Saturday, March 30, 2013

Galway Congress Pairs (in running)

Richard Boyd and Thoms McCormac are making a valiant attempt to podium in Galway Congress Pairs tonight. However they will need to continue to play well and have some things from above pass them on the way down. We will see what happens on the remaining 8 boards.
The odds are that Keavney and Jones will gather in enough score to hold onto the half time lead.
They are two very strong players albeit in a decent field. Plenty of capable players are out of the top 8 currently. Tomorrow there is Gala Open Pairs and Teams on Monday.

www.fob.ie  has all the results both Congress and Open Pairs

...........
I note the Wbridge5 player Elvis stormed to a 67% score today... while the Heneghan drifted lower.
Maybe Elvis is an expert.

Board 15 today was a good one for those who wait ...I got it 5 off doubled ,,, others got it 6 off doubled ...when the robot lost the run of itself ..

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Wbridge5 March 30th

Good morning folks

Wbridge5 is starting to motor in Ireland these days. Early in March an interesting player appeared called Give_Up_Eamon presumably aimed at me but this account has stopped playing for the last week or so.
However the well known Irish Camrose player James Heneghan has emerged as the man to beat in the recent past. Eddie Fitzgerald of the FourSeasons B&B in Galway is getting to grips with the French bidding system and the infernal robotic partners and is pushing up the leaderboard. BJ O Brien is at his imp collecting best even if it is a matchpoint competiton. You don't get much dummy play if you partnering BJ so this game suits him down to the ground as the robot never looks to declare any hand. Jean Fitzgerald from Ennis is putting in a reasonable 58% shift with the Wexford men Ronan and Sexton also up there with 58% months.
Elvis is a reclusive player from Malahide who thinks he is an expert bridge player but the reality is he has not played against many real experts in his bridge life. However a 57% monthly contribution is nothing to be sneezed at but the facts are he is 7% per board behind Heneghan who is probably ok to be termed an expert. After all he has a yellow star on BBO and several international caps on his kitchen wall.

Mr Heneghan also has a large collection of Martens books on one of his kitchen tables. He lives in a rather long house so its hard to tell which is the kitchen and which is the other kitchen. However I was impressed to see the large colourful collection of Martens books on the table a few years ago. 
www.martensbridgeuniversity.com I think is the site for getting a sampler of these very good books.
............
Galway Congress will shortly be in progress with the Congress Pairs ...and other associated events I think for intermediate players.
Gala Open Pairs event tomorrow ... www.galwaybridgecongress.com
Teams on Monday 
.....................

Greystones Open Cup takes place next Sunday April 7th ...so go there 


Eamon, we'd be most grateful if you could mention the Greystones Open Cup in your blog.
Here are the details. best wishes, John
Greystones Open Cup1.30pm on Sunday 7th April
at the Greystones Bridge Centre
2 session Match Point Pairs
1st (400 euro), 2nd, & 3rd Prizes
1st & 2nd Session
Best Intermediate & Best Local
TD Brian Lawlor
Entries (Master / Intermediate)
John Hautz 01-2861485 or 086 0555493
<jhautz@eircom.net>
John Royds 01-2819283
<roydsjf@gmail.com>
Kindly sponsored by Glen Fuels, Kilmacanogue, Co. Wicklow 01-2861444
.................................
Over the last few days I noted the ability to play hands from the vugraph archive on BBO with a partner against two GIB robots. Being a great fan of the GIB robots since receiving an email when in Saudi Arabia from Matt Ginsberg who was developing same to be a tester , I dived.

Sadly I found these web based robots to be very crippled. I understand this as BBO could hardly run robots for loads of members at a decent strength. In future will have to source some known human opponents when playing these vugraph hands. Robots are great for practice and training as you can discuss your system as you go and the robots don't care. However random humans get irritated if you don't play at their pace and you talk during the bidding.
Of course we would never take advantage of the robots by telling pard a card or anything.

