President's Closing Speech

Monseigneur
Messieurs les Présidents
Ladies and Gentlemen
Dear Friends

Je voudrais d’abord m’adresser à vous, votre Altesse, et à
tous les Monégasques pour leur exprimer la reconnaissance de la World Bridge Federation pour la qualité de l’accueil qui nous a eté reserve.

The Principality of Monaco welcomed the World Bridge Championships in their usual elegant manner, and even gave us very reasonable weather ! Our thanks go to the Fédération Monégasque de Bridge with its President, Pierre Crovetto and his Organising Committee, Jean-Charles Allavena and Jacques Balleret, who were able to obtain the support of the financial and tourism authorities as well as the Société des Bains de Mer. They all deserve to be associated with the compliments we have received concerning the quality of the organisation.

We could not have achieved such a success without the help of our partners, the Generali Group, presided over by our great friend Antoine Bernheim, who is present here tonight with us – Antoine is a great lover of Bridge and often plays with you, the Champions. Thank you Antoine for all you are doing for us. You may not realise, my friends, that Antoine is involved with all the companies whose logos you see on the screen, either as President, Vice-President or as a member of the Board of Directors.

The Compagnie Monégasque de Banque is also present here tonight, with its President, Enrico Bragiottito, as is also Mrs Chantal Sobra from Louis Vuiton, and I would like to invite all three of them to come to the podium to receive the Gold Medal of the World Bridge Federation.

You will all, I am sure, recognise the enormous amount work involved in the organisation of our Bridge Championships; the technology involved, the hospitality – there are so many aspects, many of them unseen by you, the players. Please join me tonight in applauding the many staff who have worked long and hard throughout this fortnight, in every field. There are too many of you to name, but please will all the staff stand so that we can see you and thank you ?

The Hospitality Team led by Hélène Vivier and Martine Schupp

The Bulletin Team, with its co-ordinator Jean Paul Meyer and Editor Brent Manley, Assistant Editors Guy Dupont, Mark Horton, Brian Senior, Photographer Ron Tacchi, Layout Editor George Georgopoulos and Internet Editor Akis Kanaris

Our Line-up team, Corry & Jan Louwerse with Monique Callon

Scoring and Results, done by Harvey Fox, Claude Dadoun, and Gianni Bertotto

The Press Room – who else but Elly Ducheyne, assisted by her brother Jan – Elly we all wish you well in your retirement – we will miss you very much!

Behind the scenes on the technical side, we had Mark Newton in charge of the I T, keeping the computers linked and the internet alive.

In the Vu-Graph, there was the Bridge Vision Team headed by Elisabeth Antelme with Jean François Chevalier, François Haddad and Elisabeth Piganeau and the Vu-Graph team, led by Bernard Delange, with Paul Binisti and Bernadette Pasquier.

Fulvio Colizzi organized the equipment, and the duplication team was under the leadership of Monica Gorreri, who dealt thousands of boards for you to play and the team of caddies, led by Mr & Mrs Ohana, distributed them amongst you so efficiently.

The excellent Vu-Graph Commentators, who keep you so well entertained were Barry Rigal, Eric Kokish, Jean-Paul Meyer, Paul Chemla and the inimitable Zia Mahmood.

The World Bridge Federation is fortunate to have a very experienced team of Tournament Directors, led by its Chief, Max Bavin: please all of you, stand so that the players can see you – Christian Bordonneau, Maurizio Di Sacco, Bertrand Gignoux, Richard Grenside, Guillermo Poplawski, Antonio Riccardi and Jeanne van den Meiracker

We also have to thank the Appeals Committee, under the able Chairmanship of Joan Gerard for their work in hearing the very few Appeals that we have had at the Championships.

Ton Kooijman has overseen the entire operation with his usual care and skill, working tirelessly throughout the event as he always does.

Please, all of you, accept my personal thanks and the thanks of the Executive Council.

Most of all you will accompany us as our future unfolds – due to the difficult conditions in the world today we are not sure what the future holds, but for sure you will be part of it. We would all love to go to Bali for a Championship if the situation allows us to do so, and I would like again to acknowledge, on behalf of the WBF, the courage and consideration shown by our Indonesian friends, whose delegation is present here with us tonight.

We do have other candidates for the Championships. After the Olympiads next year, we have Madeira and Malta for 2005, Morocco and Cannes for 2006 and we know that China would be more than happy to consider hosting the Championships in 2007.

The Chinese women’s team has started to break down the supremacy of Europe and the United States. It is the second time they have played in the Final of the Venice Cup, and I am sure that it will not be long before we see the Trophy going to Zone 6.

The Chinese team captained by Zejun Zhang has also shown their mettle in the Transnational Teams, taking the Silver Medal.

It is demonstrable that China is a major force in bridge today as, indeed, is Indonesia and we are all happy to see the way our sport is developing in Asia.

We are, of course, delighted to congratulate our American friends, the USA I Open and Women’s team who have acquitted themselves with such distinction, and to the USA team’s worthy opponents, Italy – and Italy also distinguished themselves by taking the Gold Medal in the Transnational Teams. In so many ways, this Championship was really “An American Affair”, with USA Teams winning the Senior Bowl, the Venice Cup and the Bermuda Bowl – I think, maybe, Votre Altess, that the American people had in mind to honour the Princess Grace.

Although the final situation in the Bermuda Bowl was really unfortunate, everybody has to accept that the Championship is decided by the players themselves over so many hands and not just on one board and one appeal.

Thank you all for your perfect ethics and fair play – you responded so well to my requests made at the opening ceremony, and the Championship has progressed very smoothly to its exciting conclusion.

Which allows us to proceed with the first part of the ceremony, the presentation of the Transnational awards and the Senior Bowl, followed after the main course by the presentation of the medals for the Venice Cup and the Bermuda Bowl.

Thank you all for your attention – and we will see you next year!