The England team has won the Chairman's Cup - the primary open teams event run by the Swedish Bridge Federation. The team of David Kendrick & Paul Lamford and Michael Byrne & Mike Bell won the final emphatically, their opponents conceding with a quarter of the match still to play.
They had earlier finished 4th in the qualifying Swiss Teams, and then won four rounds in the knock-out competition to reach the final.
Michael Byrne's report:
"Team England has won the Chairman's Cup - the biggest and most prestigious tournament held in Sweden. Run annually by the Swedish bridge federation over 6 days, it saw 162 teams take part, including ones from Thailand, Indonesia, Denmark, Norway, the USA and Ireland.
England was represented by Michael Byrne(cap)/Michael Bell and David Kendrick/Paul Lamford who were picked to represent England by the selection committee.
The format of the event is a qualifying Swiss teams, in which they finished 4th (winning all but two of their matches, with no heavy losses) and then became straight knock out, with 32 board matches being played in the round of 32 and 16, and 64 board matches being played from the quarter finals onwards.
In round 32 they won by 76 imps, in Round 32 by 41 imps. In the quarter final they played Tommy Gullberg's team who had won the event last year, including 3 players that won a bronze medal in the 1991 Bermuda Bowl, and more recently Silver medals in the Seniors European Championships held in Croatia. The match was tight throughout and the opponents led from boards 1-62, team England finally coming good with two boards to go by bidding a solid 6S and taking a small penalty, resulting in a 15 imp win.
In the Semi final they won by 44, having taken a big lead early on and increased it in the final set.
The final was a total demolition, whitewashing their opponents 41-0 in the first set, before adding to it in set 2. In set 3 their opponents became desperate and this enabled England to pull away completely. Their opponents conceded with one set to play 83 imps down."
Paul Lamford's report is here
July 28, 2014