From: sater@cs.vu.nl (Hans van Staveren)
Newsgroups: rec.games.bridge
Subject: report 17 from the EBL juniors
Date: 25 Jul 92 17:27:27 GMT

This report follows the previous one rather closely because the network
connections were gone. I still haven't been able to find anyone here to
give me a key for tomorrow, nor has any Frenchmen given me his phone
number, so with a bid of bad luck tomorrow you will hear just silence.

The results of round 20:
Ireland - Norway		 8 - 22
France - Denmark		20 - 10
Italy - Iceland			17 - 13 (preliminary guess)
Belgium - Turkey		22 -  8
Great Britain - Poland		18 - 12
Austria - Portugal		10 - 20
Romania - Lithuania		 8 - 22
Hungary - C.I.S.		 8 - 22
Netherlands - Germany		 7 - 23
Israel - Sweden			11 - 19
Greece - bye			18 -  0
Estonia - Finland		 0 - 25

There has been an appeal in the Italy - Iceland match, and I guessed the
end result of the match through news from the grapevine. I won't be far
off though. My countrymen couldn't make a fist against the Germans,
allowing them to climb to the top once more. Poland effectively is out,
and Austria even disappears from the top 5.

The top 5:
1. Germany	 369
2. Italy	 366
3. Norway	 363
4. Poland	 350
5. Great Britain 338

Tonight the match Poland - Norway will be played on Vugraph. That is
going to be a thriller. The other matches of Norway are Iceland and
Belgium, so apart from Poland they have only light resistance.

Italy plays Belgium, Great Britain and Lithuania, which is also rather
light, and Germany plays Israel, Greece and Sweden. So on paper it would
look like Italy is still favorite. But it is getting extremely close.

Apart from the title, the interesting thing is finishing in the top 3,
where you can earn a ticket to the World Championships, and here Poland
still has a chance. They will have to beat Norway though tonight.

Last round was extremely busy for the directors. There have been many
rulings and I will just give one from my room:

It was in the match Romania - Lithuania, closed room, so Lithuania NS:

brd 15	J 5 2
S/NS	Q 9 3
	K J 10 5
	Q J 10			W	N	E	S
10		9 8 7 6 4				1C
10 8 5 4 2	A K J 7 6	1D	2NT	3H	p
8 4		Q 9		4H	p	p	5H
K 8 7 5 3	9		p	6C	all pass
	A K Q 3
	-
	A 7 6 3 2
	A 6 4 2

The contract went four down. If the bidding makes little sense to you
you are right. It didn't. Some explanations are in order though:

1C = Polish, ie 12-14 notrump, 11-15 natural, 18+ suit, and some big
     notrump hand
1D = ? Well, West thought that they would defend against the Polish club
     like against a strong club, so he alerted and explained C+H or D+S
     East thought, and correctly so probably, that it was natural.

After this the bidding is still strange. Why did South pass 3H? That is
exactly the thing to do to convince your partner you have a balanced 12.
And then 5H, is partner really supposed to figure this out? You know
they have the hearts and the clubs, so if you want to bid slam the only
available is 6D.

Anyhow, after the smoke was cleared I was called to give some sense back
to the bidding. I let the result stand. NS were of course misinformed,
but the actions NS took, especially South were so strange that I was not
going to reward them for that by giving them 6D.

Well, I am off to find someone in this building that can secure me my
entrance to the room I am sitting in tomorrow, or any other room with a
network connection. Or is there perhaps a bridge player in the Paris
area with a laptop and a modem, or perhaps just a modem who could come
here tomorrow for the final results? Just ask for me at the hospitality
desk. Free drinks arranged.

	Hans van Staveren