European and North American teams dominated the quarter-final stage of the world bridge teams' Olympiad yesterday. England, Italy, Poland and USA advanced in the open championship, while Canada, Germany, Norway and USA went forward in the women's event.
In the open championship, Italy, the recent three-in-a-row European champions, impressed with a start-to-finish win over Brazil, and Poland looked strong in a 210-to-129 win over former world champions Iceland. England withstood a late challenge from Norway to win 192 to 171, while USA beat Austria by 215 to 143.
The merit of Ireland's fifth-place finish in the qualifying round was enhanced by the presence of three teams from their group - Austria, Poland and Brazil - in the quarter-finals.
The semi-final draw is England v Italy and Poland v USA. In the women's quarter-finals, Germany had an impressive win over China by 243 to 124.
The other matches were closer. In the Canada v South Africa game, the lead changed hands several times before the Canadians got the upper hand on the last set to win 172 to 137.
The USA v Netherlands meeting was a repeat of the Venus Cup final in Bermuda in January, when the Dutch prevailed by half a point. This time, however, the Americans held off the challenge of the home side to win 141 to 109. Norway won a cliff-hanger against Chinese Taipei, getting in front only on the last three of the 80 deals to win 200 to 195.
The women's semi-final draw is Canada v Germany and Norway v USA.