However BBO is a fantastic service and I can figure something out if I need to play robots.
www.bridgebase.com
.........................................
Played a hand back a while in Live Bridge with the aforementioned Elvis and he was dealt approximately 
Axx ..J...T976543..KJ and game all and 2nd in hand after West passes

The self acclaimed expert quicky opens the bidding with 1D and with silent opps
I am holding KQJTx ..Qxx ..J2 ..Qxx

So I bid 1S and my esteemed Elvis rises it to 2S ..
tempted to pass this with my aceless wonder I noted I have near7 losers and decided I best give one lift as we are playing weak NT so pard does not have a balanced 12-14.
so I go 3S...

My man pulls the 4S card out of the bidding box at the speed of sound ..
(When I was a kid I had no concept of the speed of sound ..I used to shout into a sewer pipe and race down the field to see if I could hear myself at the other end of the pipe..)
I have no concept of the evaluation algoritm that Elvis applies to bridge..

Its a 9 count with no primary spade support and it feels it wants to roar into 4S vulnerable in a pairs game. After some helpful defence I emerge with 9 tricks for minus 100...and retreat to some safe place. On my return I am greeted by the gleeful Elvis ..90% that was pard ...
it was only the 2nd time played  and being a TD I understand the score could only be 100% 50% or 0% ...so I just said what about if they were actually playing against me and doubled me and I went off a pile .. They ate their partners DK and then cashed the DQ..setting up the diamonds. So I escaped for 1 off undoubled.
The end of the night score was 50% but 3S making was 90% ..they might defend better against 3S and give me the same score. Trump leads are probably best or force the dummy before diamonds are up ..

...........................................
That will do for today ..
Thanks 
Eamon Galligan

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

BJ and Eamon note with reverence the slamming of the door as Heneghan storms into Wbridge5 with a vengence. Well it answers the question as to who is NOT Give_up_Eamon as I thought it was James.
I even spotted the incredible mobrule making an appearance for one day. Mobrule is better than BJ by a little but BJ lets him play on his team as he does not like playing against him.
Anyway Heneghan has eased into the lead with 80 boards played this month so will be a man to aim at in the future. The King is pushed off the throne. BJ is now a dowager king. 
It continues to snow in Swords. Its nearly April and cars were covered with snow today. Its a tough life for biards who have no food. 
....................
Charity event in Malahide Regional tomorrow night for the Lions Club. All are welcome. 
Malahide Regional Bridge Club Broomfield Malahide.I think its 10 euros to play

.............
GALWAY BRIDGE CONGRESS THIS WEEKEND

Thats all for today. 

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Fitness for Bridge

Folks

I came across this video on youtube a few days ago ..7 minutes of exercise ....well you don't do as much as they do but you do whatever you can..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNflCriyE74#aid=P9-apahz0WY

Important : .. if you have not exercised in a while you better get a medicial checkup first..

otherwise just stand there and watch this thing ...well maybe shake yourself out or walk around the room

.................
www.bridgewinners.com is a fine website with plenty of coverage of current bridge events.

It also has a nice feature where problems are presented and you can answer the same either publicly or unpublished. You can see who agrees with you and who does not.
The higher your percentage on each problem the most likely you are with the mainstream.

The mainstream on this website are strong bridge players as far as I can see.
..................
Galway Congress is on this coming weekend ..
http://cbai.ie/competitions/documents/congress_brochure2013_print.pdf

Pairs on Saturday
Teams on Monday

In between on Sunday there is some Open Pairs and an evening Swiss Pairs.

http://www.galwaybridgecongress.com/

Entries can be made here
.......................



Sunday, March 24, 2013

A 3 club opening

Good afternoon folks

I am directing the intermediate B national final and I just strolled by one of the tables spotting a dealer opening with STOP 3 clubs ..

