A short-lived truce between the two main Italian sponsors seems to have ended.

January 7, 2003 - Angelini, sponsor of a team that was - until 2001 - on less than friendly terms to the FIGB (the Italian Bridge Federation) seemed to have closed a peace deal with FIGB when he was invited to play in the European Championships this June, after five years when he and his players were effectively barred from representing Italy internationally.

During this time, one of the Italian flagship pairs, Lauria/Versace, had to leave the Angelini team and join team Lavazza to be able to play for Italy. The latest news is that Lauria-Versace are back to Angelini, joining Fantoni-Nunes (recent winners of the World Open Pairs at the Rosenblum) and Angelini-Sementa.

Team Lavazza is thus left with Bocchi-Duboin and Ferraro who usually plays with Lavazza herself in less than world level events. The third pair is bound to be D'Avossa-Di Bello, an under-30 pair of 1999 World Junior Champions.

Most interesting is a bit of news about Buratti-Lanzarotti: this pair, arguably on par with L/V and B/D, hasn't been representing Italy since around 1997 - the time of the Angelini team ban. They were even dropped from the Angelini team a couple of years ago and have gone on to represent Spain in last year's EU championships. It appears now that they might be making an unexpected comeback, playing for Lavazza on the occasions when the team sponsor doesn't play, i.e. major international stuff like the Rosenblum.

With respect to the Italian national team, we (Italians) can only hope that this turn of events will not prevent Lauria-Versace to represent Italy together with Bocchi-Duboin, and a third pair which as usual will be somewhat tough to find, since they wouldn't be playing much. Perhaps a pair of youngsters - such as the one mentioned above - would best suit this purpose.

Giovanni
Italy