Director Glenn Martin says there are some adjustments that might need to be made due to some scoring and other rotation issues. However, here are the Tentative NAP B results. A great day all around at BRIDGExpress.
The tentative 2024-2025 Flight B winners this year are:
Ken Lowenstein and Debra Osborn
Lloyd Mandell and Daniel Small
Marsha Katon and Eppie Eagle
Susan Port and Barry Port
Alternates in case any pairs decline to represent New York City and Long Island at the national finals in Memphis:
Alan Davidson and Lee Lin
Matt Gordon and Michael Krevor
Amit Duvshani and Vladimir Kolbun
Look at how the pairs break down. The folks who started as EW in the “Blue” section dominate the NS rankings in second session; the folks who started NS in Blue cluster at the bottom of second session EW. What that tells me — and I didn’t do well on any standard so this is not about me personally — is that there was a serious problem with the movement. Essentially (with one accommodation exception, I believe) in the afternoon folks played new opponents but COMPETED AGAINST (as to ranking and %%) exactly the SAME pairs they competed against in the afternoon. Subject to that one exception, there was no instance in which the cohorts were broken up. No doubt cream rose to the top anyway, but this seems like a bad way to run a railroad, notwithstanding that BridgeExpress was a great host.
James, I was concerned about the movement, too, and asked the director about it. Both “sections” were scored together as one giant section, without separating the colors out from each other. Imagine it as one giant section, where half the people swapped directions for the second session. It’s just like the usual movement from a regional two-session event, except with so many people that you didn’t see most of them at your table.
I suspect the way that different sections dominate the results is caused by some confusion in the second half about who was actually sitting where (hence why these results are still tentative: some people recorded as sitting E/W might actually have been N/S).
I agree with James, something seems off. It would make sense for half the group to switch direction and the other half to keep their same direction. Unfortunately, it seems everyone switched direction, which is the same as no one switching direction. All the EW pairs in the morning became NS pairs in the afternoon.
Very good catch, Lee! You’re right that if everyone switched, that’s no good. I had thought only half the E/W’s switched, but the results do indicate they all did. Frustrating!
It turns out the ACBL Score Manual has language that recommends the crossover we did on Sunday. Seems suboptimal, but it’s in the manual on both page 32 and 62.
“In two section crossovers, the afternoon N-S become E-W at the same table in the same section and afternoon E-W become N-S in the other section at the same table.”
(Hat tip to Matt Gordon for finding it)
https://web2.acbl.org/documentlibrary/acblscore/manual.pdf