Ciara Burns RIP , US Trials ,Bridge Now ratings

7 days ago about this time I wrote my previous blog and I mentioned NIBU Lady Milne Team missing arguably their strongest pair half of which was Ciara Burns. About 20 minutes later I received the shocking message that the same 45 year old Ciara Burns had suffered a health issue and passed away the previous evening... Sunday April 30th 2017.
Now I would say I knew Ciara Burns but I did not really. I did not know she was from County Down and I did not know she was from Downpatrick. I knew she had a black car (because I put NIBU computers into its boot once or twice)  and was very good bridge player. Before writing here I headed over to Ciara's  facebook page and was hit by a headlined article " In Memory of Ciara Burns" by Samantha Punch of Scotland Open Bridge team which was originally written on http://bridgewinners.com

The article below which includes a summary of an interview done by Sam describes Ciara far better than I could. After all most of it is Ciara's own words.

http://bridgewinners.com/article/view/in-memory-of-ciara-burns/

The only other piece I can add is when Ciara sat down at the table as an opponent one hoped her partner was John Murchan and one hoped to play well and get a good score as then one could hope for one of the famous John Murchan quotes about bridge or non-bridge as the case might be.
Like most players I only remember the good boards but I was reminded a year or so ago about a 7 clubs hand I floored at Drogheda Congress some years back ...maybe 10 or so... I asked "Ciara how do you you remember that hand "
The response was " Myself and John were your opponents but you got a trick ahead of yourself and ruffed your winner from dummy "
Another time about 10 years ago I played a practice online match against Ciara and Mary Finn and against one 4H contract declared by Ciara I got the bright idea of leading a KING from Kx ala the famous Pat Walshe. Fortunately my Kx worked far better than most of Pat Walshes as Ciara had been dealt JTx and had Axx in dummy.

....Qxxxx
Axx .. JTx
......Kx

So on the KING lead the unsuspecting Ciara ducked and the Galligan felt the feeling of something good so played another diamond and this was ducked in dummy as partner won with the QUEEN as
probably Ciara got a bad feeling. Another diamond came back and Galligan ruffed and beamed at his computer. The sound for messages was turned on ...so one heard an incoming BBO message.

Ciara had typed ... "You wee shite "

I think partner got a trump trick for one down ... otherwise we would not remember the hand.

.........................

I spoke to Ciara on Sunday April 16th 2017 outside Malahide Bridge Centre where she was playing bridge with Michael O'Kane. I had no idea it would be the last time.
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http://bridge-now.com

jim me	2237
Karl Cashen	2180
Igor Milevoj	2168
Patrick 27	2131
pinco pallino	2131
pietro serioi	2096
B.J. O'Brien	2086
Pierre DELVAULX	2064
Eamon Galligan	2056
WBridge5 (Robot)	2053
David Welsh	2053
John Horn	2032
tom gilligan	2012
MC51	2010	x
dr. Eddie	1996
Graham Hazel	1992	x
Terry	1986
Marek.C	1983	x
Jim Wills	1981
Jinn	1980
Claude Martin	1950
Noëlle Delahaye-Levesque	1950
gilles lacroix	1950
Tudor Trocan	1950	x
Bernard CARPENTIER	1943	x
Jan Stavast	1940
Paul Johnson	1937
Kerostia	1936
Etienne Delangre	1936
George Kissov	1934
GrantK	1933
Maire O'Keeffe	1930
Tamara de Grady	1926
Jens Wamsler	1904
Paul East	1899	x
миша ройтман	1898
Yves Costel	1897
Maurice Amar	1897
Allan McDonald	1895
John Macdonald	1886	x
HMN_WPB	1883	x
Jean-François MARZAL	1882
Martin Keller	1882
Igor Bek	1880	x
Henry David	1879
pat cassidy	1878
Baile an Mhota	1873
Alice Bayandor	1871
michel tourville	1870
CHARLIE	1867	x
GUIVARCH Jean François	1864
conor foley	1863
Fran Swift	1861	x
Jacques Bakker	1860
michel doyon	1856
Jeannie Fitzgerald	1855
Max de Beer	1852
mayaude de Bonhome	1849
Stanley Lin	1844
Jean Charles Brothier	1844
MargyJoy	1839
marcello martemucci	1835
Jim Mullally	1834	x
David Boxley	1832	x
Patricia A Kelly	1827
Brigitte COUTHOUIS	1825
tigo jean	1822	x
Courtois Joseph	1821
Paule Amar	1820
Mircea Kivu	1818	x
FLOP199	1817
Carpol	1816
bgb37	1816
carter	1816
Henry Lin	1814
M. Hermsen	1814	x
Sboby	1813
Rick Crowe	1810
Robert Pascal	1809	x
Jeffrey Fox	1805
steven howard	1805
Mr Bob	1805	x
Ewac	1804	x
yanick Huvey	1804
James Morgan	1803	x

Above are the ratings from Bridge-Now up to last Wednesday May 03.

Declan the Donplayer dropped 10 points this week to a rating of 1470 after scoring 46% over 67 boards. 3 more hands and he would have had his 5 worst scores cut off and would have received about 49.5% average. Not too shabby for a guy who never attended a bridge class and is self taught.

"Eamon we need to talk about these transfers soon and why the computer keeps mixing up its hearts and its spades.
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