By Eric Sawyer | Yesterday, our lads beat the South African team pretty easily to conclude the Plate pool play.  After factoring in our prior win over Sweden in the A block, our team finished 3-0 to secure the #1 seed in the Plate. We will play Sweden, the #2 seed in the Plate, in a two-day test beginning  tomorrow.

As for the match against South Africa, our favorite alternate Rich Lamm finally got off the pines and got to play. He partnered with Danny Huneycutt to win their one doubles match today. Rich also easily won his singles game in two games against the hard-hitting Victor DlaDla.

Danny was very solid against William Louw, making hoops and clearing shots consistently. Sherif survived Judith Hanekom in three games. Ben took Reg Bamford to three games. Ben was great in game two, but in game three Reg played better. Of course, Ben and Sherif won their doubles match.

As I mentioned above, we begin playing for the plate title  today against Sweden.  Wales and South Africa play to determine which team gets relegated to Tier 2 next time. Ugh.

Egypt plays New Zealand for the championship. England plays Ireland for third and fourth. My money is on Egypt and England to win those tests, but my heart is with NZ to upset The Force and for those plucky Irish to upset England.  Of course, I'm betting on the US to beat Sweden, but seeing as how our first win over them on day one of this event was a bit unsettling, I'm a bit leery of the Swedes.  We'll see.