This morning I was up early to put out the bins as its not good to miss the bins. So I put out 2 bins full of rubbish. So I was happy that was the end of the rubbish.
Decided to play Wbridge5 16 hands daily FREE tourney while waiting for Junior Bridge to start.
I play this somedays with the target of finishing ahead of the best player in Malahide. Most days I finish ahead but I always want to put 10% on him ...just so he knows ..
Today I managed about 9% win ...
Then the bridge started .. playing 20th and 21st today the lad says
Well the 20th place team is currently leading Ireland U26 by 70 imps after 8 boards ..
That's like when I used to come up against Pat Walshe Rory Boland Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon all on same team in Regent Leagues. Maybe Nick was not playing that night ..It might have been Hanlon. Galligan Delaney Karel Anna got chewed up and spat out.
But this is our Great New Bridge hopes getting chewed up by Estonia ..
Board 2 was a 20 count facing a 6 count and our lads play in 3H+1 ..
They only have a 4-3 fit so 3NT is normal
Board 3 is a 3NT where there seems to be no play except wide open .. 3-3 diamonds and a heart finesse plus 3-3 break giving 4 Hearts 4 diamonds and spade ace ...There is no other line but our lad
finds a DOWN 2 line ..
Board 4 . 16 hcp opposite 10 hcp ... our lad is the only outlier .. the only lad to declare 1NT
The other 25 tables all declare 3NT ... as do all the grandpas and grandmas in bridge clubs across the country.... that's any bridge club ...even the one in the far west of Galway ..that always wins the Simultaneous Pairs ..
Board 5 .. and its not getting any better .. our lads choose to defend 2DX despite having a 4-4 spade fit ...4S is no gimmee so would forgive declaring a spade part score ...but minus 180 in 2D is not going to please teamies .. At least it did not cost much as Teamies lost 620 in 4S.
Board 6 ... if left alone North South might do the transfer to clubs and superaccept into 3NT but that's hardly going to be left alone as East West have a large diamond fit so will be competing in diamonds or might even find a 4-4 heart fit for some part score
Our lads paid out on 3NT in one room and 5 clubs probably a sac in the other room
6 boards gone and the score is 55-1 and growing ...this Irish team are broken ..
Board 7 .. brings some peace and fresh air ...we only lose 3 imps for down in 3NT in both rooms.
Board 8 .. Minus 760 ... and the opps have a 5-5 spade fit ... 1NT redoubled ...the excitement continues ... "We are playing the 20th place team resounds in my brain ..
Board 9 .. and Estonis are not finished yet .. .they have no choice but to smack 5 clubs
and when the fire is put out ...that's minus 800 ....83-1 after 9 ...
Board 10 brings a double part score swing .. some other tables even bid game in spades ...
It kind of makes on good lies in the cards .. lose 7 more imps .. so score is 90-1
Board 11 our lads begin the comeback ... 4 imps in the bag ... 5 plays 90 ..
Board 12 ... our lads make 3NT in Open Room ... Maybe the Estonians will go in 6 or 7 clubs going down ...We will see ... This match is still in play at board 12 ....
We will have a quick look at our other 2 teams ...
The Under 21s are battling in a 17 team event and its not going well. However this is a much less experienced squad than the aforementioned Under 26 squad. The U21s are here for experience.
The U26 had reasonable hopes of making the top half. However we need to be very aware that European U26s is a high level of bridge.. much higher than Junior Camrose and Peggy Bayer.
Our 3rd team are the Under 16s and again its an experience thing here too.
Ireland and Scotland are the whipping boys or "girls" in our case here.
We got our victory against Scotland ...and a 28-39 loss to the Netherlands could almost be counted as a win as Netherlands never send out bad teams in any bridge event.
...
So congratulations to all Irish participants as these are tough events to go to and find out some more work is required to even be competitive.
Its like Cavan GAA team going out last Saturday against Tipperary ... Half Time arrives and Cavan lads are leading 0-12 to 0-6 ... and Northern Sound commentators are gushing in their praise of these great Cavan lads .. Some lad making his debut called Caoimhin O'Reilly is getting great praise ... he scored 2 points I think is the first half ....Nobody noted the Tipperary lad hitting the crossbar just before half time... Those Cavan lads must have gone in the dressing room and listened to Northern Sound. I brought the dog for a walk as I counted my winnings ...
Came back with 7 minutes left to find ....Tipperary 2-13 ... Cavan 0-13 ... These great players had managed to score 1 point in 30 minutes of play ... while Tipperary banged in 2-7 ...
Meanwhile Northern Sound commentators were long gone ...they were over commentating on Monaghan putting 3-23 past Wexford ...
The Cavan lads thought it was over at half time ... Someone forgot to tell the opponents ..
Once you start going backwards ..things speed up ..
So with trepidation one will return to the Estonian Ireland U26 bridge match
Yes the 6 clubs forcast came through ...and Ireland banged in 28 imps to finish on a high.
However the damage was done earlier ...and the result remained 20-0 loss.
90 imps plays 29 ... I think one starts getting points at around 55 imps or lower.
The Irish Under 26 did well to gain some traction in the last few boards.
28 imps is a nice collection but no use in this match except to recover some confidence.
.............
So its Greece next for our recovering heroes ...
http://www.eurobridge.org/
All information and boards and results can be found at the above link by going to the Microsite.
www.bridgebase.com
Play of several matches can be watched live on Bridge Base Online ..
One is unlikely to see any Irish teams as normally they show leading teams playing other
leading teams ..
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