I had a quick look as I thought he held .. 7654.. 65.. 6 ..QT6543

His partner pondered his 15 count briefly and passed .. .3C was the contract and 3C made

I am now looking at the hand record ...he actually held

T752 ..4 .. 84 .. QT6532

and his partner gave him

KQ9
KQ72
AT962
J

...............
I have been frisky in the  past myself but this 3C opening shocked me ..enough to write it up.

Just got called to a table where defenders complained that declarer was taking several minutes to make a play. Declarer involved has not been slow all weekend so I checked if he was awake and left him at it.
The man made 5C and scored up 100% ..

http://bridge.silvertexter.eu/results/3O3.TXT

It will be Auken versus vanProojen in the Vanderbilt Final later today.

Can be watched on www.bridgebase.com

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Friday, March 22, 2013

Vanderbilt Last 16

Good evening folks

I am back watching the Vanderbilt last 8 now. Above is whats left in.
Number 1 seed Nickel had a rollercoaster ride  falling over 50 imps behind in quarter 1 and recovering slowly but surely to take the lead early in quarter 4. However Team Norby were not finished yet and a grand slam by Madala Bocchi followed by a Levin Weinstein accident to bid 6S left Nickel behind again and the boards were running out.
On Board 60 of 64 Nickell made 3H up 1 against 4H-1 to pull level at 130-130
An imp was lost by a diamond queen played too quickly or tiredly (4 man team) setting up a finessing position for an imp.
Board 61 saw Nickel gain 2 imps with 180 versus 120 to lead 132-130
Board 62 flat
Board 63 saw Norby gain an imp for 132-131
Board 64 was flat to bring to an end a fantastic match up...
Eamon fell asleep about board 59 as thats where my vugraph record ended.

.........
On Logging on today to watch quarter-finals of Vanderbilt I noted Auken on vugraph.
Strange that as I saw Monaco just keeping out a messive comeback in 4th quarter.
However an appeal while I slept saw Auken win the day ...
So the juggarnaut Monaco Team is gone for this year. I am a Monaco supporter as we had Geir and Tor in Ireland for Buffet and Euro Teams. Nice lads. Also vugraphed Fulvio and Claudio in CityWest several times.
They will win more stuff no doubt but not this Vanderbilt.
..............
I think Ireland juniors won something in White House. However my Dutch is not great.
Houten Lepel divisie .... Irelande

I read this on a dutch bridge site ... I don't know who is Houten Lepel but maybe he is a famous bridge player from the Lombard Club.

That will do for now ...

Charity Bridge Event in Malahide on Thursday March 28th Open to all. in aid of Lions Club.
Malahide Regional Bridge CLub


Thanks Eamon Galligan







Thursday, March 21, 2013

Wbridge5 follower and Vanderbilt

This morning early while doing the Wbridge5 hands I spotted an unusual name in the list that I had not noticed before. Give_Up_Eamon. One has to presume with some pride that somebody from Ireland has started playing Wbridge5 and is going to get some better scores than I. Nobody can beat BJ at collecting jam and persuading robots to misdefend. This morning he managed to persuade the West robot to play the only cards to let out 6S on board 1. I was there planning how I would roll home 6S but suddenly it dawned on me that I needed some robot help and it was not coming.
Not so with the incredible BJOBrien. The robot quickly plays the first 2 tricks into BJs large maulers and BJ quickly wraps up 6S. Now I am not giving anything away here as all declarers play 6S as this is the way Wbridge5 sets it up. 
Even Give_Up_Eamon went a quick 3 off like myself but we all got 33%. 
A quick glance at the overall monthly scores indicates that Give_Up_Eamon scored 65% on his/her only play so far so possibly a recent recruit. 65% is a good score unless you are the jam factory that is BJOBoru as he regularly rolls home 70+% scores. I will be paying attention to Give_Ups scores for a while to see how  it does. Regardless of comments made about BJ or Give_Up Wbridge5 in my humble opinion is a good tool for any bridge player to play some hands and get 400 comparisons as to how they rank up. The site only has 16 boards a day and a player can play 0-16 boards per day and the site will give you a monthly report to your email address. All sorts of strange measurements like how good is your defence or your bidding or declarer play compared to the field and double dummy.

