You may be wondering why I’ve started with a picture of seven playing cards. Well, read on to find out what happened at one table in round 8 of the Swiss Pairs.
The Swiss Pairs is played over two days, with five eight-board matches on each day. At the end of day 1, the ranking list looked like this:
- John Holland & Raymond Semp 79
- Ed Scerri & Gilly Cardiff 72
- Peter Randall & Liza Furnival 70
- Ollie Burgess & Judi Lawson 68
As Tuesday unfolded, fortunes fluctuated, but the same pairs remained there or thereabouts, with Gill Woodcock and Gill Copeland and Stuart Davies and Nichola Cockerill-Smith making brief inroads into the top four positions.
However, as we entered the final match, the scores were:
- John Holland & Raymond Semp 127
- Ed Scerri & Gilly Cardiff 120
- Peter Randall & Liza Furnival 119
- Ollie Burgess & Judi Lawson 117
The same ranking and virtually the same differences. If John and Raymond could win 14-6, they would be undisputed winners, but they only managed 13-7, while second-placed Gilly Cardiff and Ed Scerri beat Allan and Clare Whiteford 20-0 to share the top spot. As there is no trophy, they are declared joint winners. Peter and Liza remined in third place with 129 VPs, while Stuart and Nichola beat Ollie and Judi 20-0 to take fourth place with 124 VPs. And, by winning their last two matches with 39 Vps out of 40, Chris and Jane Whelan were fifth.
The weather on Tuesday wasn’t pleasant, with intermittent rain showers, so the hotel’s entertainment was brought inside to the bar. We therefore heard the strains of music, louder when the door to the Aspendos room was opened, but fortunately only as the event was coming to a close.
And the seven playing cards – as South removed her cards from the board and counted them, she was surprised to find she had 20 cards, while everyone else at the table had the normal 13. More surprisingly, seven of the twenty cards were red, while all the rest were blue. On checking, the hand was correct, except for these seven extraneous cards. Where did they come from? No-one knows. So if you are missing S Q J 2 H 9 2 C 9 7, this is where they are, in the Aspendos Room of the Sense de Luxe Hotel in Side.
By Chris Benneworth (TD)