Diamond and Bathurst Lead Semi’s

At the mid-way point Diamond (Diamond-Platnick, Gitelman-Moss, Greco-Hampson) the number 1 seed lead Welland (Welland-Bramley, Chambers-Schermer) by 59 imps while Bathurst the original 10th seed leads Bathurst (Bathurst-Zagorin, Grue-J. Lall, Hurd-Wooldridge) leads Wolfson (Wolfson-Cohen, Ekeblad-Rubin, Garner-Weinstein byt 51 imps).  If these results hold up we will see a battle between the young and the younger.  I was reading an interesting blog in Bridge Topics this morning about a deal from their quarter final match against Nickell – a Dutch Squeeze.  (a psuedo-squeeze.)

Peggy Kaplan descibes the new generation of players that shone in Louisville in this article from the ACBL news archive.  Here is what she said about Joel Wooldridge.

At the Louisville NABC, however, a new generation burst upon the scene. In both pair and team events, players in their twenties and thirties knocked out the elite. Competitors not long out of junior competition captured titles.

At the head of the pack was Joel Wooldridge. Joel began his incredible showing by capturing the toughest-ever-pair event, the Platinum Pairs (playing with John Hurd). He followed that up with another title, the Silodor Open Pairs. In addition to his two wins, Joel finished 2nd in the Flight A NAP, and fourth in the Jacoby Swiss. All in all, Joel ended with an amazing 454+ platinum points and a firm grasp of the Mott-Smith Trophy, the award bestowed upon the player with the highest total at the Spring NABC.

This New York Times Article has a deal played by Joe Grue (with Shane Blanchard) with Kevin Bathurst and Joel Wooldridge second) in the N.A. Open Pairs in Louisville.

There is more about the players on this wonderful up and coming team.

Of course the number 1 seed Diamond is a favorite with all of us.  We have watched this team mature and become a top North American team.    As Peggy Kaplan says in her article – who says bridge is dying.  Its wonderful to have new generations of bridge players to challenge for the top spots.

But don’t count Wolfson and Welland out.  These teams are composed of strong experienced players who could win any event.