Australia vs New Zealand in Bermuda Bowl – 2023 World Championships in Marrakech Our ABF President convinced the WBF President to schedule the Australia – New Zealand Bermuda Bowl match as the first of the day on Vugraph so BridgeTV could broadcast in Prime Time at 7pm in Australia.
It was a great success with Australia beating NZ 38-21 to give us some bragging rights against our friends from across the ditch.
For BridgeTV it was a huge success with hundreds watching the match on BridgeTV and it catching the attention of a number of people at the venue where our President, Allison Stralow and David Fryda, the Captain of our Open team showed off our program in the foyer of the venue.
Allison brought the WBF President, Jan Kamras, onto the program. She also had some Indian supporters who worshipped our commentator Ron Klinger, the author of over 60 Bridge books, as bridge royalty in their cricket obsessed country.
We had so many viewers that we nearly had to pay Zoom extra royalties as I searched for how Moroccan Dinahs could be paid on Zoom.
Commentators
The Australian commentator line up was monumental with:
- Ron Klinger probably still thinking about how to get more of his bridge books and columns into India
- Sartaj Hans, with his highly thoughtful analysis, putting the kids to bed in Australia as his wife Sophie played in Marrakech
- Matt Mullamphy about to catch another plane to Paris to commentate further from there
- The inimical David Beachamp chattering away next to me in my Marrakech hotel room as we broadcast
- Alongside the New Zealand Captain and Chef de Mission, Jonathan Westoby
- David Stern my helpfull adviser and authoritative Vugraph commentator at the Venue
- Ron Cooper the father of Renee Cooper playing in the Mixed team with Ben Thompson
- Neville Moses who sat behind me and kept wanting to announce his wife’s team scores
- The legendary Peter Gill provided some analysis at the end.
It felt like a cast of thousands and hopefully all had a great fun session. Finally, thanks to our small but highly loyal group of supporters who kibitz each day and also the number of new kibs who joined us and I hope return in the future.
