Monday, June 30, 2014

Irish Seniors narrowly fail to make Seniors Bermuda Bowl but Porteus will be there

England won the European Seniors Gold medal in Croatia on Saturday. Ironically Ireland Seniors put 52 imps past them in Round 1 of the Final in a 30 imp beating. 9 matches later England have the Gold medals and Ireland will watch the Bermuda Bowl from the sidelines.

Now it says on Twitter that Ireland qualified for the d'Orsi Bowl but I am not so sure.
A medal was probably too much to hope for but remember most of the 20 points differential came from the match with Poland and another good amount from the match with Hungary. 
Team Sports is strange especially if you are playing 4 from 6 in each match. The chance was there but the hands could not grab it. England ran away with it in the end. The same England Team that Ireland beat by 30 imps 2 days before. Then to cap it all Bulgaria sneaked in for 6th place while Belgium and Ireland thought they were in a playoff for 6th. I don't know the detail of team selection but if I was an Ireland opponent I would be very happy to see Adam and Nick sitting in the vugraph theatre. We knew the story from the 96 board training session held in Regent Bridge Club 40 days prior to the European championships. 

BJ O'Brien reads the dinner menu prior to going into battle against England in the first round of the European Seniors Final. (well it cannot be his conventions as he just flipped over to page 2 and we all know BJ never read past front page of conventions)
BJ OBrien and Michael McDonagh best dressed couple in European Bridge championships.
Some other lads turned up in football togs and runners but our Liz and Colleen would not like that.
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Meanwhile today is moving day in the Open Teams Final and I expect our Open Team to gather up 48 VPS from the 3 matches. That means winning each match by at least 26 imps. Not a big ask from a team that has beaten several Bermuda Bowl shoe ins already in this event. Lets see how it goes.
As Thomas Hanlon says "Its never over until it is over" 
So Go Ireland ...
Just so those players know I watch nearly every board. Those lads get to sitout 1/3 of the matches.
The supporter gets no sitouts. We have to watch and support.
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Meanwhile the Ladies also need to make a move. They are in a good position for a team that is not playing well. So maybe the ladies can play well for the last 5 matches and qualify for the Venice Cup. 
That would be good. Like Eamon is not much good at poker but if he gets good cards and some callers and the good cards hold up he will win. Friday night before start of the bridge championships Eamon beat off 289 players in a free roll to win 250 dollars. I don't know poker but I know about position.
So Mna na hEireann ...go for it ..
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However we will have one winner in these championships. Yesterday Paul Porteus beat off some other runners to emerge as one of the 12 Executive members of the European Bridge League Council .
The Great Mullall who is a well known student of people said in the past that while he himself is a great motivator mainly due to my physical attributes ... "I would have no chance against Paul Porteus who is a great politician. Porteus would have you doing stuff before you even realized you are doing it. "
However the echelons of rhe EBL is a strange world. Some lad called Panos ran for President against the office holder and ended up without even a seat on the Executive. 
He even had a website which is worth a read if one wants. 
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So watch this space and see Paul Porteus running the Bermuda Bowl in 2019 or next time it returns to Europe. 


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