The President's speech

Madame La Ministre, Governor of the Province of Limburg, Mr Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends

Finally we reach the end of another World Championship. The World Teams Olympiad is always a special event for all of us and this time we have had the chance to embrace the whole of our bridge family by introducing the World Universities Cup and the World Seniors Cup as well, of course, as the World Transnational Mixed Teams. This combination of events has created a very special atmosphere here in Maastricht, one I am sure you will all remember for a very long time.

The venue here in Maastricht has provided the players with excellent facilities, the technical side of the Tournament has been superb, with four web sites covering the event, a fast results service, two Vu-Graph Theatres and an excellent Press Room. Such facilities only serve to promote our sport and I am sure they have been appreciated by the many visitors, both those here in Maastricht and also by people throughout the world as they watch the Championships through Internet.

This makes the World Bridge Federation very proud and happy, but none of this would have happened without the outstanding co-operation of the Netherlands Bridge Bond, its Organising Committee and its dynamic President, Laurence Hoedemaker, so ably assisted by Harry van de Peppel and Marijke Blanken, Koos Vrieze, Ruud Ruijg, Nico Tromp, Jan Louwerse, Ton Jooijman and Marc Stoffelen.

We are very honoured by the presence of Mrs Margo Vliegenhart, the Minster of State for Public Health, Welfare and Sport, Mr Baron Van Voorst Tot Voorst, the Governor of Her Majesty the Queen in the Province of Limburg and Mr Philip Houben, the Mayor of the City of Maastricht. I would like to express our appreciation of your beautiful district and your lovely City of Maastricht. I know that everyone here will agree with me that this part of the Netherlands is as fascinating as it is enchanting and historical. But I also wish to thank you for your support of the Championship itself without which our task would have been far more difficult.

My friends, we must also show our very sincere appreciation to the companies who have sponsored us so generously -

To Xerox for their amazing photocopying facilities which printed the Bulletins daily

To Nobel van Dijk & Partners for the provision of the computer systems that have been appreciated by so many of you

To I. N. G. Bank for their generosity

And to the many others, including Arboned, Lavazza, and Transfer Solutions, who gave of their time and facilities to assist the Netherlands Bridge Bond.

For the University Cup, we were fortunate to have the sponsorship of E-Bridge, Electrabel and World Bridge Productions.

So many people worked very hard behind the scenes and they all deserve our thanks for their efforts which ensured the smooth running of the tournament.

The Netherlands Bridge Federation found some wonderful volunteers to assist them for the Championship. Working in the playing rooms, moving hundreds of boards were the caddies, under their supervisors, Gijs and Gea Westra. Paul Goessen and Wim vd Gruisen co-ordinated the workforce, ensuring that all areas had sufficient personnel to cover the multitude of tasks generated by such a large event. Jos Wijnmalen handled the transport to and from the airport with enormous efficiency. Your Hospitality team, of Josée de Groot, Monique Callon, Bernadette Dautzenberg, Desiré Hermans, Eugenie van den Hoogen, Ellie Jansen, Jacquie Korving, Anne-lies van de Peppel, Ina Tuin and Monique Voortvelt, organised by the indefatigable Marijke Blanken, did a wonderful job of looking after everyone and ensuring their comfort. Arie van der Swan and Marina Witvliet were responsible for the Seniors and then took over the results service for the Swiss. Eric van Dijk and Pascale van Duyse worked tirelessly in the main office preparing and duplicating the many forms and handrecords needed during the course of the Championship.

The Lavazza coffee machines and the water fountains were maintained throughout by Joke and Ben Lousberg.

In the background were the duplication team of Femmy Boelaars, Annie Checkroun, Frans Lejeune, Anna Maria Orlandi, Jenny Ruijg, Héléne Vivier and Simon Wieserma who dealt a staggering number of boards over the two weeks.

Ensuring the smooth running of the VuGraph were the Bridge Vision team, Elisabeth Antelme, Elisabeth Piganeau and Laurent Rigaud and Brigitte Bourdel together with the Zoomescope Video team of Bernard Delange, Paul Binisti and Bernamdette Pasquier under the supervision of Jean Claude Beineix and using the equipment and software provided by the French Bridge Federation.

