Spring Fours 2008

[paulg]

How many clients hire teams for this event? I see a couple in the top seeds but I don't know much about english bridge so just curious.

I think that there are about 12, but Frances/gnasher/mike probably have a more definitive count.

 

p

[MickyB]

How many clients hire teams for this event? I see a couple in the top seeds but I don't know much about english bridge so just curious.

I think that there are about 12, but Frances/gnasher/mike probably have a more definitive count.

 

p

That looks about right, of which about 7 or 8 are in the top 9 seeds. The majority have hired teams, I think, but a couple have just hired partners, and one team looks to have two clients on it.

[Finch]

How many clients hire teams for this event? I see a couple in the top seeds but I don't know much about english bridge so just curious.

My count is 7 of the top 9 seeds, one other team and two teams with one professional player but it's quite possible I've missed some.

[gnasher]

Outside the top 9, there are at least 6 teams where someone is playing professionally.

 

The prevalence of clients, especially amongst the top seeds, is a fairly new phenomenon. 15 years ago a pro team there would have been no more than two or three clients in the entire event.

[Guest Jlall]

Outside the top 9, there are at least 6 teams where someone is playing professionally.

 

The prevalence of clients, especially amongst the top seeds, is a fairly new phenomenon. 15 years ago a pro team there would have been no more than two or three clients in the entire event.

Do you think this is a good trend or a bad trend or indifferent?

[helene_t]

Must be a good thing. Gives more good players the opportunity to play full-time or at least semi-prof.

[Finch]

Outside the top 9, there are at least 6 teams where someone is playing professionally.

 

The prevalence of clients, especially amongst the top seeds, is a fairly new phenomenon.  15 years ago a pro team there would have been no more than two or three clients in the entire event.

Do you think this is a good trend or a bad trend or indifferent?

The S4s have more pro/client teams than most other events. If you are importing good foreign players to play with you, it obviously makes more sense to do it for a concentrated 4/5-day event as you get more boards per plane fare. So the long KO events such as Crockfords tend to have fewer professional teams (at most 3 teams in this year's 8-team final have a client on them, and it might be only 2).

 

Personally for this event I think it's a good thing because it gives me the chance to play against people such as Grotheim, Tundal, Brogeland (to pick a country at random(!)) that wouldn't otherwise be playing in England. That's fun. It probably makes us less likely to win, but then when we do win, we'll have beaten better players.

 

The only downside is when the sponsor is a very weak player (and I won't start naming names here) you do end up playing a very different game - the team can be doing well, you get to play them after a few matches and find that one of your opponents would usually be getting about 50% at a club duplicate. I'm getting more practice playing against pro/client pairs and tactics are certainly different.

 

For selecting the best English team to play in international championships I am less convinced, but that is a whole different debate (and I can see pros and cons).

[gnasher]

I regard it as a necessary evil.

 

I want bridge professionals to be able to make a decent living. If they can't, some of them will choose to do a proper job instead, have less time to spend on becoming better bridge players, and be less good opponents when I play against them. I'd prefer it if we had sponsors who were willing to subsidise our top players without playing themselves, but as there seem to be few such altruists about I can't think of any better alternative to the current situation.

 

There used to be a bit of a stigma attached to professionalism in English bridge, which probably explains its slower takeoff in this country than in the USA.

[david_c]

The semi-finals and final are on vugraph tomorrow, and I see Frances' team are in the final four. :P

[Guest Jlall]

The semi-finals and final are on vugraph tomorrow, and I see Frances' team are in the final four. :P

Frances=money imo.

[gnasher]

For the semi-finals the one undefeated team chooses its opponents from the three once-defeated teams. They chose Frances's team of strong amateurs rather than either of the pro-client teams. I think I'd have chosen Gillis.

[Guest Jlall]

For the semi-finals the one undefeated team chooses its opponents from the three once-defeated teams. They chose Frances's team of strong amateurs rather than either of the pro-client teams. I think I'd have chosen Gillis.

If they read the forums they woulda picked some other team :P GO FRANCES!!!!!

[Finch]

Thanks for the thoughts, but sadly we were insufficient by 2 imps.

(Although as the undefeated team they had the right to an extra 8 boards had we been up after 32.)

 

edit: hands will follow later when I am less tired

[Finch]

p.s. Mickyb's team won the consolation event, the Punchbowl.

[Guest Jlall]

Thanks for the thoughts, but sadly we were insufficient by 2 imps.

