Belgium proved too strong for the women in the first match, beating them 21-9 on their way to the overnight lead. But Scotland bounced back in the afternoon to beat a good Danish team by 23-7 for a mid-table position. A good day. Tomorrow they take on Poland and Israel, two teams at opposite ends of the table but not an easy day. Although, as I'm sure we'll see, no days are ever easy!
Twenty-six imps down after three boards was not the best start against Sweden and it did not improve for the open team as they fell to a big loss. 'Bye' did not show up, so an 18-0 VP win in the middle match was followed by a 10-20 VP defeat against Greece. I saw that Piper/Wilkinson bid two good slams missed at the other table, but a couple of late game swings and imps dribbling away elsewhere - a slightly disappointing result.
Tomorrow the team start with Bulgaria and Israel, two teams who will qualify for the second round-robin and have Bali aspirations. Both score heavily and are very difficult to score imps against, so Scotland will do very well to emerge with a significant number of victory points. Their final match is against Lithuania, traditionally a weaker nation but one that I'm expecting to make a big improvement this time, but it will be still be a relief at the end of the day.