Meanwhile out at the cutting edge of bridge which is the US Nationals ...these days it should be called the US Internationals as the top games are packed with legends of the game (well only the living legends) ..the folk who have passed on cannot obviously be there ...but I suspect if there exists a spirit world then the ghosts of former great players meet up in the ceilings of the bridge halls at the US nationals 3 times a year.

When I attended the US Nationals in San Francisco in 2007 they held a memorial night for Paul Soloway.
Paul played in the first Buffet Cup in Dublin in 2006 despite struggling with illness at that stage. He still turned  up and played on the USA team. I recall one time while vugraphing that he fell asleep while playing against Thomas Hanlon and Hugh McGann. The Irish lads did not know what to do but somebody gave the table a little nudge and Paul rejoined the world and promptly followed suit. I think I have it on video but its an old video camera and one would have to trawl through several tapes to find it. 

Meanwhile back in the present there have been some small shocks in the Vanderbilt on paper. However the field is so classy that nothing is a real shock. Seed 51 is the highest seed still alive but this seems to be a Canadian team and includes several bridge proffessionals. So its not such a shock if they defeat a team of their peers. Round of 64 they knocked off a team with some powerful Icelanders and Norwegians on it.
Round of 32 a strong American team fell to Korbell. Next up is a round of 16 against another on paper seed buster.. the 35 seeded Chinese team who are probably legends in Chinese bridge circles but won't have a pile of ACBL points/results to get a higher seeding. 
Another team busting the seeds is the Grainger Team seeded 47th ... at least 3 of these are well known names for those of us who frequent Bridgebase Online at the US after work times .. 
Donn Granger and more recently Roger Lee are regular BBO players in high level games and several contribute to the BBO forums ...which are a great place to read about bridge ...

Meanwhile the top 9 of the 10 original seeds remain alive but 7 8 9 and 10 will face off today as we reduce to the quarter finalists. The juggernaut Nickell Cayne and Monaco teams are all surviving comfortably but the 3rd seed Diamond is gone,beaten by the afore mentioned Chinese team.

The Moss Team bowed out to the defending champions Amoils as seeded losing by about 50 imps ..
This is not a severe beating in this league where some teams withdraw after 3 sessions not wanting to receive another pounding on the last 16 boards. 

That will do for this morning I think ...well maybe a quick picture of the White House Standings for Juniors 

The Irish team of Boyd Synnott Connolly and Somerville are playing ...
I notice they have interchanged partnerships in some matches ... hardly the thing to do during international competition but its probably with their hope of qualification gone and they trying out new partnerships for the future. Maybe some player is getting too old and they need to try out a new partnership for future full Ireland junior teams. 

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

White House Juniors

Today at 1530 which is about now the Ireland junior team are on Bridgebase Online playing against France.
Unfortunately in the last round Ireland seem to have run into an in-form English team who got good results on several boards and thus beat Ireland by 57 imps.
However that was a once off ...or maybe a twice off.. I expect a better result in this match though.
We will watch and see.
However be aware that the French juniors are extremely good players historically.

I have to go buy the dinner so off I go but I will leave BBO on so I can review when I get back.

http://www.nbbclubsites.nl/club/1003/uitslagen

Has the current positions. Ireland need a big win but France is tough.
Connolly at the helm in 4S but its a big ask but she is a capable player 

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Mesbur +3 qualify to last 32 in Vanderbilt

Yesterday in Saint Louis Missouri if thats how it is spelt Team Moss whixh includes Adam Mesbur Nick Fitzgibbon and Thomas Hanlon won their round of 64 match over Team Barrett. However Team Barrett included some world  class Polish players Romanski and Kowalski.
Pat McDevitt who is defending his Mixed Pairs title qualified comfortably for the next session in about 40th place. This is a 4 session event .. I think 2 sessions are done already.
The Hamann Team got ambushed by the Granger squad but the Granger foursome are a very decent quartet that I have seen playing in various matches on BBO.