(Although as the undefeated team they had the right to an extra 8 boards had we been up after 32.)

 

edit: hands will follow later when I am less tired

omg that's so brutal, sorry, good run though!

 

And congrats mickyb!

[mike777]

p.s. Mickyb's team won the consolation event, the Punchbowl.

Exciting and well done to both of you. Congrats!

[Walddk]

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=sa1075hkq109d3ca1076&s=s642haj87dakq105ck]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

This hand came up in the final, last set. The bidding went:

 

1♦ - 1♥

3♥ - 4♥

P

 

I have got three questions for you:

 

- 1. Who underbid, North, South or both?

- 2. Would you prefer to be in 6♥ or 7♥?

- 3. Why did this have a happy ending for NS? *)

 

*) Those of you who were watching don't have to answer question 3.

 

Roland

[Finch]

[hv=d=s&v=n&n=sa1075hkq109d3ca1076&s=s642haj87dakq105ck]133|200|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

This hand came up in the final, last set. The bidding went:

 

1♦ - 1♥

3♥ - 4♥

P

 

I have got three questions for you:

 

- 1. Who underbid, North, South or both?

- 2. Would you prefer to be in 6♥ or 7♥?

- 3. Why did this have a happy ending for NS? *)

 

*) Those of you who were watching don't have to answer question 3.

 

Roland

1. North

2. Not sure

3. I know the answer to this one

 

North's 4H call is absurd in my opinion. But bear in mind he had already played

-32 boards Friday evening

- 64 on Saturday

- 64 on Sunday

- 32 on Monday (getting the evening off)

- 56 so far that day

 

and for various reasons (technical and Robson-related) the semi-final had taken a ludicrously long time to play and they were running very late

[Guest Jlall]

1) 3H is routine, 4H is terrible.

 

2) Trick question? 6 and it's not close.

 

3) I guess they bid 7H and went down at the other table?

[Walddk]

1) 3H is routine, 4H is terrible.

 

2) Trick question? 6 and it's not close.

 

3) I guess they bid 7H and went down at the other table?

Justin, do you know if the two women on your picture are both spoken for? :)

 

Roland

[hrothgar]

Congratulations Micky and Frances...

 

Even if this is just a virtual community, its nice to see the home teams do so well.

[Finch]

Yep, apart from Byrne is not actually there till sunday evening, not sure why he's on my team. As usual the EBU have managed a bunch of random seedings, my favourite being the recent winners of the open trials who are now 2/3rds of the team for the european championships in 6th?

It transpired that the English (and Welsh) teams were seeded on Gold points (English 'do well in high standard event' masterpoints), all the selection committee did was decide what to do with the foreign players.

 

That did admittedly lead to a fairly random set of seedings, but that's a function of the method. Any other method is probably just as bad as it's so subjective.

[catch22]

Dealer: South Vul: None Scoring: IMP

♠ A1075 ♥ KQ109 ♦ 3 ♣ A1076 ♠ 642 ♥ AJ87 ♦ AKQ105 ♣ K

This hand came up in the final, last set. The bidding went:

 

1♦ - 1♥

3♥ - 4♥

P

 

I have got three questions for you:

 

- 1. Who underbid, North, South or both?

- 2. Would you prefer to be in 6♥ or 7♥?

- 3. Why did this have a happy ending for NS? *)

 

*) Those of you who were watching don't have to answer question 3.

 

Roland

1. Not sure you can say - You don't know what their agreement was for 3H. May not be what it appears to be!

2. 6H - Did this board come after 4CX going for 1100?

3. LOL - Alls well that ends well

[paulg]

Yep, apart from Byrne is not actually there till sunday evening, not sure why he's on my team. As usual the EBU have managed a bunch of random seedings, my favourite being the recent winners of the open trials who are now 2/3rds of the team for the european championships in 6th?

It transpired that the English (and Welsh) teams were seeded on Gold points (English 'do well in high standard event' masterpoints), all the selection committee did was decide what to do with the foreign players.

 

That did admittedly lead to a fairly random set of seedings, but that's a function of the method. Any other method is probably just as bad as it's so subjective.

Given the results, perhaps they should just attempt to seed the top 16 and leave the rest random. Only four teams were outclassed in the opening two rounds and the team that conceded contained the winners of the GM Pairs.

 

Paul

[Rossoneri]

Maybe I'll have a shot at playing next year if I can get a team...helps that it's near enough to Warwick which is where I'll be...