Speedball – don't drink and post

Brighton 2011 – Day 8 Midnight

A further post from Day 7 (evening), describing conflicts between being a scorer/TD in the playing area and acting as TD in-charge, has been held over until the dust has settled. Instead I am posting at 2am from a (deserted) hotel bar — ignoring advice to not drink and post/text/email.

I had the afternoon off and after sorting out some paperwork, I just had a nap and listened to the cricket. Then there were three matches of the Swiss Teams and not much of significance in terms of rulings. In the Blue/Yellow section we had problems with names in the SwissTeamsScorer — and we weren't even using bridgemates.

My last job of the day was to run the midnight speed-ball. We only had eight tables and played 24 boards in less than an hour and a quarter. Everything was posted, tidied, and put to bed before 01:30. This included a late-play: in round 1 table 1 did not know it was three board rounds and did not play board 3. So we had a one-table, 1 board, revenge round; and it was even possible for them entre the score on the bridgemate (and two other tables were still playing the real last round). The winning margin was 4% so I was able to announce the winners (to applause) while the last round was in progress.