Most of the matches in the Bermuda Bowl, Venice Cup and D’Orsi Seniors Bowl were without drama indeed, one team withdrew with two sets to go, and another three waved the white flag with 16 deals to play.

There were some nail-biters, however, as England in the Seniors escaped by 1 IMP in a match with Egypt that was close throughout. The Egyptians engineered a 9-IMP swing on the final deal, just one short of pushing the match to overtime. It was the second consecutive world-level knockout match won by a single IMP by a team from England, the women having won the World Women’s Teams in Beijing, China, last year.

In the Bermuda Bowl, defending champions Norway staged a huge comeback in the final set against China Long Zhu, winning 57-12 but losing 197-194.5. With two deals to go, Norway had taken the lead by 2.5 IMPs, but they lost 5 IMPs on the penultimate deal and ran into a routine 3NT for a push on the last board. Norway had trailed by as much as 70 IMPs.

Also in the Bermuda Bowl, USA2 were breathing hard at the end of their battle with the Netherlands, allowing the Dutch to repeatedly cut into relatively comfortable margins. The Dutch were within shouting distance late in the final set, but the Americans came away with a 214-200 win.

There was not much in the other matches, where Spain in the Venice Cup dropped out with 32 boards to play against USA1, trailing by 50 IMPs. Three teams gave up in the Seniors Belgium (down 70.5) against Indonesia, USA1 (down 51.67) against USA2 and Sweden (down 82.33) against Poland.