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