THe monster awakens in Croatia

Over in Croatia the Irish Open Team were meandering to defeat against Norway after 12 boards of 16 and things were looking grim. 39 imps to 11 behind. Up in the Gallery Galligan nudges Jeannie Fitzgerald and indicates there is action in these final few boards. Down at the table McGann spots Galligan animatedly trying to convince the doubtful Jeannie. He nods at Thomas and says sit up straight for these final 4 boards. There is some movement in the gallery. Things are going to happen.

Board 29

Quietly in the Open Room Carroll and Garvey accepted the defeat of 3NT.

Meanwhile Hanlon approached 3NT with intent and made 9 tricks. 

200 + 600 was always 800 and that is 13 imps 

Next the Norways decided to attempt 5Ds and probably Hanlon decided that 

a trump trick and an ace and some Hughie noise meant 5D is in the bin. 

Down 3 and 500 to add to a 100 collected by Garvey Carroll 

500 + 100 still makes 600 and thats 12 more imps 

Board 31 yielded another imp and the score was 39-37 but Hanlon was not ready to 

go for the breakfast just yet. He decided that food could wait and ventured a decent 6S.

Club Ace onside or Heart finesse working or maybe Diamond Queen dropping .. 

All those odds totted up must be over 80% so Hanlon pushed his chips into the pot. 

Over in the Open Room North claims EAst led the Diamond 2 but I reckon it was the nearest 

button on the bridgemate so he pressed it in disgust after going down in 6S.

Back in the Closed Room the monster closed down his best set of 4 boards in a while by gathering in 12 tricks in Spades and that was 980 to go with the Carroll Garvey 50 ..making 1030 to the good lads.

1030 was 14 imps and that meant 12 13 14 and 1 meaning 40 imps in 4 boards. 

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The monster shook his devastated opponents hands and departed the scene. Outside he was greeted by smiling team mates so he was happy. No offence intended to Carroll Garvey or McGann as we have to get this down on paper quickly and the results service was down so we had to make up some poetic licence. 

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Maybe the monster got some lucozade for the last few boards as historically Ireland lose imps on the late boards. 

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Well down Team Ireland Open ..

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Meanwhile in the Senior event Mesbur and Fitzgibbon aided in some way by BJOBrien and Michael McDonagh. The Seniors also came good in the 2nd half of the match outscoring their famous rivals by 31-1. 

I have not analyzed the boards of this match but if I was the NPC I would have lots of Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon on this team. Reigning European Pairs champs and just finished a successful 10 years on the Irish open Team. The other 4 members of Team Ireland Pat Barry Rex Anderson BJ O'Brien and Michael McDonagh are all good players in their own right but only Rex has a major medal. A bronze from 1979 in Lausanne ...No small achievement. 

This Ireland Senior Team has every chance to finish off the job which has started well but they need to keep Mesbur and Fitzgibbon warm. Adam and Nick are a 40 year partnership but can still be found 2+ nights a week honing their bidding system on Bridgebase Online 

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The woman also came back well against Scotland to achieve a winning draw. 

They need to get the sticks out and start winning some more matches. 

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Well done all TEAMS especially the monster Hanlon.