December 2002 - Mabel Bocchi interviews her brother Norberto (translated roughly)

2002 has been for you and your national team teammates not just any year: a 5th European championship, the first European Champions Cup, the Rosenblum, the Spingold, the Italian Teams championships, theForbo International, the Nations Cup, and I might be forgetting something else. But of all these victories, which do you remember most fondly?

"Without a shadow of a doubt the Rosenblum, a competition that I have never succeeded in winning and that has repeatedly thwarted our team. In fact, while we have already shown our team to be competent in other formats, we have been having some concern over being able to win in competitions with a K.O. format. With this victory, then, we have gained valuable confidence that, surely, will help us in the next Bermuda Bowl"

The big news at this years's end is the return of Lauria and Versaceto the Angelini team. A little lightning in a calm sky. What does this mean to you? How have you taken this unexpected transfer?

"The team will miss them for their bridge ability, and for their companionship. However, their future is their business, and if Alfredoand Lorenzo, after having weighed the pros and cons, stuck with this choice, it means they must have had good reasons. Certainly they are going to be in a different place both from a professional and human point of view."

So the Angelini team becomes the team to beat, or a mistake?

"In effect, not a mistake, but it will be so rare that we face them directly that superiority becomes secondary. With the fact that Angelini does not like to travel by plane, their bridge circuit will necessarily be more Italian than international, while the Lavazza team on the other hand participates mostly in tournaments outside the national territory."

Who will Maria Teresa Lavazza select as replacements in order to maintain the high level of competitiveness?

"At present she has already made some decisions, keeping myself Duboin and Ferraro, and bringing in two promising young players Stelio Di Bello and Mario D'Avossa. Moreover, probably, for particularly important tournaments, and therefore only part-time, we will strengthen ourselves with Andrea Buratti and Massimo Lanzarotti"

Can you predict, in the light of these transfers, what the national Italian team will be in 2003?

"The core foursome will remain as always, while the third partnership could be formed from one of the emerging young pairs."

What would you want in your stocking?

"A Bermuda Bowl gold medal."

You know only those with good behavior receive gifts in theirstockings. What is your resolution for 2003?

"I would very much like stopped all the rancor, pettiness, blindness ... sometimes things in our small world of bridge, especially the Italian world, become unpleasant indeed. Well, I will see that our wonderful game returns to being the best it can be ... for sure this is not the simplest task, but I know for sure there are those like me who believe, and know, that solidarity is strength."