty good collection of links listed by country. There is Master Point Press on the Commercial page with a pretty Canadian flag beside it 
. There is a place to search for books but when I try it I can’t seem to find any books at all. Overall this site is better organized than when I looked last year and has lots of good stuff.
This is all fun but I am not really making progress on selecting my winners. The next step is Eurobridge. Let see who did well in Europe in competitions. How did the English Seniors do? The European championships took place in Sanremo Italy from June 12-27. Alas I could not go. Since this is an open year the teams are not national teams. Still here are the winners
Gold:
team Miroglio: Giulio Bongiovanni, Andrea Buratti,
Amedeo Comella, Apolinary Kowalski, Jacek Romanski
(Italy & Poland)
Silver:
team Bulgaria Seniors: Hristo Chavdarov, Stoio Daraktchiev,
Guerggui Gramatikov, Miroliub Markov, Dontcho
Petkanov, Tsolo Tsolov (Bulgaria)
I can’t find the results here from previous years and in general I find this site still needs work. There may be lots here but I just can’t seem to get to anything. I am able to get to the 2008 championship website using google. There is a cool cross table of results.Seniors Cross Table. I see that in the round robin England finished seventh with Turkey first, Sweden second (what is it about 60 year old Swedes?) Belgium third and Poland fourth. Unfortunately the team is also quite different so it is hard to use this result to handicap them with Ross Harper, David Price and Colin Simpson being the only careovers.
Anyway here are my top eight for the Senior teams. I will need more research to pick four, two and one.
- Belgium
- Sweden
- Turkey
- Canada
- USA I
- USA 2
- Indonesia
- Australia
I admit that some may think that Canada is a sentimental choice but it is a very strong team and they should finish well.
Reviewed: WBF, University Sports Federation, Eurobridge
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http://www.eurobridge.org/competitions/European_championships/TeamChampionships.asp?qmenuid=4
Just click the venue you want to see results of that years championships.
My picks: England, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, USA I, USA II, Indonesia, Japan
I’m with Linda — I think this Senior Canadian team will do very well (did everyone forget the Canadians won the RR in the Senior event in Shanghai?). My Senior picks for the last 8:
Australia
Canada
England
Indonesia
Poland
USA1
USA2
Brazil
I’ll go with Canada, England, Poland and USA1 as the semifinalists. The final (Canada vs USA1) is too close to call, but sentiment wins out, and I’ll go for Canada.
I can’t help but notice that you picked a lot of different teams then I did. You may be right but I warn you I did a lot of research (well maybe not).
It would be cool if the final was Canada versus USA 1 but even though I think the Canadian team is fairly good I think USA 1 would be a clear winner in that match.