As an opportunity to take a break from the bridge, a tour was arranged for Wednesday morning. Starting at 8:00 (which seemed at the time an unnecessarily early start, we visited the largest mosque in Manavgat, followed by a short visit to the rapids of Manavgat River, ending with a guided walk around the Roman antiquities of Side. With rain threatened throughout the day, we were anxious when, as we arrived at the mosque, the heavens opened and torrential rain rapidly flooded the street. Fortunately, our guide Reçat kept us on the coach until the worst of the rain was over and took the opportunity to tell us background about the mosque and Islam. Once the rain had subsided, we went in and saw the beautifully decorated building, where we also took a group photo.
We managed to miss the worst of the rain for the rest of the day, although rapid changes from drizzly to sunny and hot led to equally rapid changes of outerwear. The Manavgat falls were the next stop, where there was also the chance to try traditional Turkish ice-cream. The highlight of the day was the guided walk through the old Roman settlement of Side, with many impressive ruins, making it easy to imagine oneself back in the fifth century – Reçat was really good at bringing the ruins back to life. At the end of the walk we arrived in Side town, with its collection of tourist shops. We walked to the harbour and watched the waves crashing over the harbour walls then walked further to the Apollon Temple. It was as we walked back to the coach that we realised the reason for the early start, for throngs of visitors were entering Side as we left.
Returning to the hotel, a relaxing afternoon was followed by Pivot Teams in the evening, won by Joy and Irving Blakey, John Holland and Raymond Semp. Full details are on the results page at EBU Results | Turkey Congress.
Allan Whiteford writes about this hand from round 10 of the Swiss Pairs:
The Cheapest Trick
I will start by giving the excuse that we were all tired …
(This is Hand 3 from the final session of the Swiss Pairs with hands rotated for ease of reading).
After a robustly competitive auction in which East opened one Diamond and then bid Spades twice, declarer found themself pushed into a very unpromising slam in Hearts. This was the situation on a Spade lead.
| North | South |
| S A43 | S 9 |
| H J97 | H AKT832 |
| D J863 | D Q |
| C JT3 | C AQ874 |
With a certain Diamond loser, it looked unlikely on the bidding that either trumps or Clubs would break favourably. With nothing better to do, declarer won the opening lead and cashed two rounds of trumps, pleasantly surprised to find them splitting evenly. East was probably void in Clubs, but there was a small chance that the contract could be brought home if they had a singleton King. The only chance was surely to cash the Ace and hope for the best. However, for reasons best known to himself (okay, I admit it, it was me!),declarer crossed to dummy and played the Jack of Clubs, covered by the King and Ace. West, presumably on autopilot, holding 9652, decided to give standard count, beginning with the 6. This left the Club suit as:
North T3 East void South Q 8 7 4 West 9 5 2
Declarer now played the 4 of Clubs towards dummy, and West, still firmly on autopilot, completed the hi-lo with the 2. After a bit of thought declarer played the 3 from dummy, winning the 2nd round of the suit with the 4, and scoring up the slam!
The subsequent post mortem concluded that not everyone had played optimally.