This year the U21 and U26 Bridge Home Internationals are in Scotland, meaning we have the honour of providing two teams for each event. I am the non-playing captain for both the U21 teams, called Scotland and SBU, of which many are from The High School of Glasgow, and many are considerably under twenty-one.
Event Website including Player Photos, System Cards and a link to Kibitz (which is usually just the U26 event).
Before the match I had to drive to Prestwick train station to pick up a couple of players. The airport seemed completely deserted, but I finally found them waiting the other side of a glass partition. I couldn't work out how to get there and in the end had to run down an up-escalator to get there - it was a bit like the Travelator in Gladiators but in reverse.
I ended up picking up three extra Scottish players and one English guy joined two, cramming seven of us in the Zafira. Not sure they realised that's they were in for. Because of this I ended up being late for the team meeting I'd called, and there was precious little time for me to inspire the team. Luckily Niamh and Rachel said they'd already been inspired by a member of the public.
The first match has now kicked off, Scotland against SBU, so my two teams playing each other. A guaranteed win (and a guaranteed loss). I pulled up a chair to watch the live action. My West player had sorted his cards into five suits, so I thought I'd stick around and see what he ended up doing. His partner then underled an Ace and I decided it would be more relaxing to go next door and not watch any more.
I will feature the first board of the match (and on Sunday, the very last). It's a good one, a nice slam hand. I can see what happened to the U26 team on RealBridge. The Scotland U26 team bid successfully to 6C, gaining against the U26 SBU team who settled in 3NT+2.
Not a convincing auction from Antone and Kevin but a good result! The Irish North-South bid a less good 6S and the Welsh 4S+2.
I saw our North (Artem) open 2C, will find out later how it ended!
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