However the 3 English teams all medaled so that is ok. We(vugraph operators and visitors to English bridge congresses) have met most of these players over the years from doing vugraph at Lady Milne or travelling to Brighton. We know Fiona Brown of English ladies probably the best as she is often here at some Irish events. So congratulations to them. We saw Tony Forrester make a fantastic 6S on a 4-3 fit in Gormanstown last year. We ate David Golds pizza as he encouraged us to get up there quick as in his experience it would be all gone quickly one early morning after a Camrose. We recall a very young David Bahkshi playing Junior or maybe Peggy Bayer for England in Howth in the 1990s ....Well lets say the vugraph theatre ran on transparencies and a thing that projected onto the wall. We wrote with a marker on the transparency. Bridgebase Online was somewhere in the future then.
SO WELL DONE ENGLAND...
Irish teams have defeated English Open and Senior Teams but less so the ladies ...So where are our medals and Bermuda Bowl qualification places ... I think we need to find 15% improvement all over our teams.
I don't know the answer to this but maybe somebody in CBAI can take some feedback in the direction of LESSONS LEARNED and look to the future.
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Meanwhile last night myself and Jeannie Fitzgerald tackled WBridge5 16 board tourney.
There were some wonderful hands last night and this one attracted my interest in my local drinking den.
First of all here is how you can join this fantastic free tourney ..play 0-16 boards a day
or download WBridge5 program and find Bridgez tab
Well my partner showed me 13-17 according to the Wbridge5 programs output so I gently invited with 4NT. Now my robot bid 5D so I took the plunge to 6NT. I think most sane human beings would pass my 4NT and the story would not have happened.
Anyway there I am looking balefully at the 6NT and the only thing I can see is doubleton Diamond Ace with a good guess if its there. So I win the 7 of Heart lead with the King and lead a diamond towards the Queen. The 10 of diamond pops up and my queen is eaten by the ACE... I am pondering what next ..maybe I can get some count on the hand or something and maybe East had JT doubleton.
A voice interupts me ... "Eamon ..how is the 16 hands going today ...what score have you got.. "
Its Declan the Don player in his best inner city Dublin accent. ..."What do you mean you don't know what score you got ... Eamon ..the man who knows everything knows his score ...
Well what have you got for the month then ... I says " Declan I don't know its only the first day ..
"Eamon well I know ..you were only 39th place in June ... "
"Declan but have of them chaps only played 5 or 6 boards in the month they don't count ..."
"So whats going on here anyway .. " " Declan I am in a slam and need to make 12 tricks "
So we had 1 trick in the bag the Heart King and had lost trick 2 to the Diamond Ace
2 TEN QUEEN ACE ..
And before we could test any suits for count the robot fires back a diamond putting it up to us ..
"I say Declan .. I going to play the KING and hope for Diamond JACK TEN doubleton ."
"No no Eamon .. play the 9 ..its free money .. the 9 will win .. I bet you "
Now Declan does not play bridge as such .. but he knows stuff ..lots of stuff ..like fly fishing and buying car engines off gypsies on tic and he plays the solitaire bridge on Bridgebase Online for fun. Has no clue what he is doing in the bidding as he has not learned that yet but he is intrigued with the game ..
"Ah Eamon I come in from work and I fire up the lapper and I play those robots for an hour or so "
Declan is a major fan of Maurice Quinn as he kept a watchful eye on Maurice from a distance one night in Malahide Bridge club. " Eamon I wanted to be dead when I got to the stage I could not walk too well and needed help ... but now I want to be like Maurice .. game of cards and can of guinness and Eamon ...He even wins some nights "
I say Declan ..why the 9 ... Eamon its free money ... you said that if I have two cards then I play the highest one .. Does that robot play that way too .. I says "Yea I guess ..
Then Eamon ...if he got JT doubleton the other lad holds 87 ..diamonds and would have led the diamond 8 not the 7 ... and if he only has the 7 ..then the other lad started JT8 ..and would have played the 8 the first time as it is same as 10 ...
..........
I went downstairs for a boys room and a smoke and got chatting about World Cup. I came back up and Declan was gone back to his mates .. He glanced over with a satisfied look on his face ... " Told yah Eamon free money .. 9 of diamonds .. That stupid robot threw away all his spades and I done him like Seabiscuit ..
.........................
Time was tipping on and I had 5 more boards to play so I got stuck in and finished off the boards. When I got home later I examined the hand where Declan played the diamond 9 ... because if the 9 won then I still only had 11 tricks .... Turned out Declan played off his winning Heart and 3 winning clubs and the chap in the WEST got caught with 4 spades and J8 of diamonds and only allowed keep 5 cards ...
Declan just presumed the robot was stupid but the truth is a non-bridge player just figured out a hand to play the diamond 9 and then executed a squeeze on WEST ... without having a clue what he had done ..or did he know ... I will ask him tonight ..
DONE THEM LIKE SEABISCUIT he says ..
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Then as we are going home early this morning ... "Eamon who is the bald lad on youtube I was watching playing the bridge ... He looks like he knows everything.. Does he play the 16 board tournement ??"
I says .. thats bjoboru and he plays it ..
"Ah yeah eamon he was ahead of you on the month of June ..I saw him 67% ...He must be good"
Would he be better than my man Maurice ,,
Declan BJ has a bit to go to catch up on Maurice .. but BJ is not a bad player.. He just is not the finished article..
"But Eamon that bald lad has a great laugh ...I saw him laughing on youtube but I did not get the joke. "
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