THE BUFFETT IS BACK
The bridge event styled along the lines of golf’s Ryder Cup returned in October, play taking place in the Chinese city of Qingdao. A new format saw teams representing Europe, the USA and China contest a series of matches, all featuring Board a Match scoring. Each team comprised four pairs, Open, Women, Mixed and Juniors (under 31).
The first three days of the tournament saw regular partnerships playing in head-to-head matches using board-a-match scoring. The final two days corresponded to the singles in the Ryder Cup – involving an individual event with each team having its own system common to every partnership.
The final scores were Europe 245, USA 213, China 190.
Europe
Christian Bakke, Boye Brogeland, Fiona Brown, Giovanni Donati, Michał Klukowski, Danuta Kazmucha, Giacomo Percario, Justyna Żmuda,
Captain: Eric Laurant (EBL President),
Coach: David Burn.
United States
Kevin Bathurst, John Hurd, Adam Kaplan, Finn Kolesnik, Jill Meyers, Sharon Sanborn, Janice Seamon Molson, Michael Passell, Captain: Alex Kolesnik, Coach: Jianjian Wang.
China
Huang Yao, Jie Li, Ran Jingrong, Shao Zijian, Sun Ming, Sun Shiyu, Wang Renfei, Zhang Yongge, Captain: Guo Yujun, Coach: Hou Xu.
While attending the event, WBF President Franck Riehm visited two local schools where bridge is part of the educational programme. At the second school in Hefei, he was joined by WBF Vice President and EBL President Eric Laurant and they met representatives of the Hefei Municipal Government to discuss the promotion of bridge education and future cooperation initiatives.
