A New Look to the Canadian Venice Cup Team – HELP

A few days ago I was busy getting ready to go to Shanghai as NPC of the Canadian Women’s Team.  I had a long checklist of things to do.  I had finished all the defenses for all the teams but I wanted to go through them one more time for typos or other errors.  Then I had to photocopy lots of copies so the team would have the convention cards and defenses before every match.  I was discussing the lineup for Day 1 with everyone.  And had just found out the great news that Unit 166 was helping out with some money.  Things were busy but I was excited about going.

Then disaster!  Poor Rhoda had an emergency and couldn’t go.  We talked it over and I know she made the right decision but boy will we miss her.  Panic.  Where could we find a replacement on Monday afternoon who could leave for China no later than Thursday, packed and with a VISA in hand.  We tried a few people but it wasn’t looking good.  The CBF and the WBF were wonderful.  Yes, we could bring new convention cards, yes we could replace Rhoda with any sensible choice.

We talked about playing 5 but everyone thought they couldn’t handle playing that much.  The only choice seemed to be that I would play.  Will at least I have played in this event before but who would I play with?  How would we configure the teams.  It seemed so unfair to all the players who had practiced so hard.  In the end Sylvia and Isabelle played together.  They had played together during the Canadian Team Trials with great success.  Pamela and I had about 4 hours to form a partnership and then Pamela was off.  She tried to change her ticket so she would be on the same flight as me but it proved impossible.  We tried to keep it simple but even with that it was not possible to discuss much and to write the card. 

Those of you who have written a WBF card no that this is no easy process.  Anyway poor Pamela is mostly going to have to live with what I submitted.  We may have a few hours to change it before the captain’s meeting on Saturday.  So perhaps we are making history:

– the only pair playing in the event who has NEVER played together before, not one hand
– Pamela the only player in the event who doesn’t even see her convention card and system until a few hours before.

Oh, you may have been wondering what Ray thinks of all this.  Well, he has been made NPC to replace me.  I spent part of the last few precious hours turning everything over to him.  The good part is now I can stop worrying about captain stuff.  I know that this was not how Ray planned to spend his time in Shanghai and he still has some business to take care.  I think he is going to find this quite interesting.  I hope he enjoys his role.

When I try to visualize myself playing, I just can’t do it.  I can’t get my head around this whole thing.  Oh well, as soon as I pick up my first hand that will go away.

Pamela has been such a good sport about this whole thing.  I know that she was really looking forward to playing with Isabelle.  They have been working so hard.  Pamela tells me that she has a huge rooting section in Coburg and they have raised a lot of money for her and sent her so many good wishes.  While I know this can’t be the experience she wanted, I say right now, I will never say one bad thing to Pamela, I will never complain.  Whatever she does will be remarkable and I thank her for it.