For the second time in a row the team of the well-known sponsor Frank “Nick” Nickell did not qualify for the Bermuda Bowl. These days Jeff Meckstroth is in Ostend (Belgium) for the 6th European OPEN Bridge Championships: Elisabeth van Ettinger (NewInBridge) took the opportunity to make a short video interview with him. We publish here an excerpt in which Jeff talks about the Kranyak’s victory at the USBC Open Trials for Bali 2013.
Elisabeth van Ettinger – Are you disappointed that you were eliminated for the American teams?
Jeff Meckstroth – Absolutely, very disappointed.
EVE – How did it happen?
JM – My team did not play well enough, the other team scored more imps than we did.
EVE – Was there a particular reason why you did not score well?
JM – I give a lot credit to the Kranyak team, they played terrific, they are USA1 and they played four-handed, four young juniors, they played sensationally, they whipped us and they whipped the Fleisher team.
EVE – So they deserved to win?
JM – They did, and we made it all the way to the repechage final to be USA2 and we came up short in that match as well.
EVE – That’s really a pity, we will miss you all in Bali.
JM – Maybe we’ll get offered a job in the transnational, so maybe we’ll still be there.
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Elisabeth van Ettinger (NewInBridge)
Full video interview: click here >>
The Kranyak team (Gavin Wolpert, John Kranyak, Kevin Bathurst, and Kevin Dwyer) won the 2013 United States Bridge Championship (USBC), thus they will be USA1 for the 2013 Bermuda Bowl in Bali. In the final for USA2 the Fleisher team (Chris Willenken, Michael Rosenberg, Zia Mahmood, Marty Fleisher,Chip Martel, and Michael Kamil) defeated the Nickell team (Nickell-Katz, Levin-Weinstein, Meckstroth-Rodwell).
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