Ireland Lady Milne Trials End

The CBAI (Contract Bridge Association of Ireland) Lady Milne Trials ended after 2 weekends of female battle.

Joan Kenny Teresa Rigney Valerie Hand Aileen O'Keeffe Gilda Pender Hilary McDonagh form one of the teams to represent Ireland in the Lady Milne.

Mary Finn Jill Kulchyky Lucy Phelan Louise Reddan Bernie Lodewijks and Brid Kemple
form the other team to represent Ireland in the Lady Milne.

Full details of these trials can be found on www.fob.ie

Bernie Lodewijks and Brid Kemple are new caps and also a new partnership which formed recently. Bernie lives in Galway with husband Jeroen and in the past was active in Malahide Regional , Swords and the Regent Bridge Club.

Brid Kemple lives with partner and well known Irish international bridge player Terry Walsh.
Has claimed in the past she is a better declarer player then yours truly. However now she is an international player so maybe she is.

Lucy and Louise played in the Open Camrose last season when Ireland had 2 teams.
I don't know if they have Lady Milne history. However one husband John claims Lucy is the
best player in Waterford. I used to be the best in Dungarvan briefly when I visited.

The other 8 players have represented various Irish Lady Teams in the past so I don't need to write too much about them. Maybe tomorrow after I have done some research.

I went down to Templogue to catch the end of the trials. Jonathan Mathers was putting everything away. I gave a little help taking down screens and tables since nobody else was helping. Martin Keane arrived in just in time to do the hard job of re arranging the tables in the Templeogue Bridge Centre format. The venue was certainly not left the way it was received. People forget that somebody has to tidy up after them.

I heard some players thanking Brian Lawlor so he must have run a good show.

This years Lady Milne Trophy will be held in City North Hotel just off the motorway near Gormanston and  Balbriggan.

I saw in John Comyn Sunday Independant article that some chap does not like the new method used for teams scoring in World Bridge Federation. My own understanding is that lots of research went into this new method over the last few years. Details can be found below.

http://www.worldbridge.org/Data/Sites/1/media/documents/regulations/WBFAlgorithms.pdf

Further discussion is here
http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/55389-wbf-vp-scale-changes/

I had a feeling that these teams tables should be adjusted somewhat for Butler Pairs but Thomas Roche explained to me yesterday that the tables are fine for Butler Pairs as the datum is like an average of several teams scores .... It will do me for now.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Interprovincials 2013 Athlone

It looks like the Interprovincials are just finishing up in Athlone. Leinster captained by Bert McKay will win the Open Series  backboned by the O'Briain brothers with former Connacht star James Heneghan assisted by Dublin Norths well known bridge teacher Ranald Milne on Team 1. Juniors David Synnott and Hugh Gormally supported by Mid Leinsters best David Redmond and Liam Gaynor made up Team 2. Terry Walsh Brid Kemple Aoife McHale and Peter Goodman made up the 3rd Leinster Team.

A badly injury hit Connacht team were never at the races and the 3 Connacht teams total failed to match Leinsters top team. This team needs to get into training for next season starting now or else ressurect the old lads from the past who used to rule the interprovincials with an iron fist except of course when Team Silver lads were available of course.

Leinster historically always fielded a limited team and this year was no different. Usually a decent Dublin South Team , a medium team such as best Leinsters in the Kelbourne and maybe a Ladies Team. This years 12 players featured some juniors and some Mid Leinster region and some Lady Milne trialists.

Connacht need to resign the Dublin North resident James Heneghan quickly. No point in having your strongest player backboning the strongest province. Thats why Ferguson only sold his duds to the other top 4 teams.
Team Munster came roaring back into contention after a weak start in the first 2 matches. Johnny Phelan went to bed early and got up early this morning and went for a spin on the walking machine.
You have to admire that final round of Munsters. However the damage was done in Round 1 and 2. Mind you they were playing the injury hit and demoralized Connacht battlers.
Ulster fired on and off but overall they had too many matches lost. Ulster also were missing some of their bigger guns but people cannot play every event.
I was supposed to play a couple of matches in this event as a substitute for CBAI President but in the end he did not travell and put in a substitute.
Well done Team Leinster Open.

Connacht did win the Inter B interprovincials so there is good hope for the future of Connacht bridge. Leinster need to work on their strategy for next years Inter B interprovicials.

I wonder what is the selection procedure for Interprovincials. I presume one has to enter the various national events to get a look in so as a tournament director I would not be in the running.

www.fob.ie  has the information on this event assisted by bridge.silvertexter.eu

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I think next weekend is Lady Milne Trials and maybe Dundalk Congress .. and after that comes Kilkenny Bridge Congress.
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I played some BBO web version robots yesterday with Emer Joyce and the robots seem much improved.