The Systems Desk was run with great efficiency by Chris Diment and Jan and Corrie Louwerse, Annelie Kooijman, Martin and Ilse Sneepers kept all the team captains in order at the Line Up and Results Desk.

Jean-Paul Meyer once again co-ordinated a very distinguished panel of Commentators for the VuGraph - Lucky Dana, Eric Kokish, Barry Rigal and Bobby Wolff, analysing the hands and providing entertaining and informative commentary for your enjoyment. There was also a Dutch VuGraph, which I know was appreciated by many people from the surrounding area, with commentators Willem Willemse, Els Wittevenn, Lucas Boutens, Kees Wulffelé, Cees Sint, Toine van Hoof and Jan van Cleeff.

Elly Ducheyne managed the very high-tech Press and Public Internet Room with her able assistants Gloria Dismot and Andrea Willemse. Nearby, the Daily Bulletin Editors, co-ordinated by Jean-Paul Meyer, produced an excellent Daily News and our thanks go to the Editor, Mark Horton, with his Assistant Editors Brent Manley and Brian Senior. Ron Tacchi took the excellent photographs, and Stelios Hadjidakis undertook the layout.

Our thanks also go to the many volunteers who manned the enormous Xerox photocopiers through the night to ensure that your Daily Bulletin was ready and waiting for you in the morning.

As you all know, there were no less than four Internet sites covering the Championships - Takis Pournaras undertook the work for the WBF site, Koen Gijsman and Onno Eskes handled the fast and efficient results service, putting this together with the VuGraph onto the Olympiad site. There was also comprehensive coverage by e-bridge and Canal Web, so that the outside world was able to obtain not only results and VuGraph coverage, but also the bulletins and informed comments about the event every day.

The MSN Gaming Zone World Computer Bridge Championship was staged and co-ordinated by Al Levy.

The IT Systems Manager, who set up all the computers was Bart Bosman and Marc Nobel had the enormous task of keeping them running throughout the event.

On the "floor" the team of Tournament Directors under the leadership of Bill Schoder, assisted by Max Bavin, did their usual sterling job as I am sure all the players will agree. Thanks go to them and to the rest of the team: Jean Audebert, Marc van Beijsterveldt, Rob Bosman, Anthony Ching, Bertrand Gignoux, Richard Grenside, Rui Marques, Jeanne Van Den Meiracker, Maurizio DiSacco, Jean-Louis Pennec, Guillermo Poplawski, Antonio Riccardi, Jack Rhind, Herman de Schrijver, Matt Smith and Sol Weinstein.

Of course, there are always times when the Tournament Directors have their decisions appealed, although, as in Bermuda, there were less than usual because of our new policy. Here we had a distinguished Appeals Committee chaired by Bobby Wolff. Thanks go to Joan Gerard, John Wignall, Richard Colker, Ernesto d'Orsi, Grattan Endicott, Jean-Paul Meyer, Dan Morse, Jeffrey Polisner, Nissan Rand, David Stevenson and Herman De Wael

Every department was watched over by the Operations Director, Ton Kooijman, who in his own inimitable way kept an eye on everything to make sure that this World Teams Olympiad takes its rightful place in the history of this great event.

I would like also to acknowledge the work undertaken by my colleagues, the Members of the Executive Council and our assistants, Christine Francin, Anna Gudge and Carol von Linstow.

No Championship would exist, however, without you, the players - these are your events, and of course we are here to congratulate the winners, but we must remember always that you are all winners because your participation in this great Olympiad makes you so.

So, my dear friends, we have come to the end, but believe me we only end one Championship in order to start working towards the next. We are, I am sure, all looking back over this Championship as we say goodbye to our many friends that we have made here, but also looking forward to the next time. Towards Bali in October 2001, the Bermuda Bowl, the Venice Cup and, of course, the World Transnational Open Teams. I look forward to seeing you all there !

Thank you all. Thank you very much.

I declare the 11th World Bridge Teams Olympiad closed.

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