Folks
I draw your attention to the following link which describes how one of the best partnerships in the world
Levin Weinstein resolved and discussed bidding a slam off the trump ace

http://bridgewinners.com/article/view/behind-the-scenes-levin-weinstein-postmortem/

They both knew they did not do it on purpose ..

So today at the Nationals we have Team Moss backboned by stalwart Irish pair Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon taking on the Amoils team.. They will probably find this one another "Bridge Too Far"
Opposition of Joe Grue Thomas Bessis Brad Moss and Fred Gitleman is tough enough but there is a Swedish guy there too. Don't know much about Leslie Amoils but this team is defending Vanderbilt champs so thats a start. Canada is a little far away for me but the Amoils name has been around since I was in San Francisco Nationals in 2007. Joe Grue was a young  teenager in Minnasota when I worked there in 1998 for a while.

And don't forget the Seniors Congress in Derry

http://cbai.ie/competitions/documents/IBUSeniorsCongress.pdf

Also more sad news ..

Malahide Bridge Club lost the recently returned to bridge Paul Coree on March 15th ... Paul was a bridge player in Bankers Bridge Club / Portmarnock and later Malahide. When I was a budding player I remember targetting Paul Coree and Seamus Boyle as folk I needed to pass out. I never really got to pass out Paul Coree as he stopped playing bridge before I got the chance. From Malahide website it seems that Paul had played most Thursday nights this year with Dan Brilley.

Bob Hughes-Hallet who I played against some Friday nights over the last few years in Malahide passed away on March 17th. Bob was still competitive despite being well past 90 years of age. One was never sure what was in his hand as I think he played Colonial Acol from Argentina. I know there was some Argentinian connection somewhere. Bob was a nice man who knew he was up against it playing against me but it did not stop him scoring well from time to time.
Bob felt sick during a tournament I was directing on February 6th. Wed Simultaneous Pairs and the only thing that bothered him was that he might mess up my movement. I assured him that we just continue with a sitout for the rest of the session. I have not played in Malahide since that week so I never saw Bob again.


May they rest in peace. Funeral detaisl on www.rip.ie

All the best
Eamon Galligan




Tuesday, March 19, 2013

While playing Wbridge5 this morning just a few minutes ago my robot emerged with a BJesque 7C bid when the opponent robots had reached 6D. Of course its favourable vulnerability but it takes plenty of programming to make a robot understand sacrificing. I am not sure how this hand will go as I have not played it yet. 
It was a successful sacrifice and we scored 43% ... Well done my robot.
However I personally would have been in earlier to persuade the opps to stop in 5Ds or something else.

Wbridge5 .... a great way to get in a little practice for real life bridge as you are comparing with 400 other real life players playing the same cards as you. Its also possible to edit the convention card a little.


As can be seen above Pat Cassidy is out in the lead for the month of March. However Galligan and BJ will pass him out when he plays a few more boards as 63% is a heavy average to keep up for a month unless he sits there and does not play. BJ regularly piles in with 70% scores.
Eddie Fitzgerald is battling against the robot system and will be a bigger feature once he gets the hand of it or changes to a more suitable system. Jim Sexton is firing away at near 57%.  Billy Ronan is having a good month on 58.4%. Maurice Quinn has been fairly quiet this month.
My dog is eying a magpie through the patio door but knows its not worth the effort as magpie is too smart.
Its also snowing anyway and he will mess the floor if he goes out the flap.

Fancy your chances in 4H from the North after East strikes out with the Club Jack lead.
I don't really know where my man found the 2H overcall. However hopefully the lad can declare a little and make this contract. So club jack and you are up ,,,

Dog has finally succumbed to the magpie taunts. Crashed though the dog flap and magpie fluttered upwards still taunting the dog.

