Sorry Michael and more

The World Championships are coming to an end with some pairs events still to finish. The pairs events are of less interest to me although apparently there may be some on Vugraph.

Bridge at the Commonwealth Games will be shown online. All of us, even those not eligible to play being non-Commonwealth, should encourage and cheer for this event. It is the only major sporting event I know that include bridge as part of the competition. I will no doubt write about it and I have hopes for the Canadian team. For more information: Commonwealth Games Bridge.

Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships

The Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships (CNBC) involves the game of cards known as Bridge. This championship event is held in conjunction with the Commonwealth Games where athletes from the different Commonwealth countries participate. The first Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships were held in the year 2002 in Manchester, England.

Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships 2002

In 2002, the first Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championships were held where many Commonwealth nations participated.

In 2006, the participating nations were: Bermuda

, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Australia, Canada, Guyana, England, Guernsey, India, Jamaica, Isle of Man, Jersey, Malta, Malaysia, Kenya, Mauritius, Pakistan, Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Wales, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, Scotland, and Saint Lucia.

The Canada and Wales teams were the finalists. In the final, the players of Canada (Keith Balcombe, Judith Gartaganis, Gordon Campbell, and Nicholas Gartaganis) defeated the players of Wales (Dafydd Jones, Adam Dunn, Gary Jones, Peter Goodman, Jim Luck, Tim Rees, and Filip Kurbalija) and won the gold medal. India was in the third place and won the bronze medal.

This World Championships has been a very good tournament for North America with the US being the dominant team in the Open teams. It is interesting that in the ladies this was not really the case despite the fact that many strong European players were on sponsored US teams. I am not sure if this means any thing important.

In the instructions on the World Championship contest I tried to make it clear that players would be counted from the country that they declared (as the WBF reported) rather than the land of their birth. This was confusing to a few people and I think in the end that this year’s contest did not work out very well. The biggest problem was the domination of players with an American flag playing in the open. In particular I confused Michael Yuen who reasonably (and perhaps wistfully) still sees Fred and Geoff as Canadian. While I am sure both of them have not forgotten the maple leaf like many greats in all areas of life who have immigrated to the land of opportunity they are now Americans.

A lot of the time I see Canada and the United States as almost one country. Our ties are so great. Our lives are so interwoven. Our cultures are related. Our families cross borders. We are the big country with the cold winds and a lovely addition of French flavor at the top of the continent. Our American brothers are much more numerous friends with a huge mix of terrain from snowy Buffalo to warm Miami who excel in most things and seem to get the technology first (I had to go South to get my ipad early). Yes I am proud to be a Canadian but I am also proud to be North American with a lot of family on both sides of the border (like most Canadians). And I know that in times of trouble we can both count on each other.

So if we some times have trouble decided whether some of our native sons are still Canadian it is understandable.