Table of Contents Page More Shocks Than Wimbledon 1 The Sunday Swiss, Round 3 2 Swiss Round 2 3 Avoidance Spades 4

There were some surprises when the knockout stage of the Mixed Teams Championship got under way yesterday. None bigger than the defeat of the number 1 seeds, Jacobs, who lost by 1IMP to Kirstan. Welland went down to Praha and Kowalski was upset by De Botton. In one of the toughest match ups Passarinho prevailed over Harazimowicz.

In the round of 16 the two biggest wins were recorded by Gitelman and Armstrong, and you may recall that they both had to emerge from the swiss repecharge – perhaps they are teams of destiny? Meanwhile Erichsen scored a good win over Gromova, Herbst dealt with Kirstan, Goldberg edged out Passarinho, De Botton saw off Popova and Brigada accounted for Glasson.

So, with eight teams standing the odds on a European victory are 7-1 – but will the bookmakers come out on top?

The draw has worked out in such a way as to produce four intriguing quarterfinals, with the winners of each being hard to predict. After an all too brief survey we discover that the smart money is on Herbst, Erichsen, Levy and Goldberg, but we would not advise you to put your shirt on on any of these predictions – especially if it is an EBL Championship one!

The Mixed Pairs Championship got under way last night – too late for any results to appear in today’s bulletin, but rest assured that you will miss nothing of interest, including detailed results in tomorrow’s edition.