Thanks 
Eamon Galligan 


Vanderbilt has started

Good morning
Greetings from snowy Swords. We are in shock in Swords as the snow falls in mid-March.
Vanderbilt started at US Nationals in St Louis yesterday with some matches to trim the field of 69 down to 64 starters.
Team Moss includes Adam Mesbur Nick Fitzgibbon and Thomas Hanlon along with Mike Moss.
They are 28th seed which gives an indication of the power in this tournament. Some Scottish folk from the recent Camrose Trophy are seeded in the mid 50s and had to qualify in the preliminary round. Thats Team Gipson who include Samantha Punch and Stephen Peterkin who represented Scotland in the Northern Ireland piece of the Camrose Trophy.
www.bridgewinners.com is running a fantasy bracket where a person can enter their winners of each round of the Vanderbilt. I picked Moss to win their first round and then succumb to Amoils in the round of 32.
bridgebase.com will start showing matches from the round of 32 onwards.
There are lots of powerful teams in the top 16 seeds of this event and many legends of the game below that.
Go and have a look on bridgewinners.com ...
Also bridgewinners.com has a fine quiz type thing where you can answer loads of bidding questions and be shown your mark among the other answers and who answered the same as you. As bridgewinners.com is populated by many very strong players a high percentage answer is likely to be correct.
I got some single % answers as I often go against the field.
http://bridgewinners.com/tournament/2013-spring-nabc-vanderbilt/fantasy/view/eamon-galligan/ is where I posted my guess of who will win the Vanderbilt Trophy. I am going for the new Nickell team.

acbl.org is the ACBL website and has links to the bulletins and results of St Louis US Nationals.
Pat McDevitt is also playing there

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Friday, March 15, 2013

Wbridge5 tourney /Free Program

http://bridgez.net:3002/ConnectingPlayer.html

www.wbridge5.com

Folks
Here is one of the best bridge items I have come across recently.
A free bridge program that plays pretty decently. Wbridge5.
There is also a free daily tournament which folk like BJ OBrien and Eamon Galligan and the well known Army Bridge player Commandant Wallace take part in daily. Bjoboru eamongall and billpat patbill (Billy Ronan and Pat Cassidy) I don't know the account of Mr Wallace maybe it is bmw maybe it is Elvis as in the king is alive. Thats what you say when you score a singleton King. I once attempted to score a singleton King in 3NT by leading my singleton small from dummy for my 9th trick... did not work. 3NT minus 1 was a fine score but after losing 6 club tricks 3NT-3 was not.

I highlight mpb above as an example. mpb is a club player in Malahide who wished to improve his bridge a little so I went around to his house and set up Wbridge5 and told him he can play 0 to 16 hands a day in this tournament and do his own improvement. For the first week or so he struggled in the low 40s but a year later he seems to be averaging around the 52% mark. This is a large improvement in one year.

16 boards is more than enough for most people but if one wants more one can play the free program with random or selected boards as much as they want. My point to mpb was here are 480 boards a month and thats like 20 bridge sessions extra for you.

Recent recruits to Wbridge5 are Senior Ireland player Eddie Fitzgerald and Camrose Northern Ireland player Paul Tranmer. If its good enough for BJ Eddie and Paul then its good enough for everybody who wishes to play a little computer bridge. Probably works on Ipad and mobile phone also if you travelling on the train or bus or even car.






