Bridge is played in the library on Wednesdays at 1930. Now I had been in the RDS Library before about 9 years ago when the RDS hosted "Clash of the Masters" a Hilary Dowling Long production.
Anyway shortly after I arrived I found out they had a standby player and folk who had no partners gave me their name and were paired up in order of arrival with the next person. The standby would then either play or go home depending on if he/she was required. A quick count of tables indicated 13.5 tables and 1 standby with no partner. I paired up 6-8 players. So my instructions from Paul O'Reilly was run 13 table mitchel or two smaller events if more than 13. So to save having a sitout I got permission from the Presifent to partner the standby as it made sense to have no sitout and not to do a 6.5 table movement.
So it was getting close to 745pm by the time I sat down to play my first board.
21 boards later and it was 1015pm and most players had departed the venue. I collected all my sheets and tidied away all the equipment required for 14 tables and I was in my car heading for Sandymount Hotel at 1028pm. My instructions were to deliver the sheets and names and some leftover players prixes to Paul O'Reilly at the hotel.. On arrival I noticed a sign saying O'Reilly party.
So I headed that direction and found a pile of bridge players and pile of O'Reilly tribal members and members of Liz Anns family celebrating a major birthday of Liz Anns. Think she was 40 or 42 or something.
Down in the corner was a group of Wicklow Bridge players who indicated they had a big Congress on this weekend and why was it not on my blog etc ..
So here it is .. but CBAI must be on vacation as they still have Galway Pokerstars whizzing across the top of the page when it should be Bray Bridge Congress or 70 year anniversairy Congress.
As a small child my domicile was Greystones and a cottage called Sunbeam Cottage. I only vaguely recalled the railway and being told it was very dangerous. You could walk behind our house and cross the railway on a metal bridge and go to the shop as far as I recall. Its about 47 years ago though.
Once in the 1990s when on the train to Wexford Bridge Congress I looked out the window and could see Sunbeam Cottage and was very surprised.
I won't be at Bray Bridge Congress as I am going down for a float on the Shannon but it would be great to have a bridge congress back on our doorstep so people should support it.
The venue is the Esplanade Hotel and its on the seafront. Its the hotel where Bray-Greystones chess club used to play back in the day. Seamus Duffy is a capable chess player from Bray. I used to know him when I was a teenage chess player. A few years ago a young chap who lives on my road approached me in our local community centre and indicated that his uncle knew me ..
That chap is now Steve from Kodaline .. http://www.kodaline.com/home
I guess his mum is from Wicklow then but I might be wrong. However they sing nice songs.
Don't think they play bridge though.
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Meanwhile if Bray is too far for you to travel there is always the Tom Hardiman and Nicky Fitzgibbon show down in Kerry. ... http://bridgeireland.com/
Details can be found at the link above.
Note to Bridge Congress organisers ... Contact Bridge Ireland and get your event on their website.
Too late for Bray this year but maybe next year if enough of ye go there this weekend.
Should be ok as normally 26-32 teams attend Bray Swiss Teams ..but this year its Pairs and Teams on
the Saturday and Sunday.. Kilkenny bridge players can go there as they don't know themselves .. No All Ireland Final this year for some reason.... First time in Jamie Martins long memory that Kilkenny were not in the All Ireland Final.
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I saw Brendan Martin and John Comyn and Ann Comyn and Bert McKay and Rita McNamara and Patsy Gibney and Maura Hand and some other bridge players in the Sandymount Hotel last night. Fionnula from CBAI office was there too. Also some players from Templogue Centre whose names I am not sure of.
However I had to depart Sandymount Hotel as I had my car with me and its not smart these days to mix guinness and cars. I recall sharing a house with a country lad who always wore a good suit to work. A customer facing employee of some computer firm. He literally ate guinness .. Two mouthfuls and it was gone.
One night he landed home about 11pm and looked quite normal. He said He had a few pints but did not look at all inebriated. 17 pints he said proudly and the car knows its way home.
Maybe the old advert was true ... Guinness is good for you.
I think they had to get rid of that advert years ago ,,,,as alcohol could not be good for you..
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Above are the results of the Ireland Imps Pairs held every Tuesday about 9pm on www.bridgebase online.
Some of the RDS bridge players even knew about this event. Several well known players too part there.
aoife was a late sub for the final round so 13th place is not her doing.
Up there in 3rd place are Fred and Kevin Barry... recent visitors to Brighton Congress I think
This Brighton event is a great event for any Irish players who want to sample a decent level of English Bridge. Also a great results presentation via some site called Pianola. Worth a physical visit some year or a virtual visit to see the website
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http://bridgez.net:3002/connexion.html
Several top and bottom Irish players are playing this event from day to day. You can play anything from 0 boards to the full 16 boards .. Recently I spotted an account called Mobrule playing .. Its most likely Michael O'Brian the well known bridge player from the Regent Bridge Club. James Heneghan indicated .."while the robots are maniacs sometimes it is very good to sharpen a players pairs technique.
James said something along those lines ..but not exactly that.
Eamon just played the first hand of today. Can you make 7D grand slam like Eamon did. 81% score if you do. The board is pre bid and set for everybody to play 7D so I am not giving anything away ..
The mobrule has played 62 boards this month which is quite a lot for a guy who does not play bridge on a computer as a rule but does watch lots of international vugraph.
I recently noticed two accounts called rashers and sausages playing. I think they are online partners.
However the rashers guy was naming his after a Strumpet City character... not the irish breakfast.
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Former Bankers Bridge Club stalwart Kevin O'Dea recently made a return to face to face bridge in the Teachers Club.
A good place for city bridge players to play
The two main Dublin Bridge Clubs are above so don't say I did not tell you
runs Open Pairs on a Friday night so if you want a game its easy to find and Dermot McCourt will be in charge. Hand record printout and bridgemate scoring are in use. 1930 and all welcome even Southsiders .
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