Sanremo and Tourney to Monday Night

The opening ceremony is underwhelmingly attended mainly due to the fact that it wasn’t well advertised and the invitations were contained in bags not handed out till the next morning. However one speech and some nice food and drink and chats with those who were there that I did know. Back to the hotel for a review of my system notes and some sleep.

I arrive at the venue and I am not sure who is more nervous me or my partner – no it’s settled, my partner. We discuss some last minute things none of which will arise I am sure and off to play. Our results for the five sessions are 17/13, 20/10, 10/20, 23/7 and 25/2. The group finishes

Romania 102
Callaghan (with me) 95
Croatia 79
Payen 62
Indemini 60
Herbst 49

I wont include any hands in this blog as anything of interest will appear in the Bulletin (link below). During lunch and immediately after the session I slave away to complete a three page article. I declare it finished and am politely told that that the copy closed two hours ago. I am feeling like the newbie being hazed by the experienced journos here but they assure me that hands from the previous day are OK to be used the following day.

To continue the food theme I have found the largest and most tasty apricots I have ever eaten and this becomes a wonderful lunch and snack while the coffee bar in the Pala Fiori (former flower market) where the bridge is being played.

The playing conditions are wonderful – airy, roomy and apart from the occasional dark spot it is also well lit. Interestingly the number of Americans playing in the Mixed Teams is low but will increase when the Open/Women’s/Seniors teams starts.

The combination of Mediterranean city, proximity to the sea and bridge is quite alluring. The only minor problem for me is pizza/pasta but I may make an effort to find somewhere else.

All of my friends have gone to dinner and slightly disappointingly, although they all said we will dine together, none of them told me where they were eating. So a slightly solitary McDonalds croquettes spinacia and parmesan Regianna (bloody good) followed by a gelato and back towards my hotel.

I run into Peter Gill and given my need for company we spend 30 minutes sitting on the street bench shooting the breeze about bridge and other world issues and then I head back to the hotel.

Next morning and I wake early and decide for some reason which has since become clear I decide to go for a walk. I manage to find the self-serve laundry but my joy turns to despair as I see that a load of washing costs $A12 while 25 minutes of drying will cost $A16. I mentally do the maths and washing my underwear and socks and sending the rest to the hotel service sounds much cheaper but the problem there is that the boil and then fry the clothes and my only just fitting shorts become too small. Given that I have been given two shirts as a uniform the problem is certainly nor an immediate one.

I am sitting here as the bells in the adjacent church ring as they seem to do regularly and one wit says “ah Quasimodo again”. So 27 of the 45 teams in our A Swiss will qualify for the round of 32. We have a very small carry forward to recognise that we finished second and start well winning our first match 22-8 which sees us running 2nd. I should however point out that during this day I only played match four as my guilt in not doing enough works sets in.

The dream run continues as wwe win 20-10 and move to fourth place. We are now on BBO and again win 16-14 slipping to 6th place. The team feels I should play and now the rot sets in. We lose 10-20 but are still 10th 11 ahead of the cut off score. I sit in the Bulletin Office watching the final match as we sink to 15th, 18th and finally settle 21st qualifying to the round of 32 the next day. The good news is that Michael and Vivien Cornell also qualified.

After the captain's meeting we head for the Marina restaurant for a wondeful combination of some of the freshest sushi and sashimi entrees and Mediterranean mains. Bed again arrives late about midnight with an early wake up this morning. We play the first 14 of a 28 board match against a team we had played in our pool and are leading by 10. Now however our team is four so I have to play every session. We add another 18 imps to make the round of 16 as does Michael/Vivien's team.

However the field finally caught up with us as we lost sizeably to the de Botton Team. Interestingly Janet de Botton is wealthier than the Queen of England and has a wing of the Tate Gallery in her name reflecting her sizeable art portfolio.

So I am sitting here writing some articles and must go for now.

David