The bulletin is not used to the players (or indeed anyone else) taking their predictions seriously. But perhaps the juniors have not yet learned that those who can predict successfully make a living on backing horses; those who can't, restrict themselves to trying to announce the likely winners of bridge tournaments.

Still, I'm not sure that anyone would have been more surprised than the journalists themselves to see what the top of the table looked like at the end of the first session of the world junior pairs.

Having predicted that Bessis/Gaviard, Grue/Kranyak, Eide/Livgard and Kalita/Kotorowicz would be amongst the favourites, a sensible punter would have laid long odds that these partnerships would never have been heard from again. As it happens though, all of them were in serious contention. Of course the popular favourites might be Rimstedt/Sivelind of Sweden, who have shown their form in the last two Junior European Championships, where they have taken the silver medal, and no doubt will be hoping to go one better here.

At the end of the first session the Swedes led from our French prediction, with our fancied pair from Poland in third place.

The ladies continue their excellent performance in the Schools Pairs, where Joanna Krawczyk and Artur Wasiak, who shone in Poland's gold-medal schools team in Riccione last year, lead narrowly from Fruscoloni/Demarchi of Italy.