Ashbourne Bridge Club

Over the last two weeks I have been directing in the Presidents Prize in Ashbourne Bridge Club. The venue is the Donaghmore Ashbourne GAA premises. I had a look around outside and noted the presence of a a stand beside the pitch with approximately 400 seats .. 77 seats by 5 rows and then some standing room at the back. Also the pitch can clearly be seen and watched from the bar/function room area.. A nice place for a relatively small GAA centre. I personally recall being driven 75 miles to the back end of Donegal to stand in the lashing rain to watch Cavan Gaels get destroyed by St Kierans one Sunday. I have a vague memory of the score being 5-8 to 0-3 at half time and some dude called Kevin Keeney at corner forward doing the business.
Anyway back to the bridge. The players land and pull out their gear from a back room .. Tables and chairs and clothes and a box of cards/paperwork. They set the whole lot up and are ready to go. First night started at 1930 with a draw for partners. Then play starts at 1940. 24 boards later we called a halt at 2230.
2nd night we started at 1930 and at 1023 decided on going a final round so 26 boards completed by 2245 and most of the tables packed away.
26 boards played in 3 hours 15 minutes and everything packed away. Thats the way bridge should be played. I recall a night when it was 1130pm in the Regent and we not finished the 26 boards.
The President is Mr Pat Moyles

I had a similar experience in Whitehall Bridge Club where Mother Moyles and son John Moyles play.
Started at 1930 and 24 boards later in 8 matches of 3 boards and first players out the door about 2210.
Everything packed away and last person out the door at 1030pm.

So in short we spend too long playing too few boards in the purpose built bridge clubs. Imagine if we had to pack away 40 tables in Malahide after a Wednesday night. We need to pick up the speed. Even international bridge is played at 16 boards in 2 hours 5 minutes.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan


Irish Schools Bridge Teams

Last weekend in Galway the Irish Schools Bridge Teams championships took place. We thank Galway Bridge Centre for making their facilities available to us. 24 teams took part in the event. 
This year was the inaugural playing of the Gay Keavney Trophy. 
This Trophy was commissioned by the IBU or CBAI or Irish Junior Committee in honor of Gays 29 year involvement with Schools bridge. 
The following Schools were represented 

Laurel Hill Limerick
Belfast Royal Academy
Carrick .......maybe it is Carrickfergus 
St Vincents Dundalk
Gonzaga College Dublin
Bangor Grammar

4 sessions of bridge were played starting with a seeded round robin which graduated into a Swiss for 1 round. After 2 sessions and 8 matches the top 8 teams split off into the Gold Final and the rest continued play in the Silver Final. Gold Final was 7 match all play all with 6 board matches. Silver Final was 7 round Swiss also with 6 board matches. 

Gold Final 

BRA2 ...........150
BRA1 ...........143
Carrick1.... ...132
St Vincents1..126
BRA4........... 120
BRA3........... 103
Bangor1......... 89
Gonzaga......... 87

Silver Final 

Bangor2 .........136
Laurel Hill5......123
Laurel Hill4......119
Laurel Hill1......117
Bangor3...........115
Laurel Hill3.......115
Laurel Hill6.......114
BRA5...............112
BRA6...............109
Carrick2............101
BRA7................94
Laurel Hill2.........94
Laurel Hill8.........90
St Vincents3.......82
Laurel Hill7.........79
St Vincents2........70

100 under 19s in total .....well I think there was one 18 year old and some who looked about 
12 years old. All playing bridge and using bridgemates and circling the scoring computers after
each round. 

There were no rows or anger displayed. All played away happily and looked forward to McDonalds or the equivalent on Saturday. This year the teachers did not throw my dinner in the bin before I ate it.

Most  of the Gonzaga Team started playing bridge 6 weeks ago and managed to make the Gold Final against players who are playing somewhat longer. The Gonzaga folk were quite surprised to find the chef in their Bed and Breakfast was giving them bridge advice each morning as well as breakfast. The chef was former CBAI President Edward Fitzgerald. 

If any of the schools players read this I highly recommend 

http://bridgez.net:3002/ConnectingPlayer.html

You can play a 16 board tourney here each day or anything between 0 and 16 boards.
It will compare all players and give a score.
Eamon Galligan and the chef both play this most days.

Thanks 
Eamon Galligan