And Galligan was there waiting to catch them and they wondered about this LAW and LOTT.
Recently the old LAW has made its way into Malahide Bridge Club and the lazy lads and lasses are learning the LAW. Lucky for them Galligan has graduated to directing so I only get to prick up my ears when I hear the magical words "THE LAW" or TOTAL TRICKS as another bad score is written off as unlucky for the LAW.
I used to have books on the the LAW and I also thought it was great but once I learned its better have the opponents doing it I gave my LAW book away to a friend from Wexford Jim Sexton.
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Meanwhile the European championships are done with for both Adults and Juniors. The Open Team of Mark Moran Rory Boland John Carroll Tommy Garvey Thomas Hanlon Hugh McGann performed fairly well in making the 2nd stage but need to look after several leaky boards to become competitive in the Final stages. Poker players use some version of HM2 or HM3 to find leaks in their game ..Holden Manager .... Ireland need to make a program called Bridge leak manager.
Anyway as far as I recall Team Barton has a 3 year plan to make the Bermuda Bowl in 2017 so we will see how that goes.. 2017 is held in France and that means France qualify as hosts. Maybe Ireland should host the Bermuda Bowl and then we can play again. Of course the big issue is that most of the top 12 European Teams are fully proffessional and a little bidding practice and a few house games and chewing up some punters in Irish trials is not enough to give amateurs a fighting chance. The current Irish OPEN team though far more proffessional than any opposition on the home front will probably need to devote one day a week totally to bridge for starters.
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The Irish juniors also ventured forward although they went with lots of hope rather than any expectation.
Recently a group of young players have developed at the Gonzaga College in Ranalagh. Despite playing only about 18 months they were able to destroy all longer playing opponents in the Irish Schools championships. However it was the Irish Schools championships and would be middle of the road Intermediate B at the top end so not too strong. 18 pairs of Irish juniors descended on the European Juniors Championships and most of them ended near the bottom of their respective fields.
A couple of pairs made valiant attempts to reach the finals of their respective events but eventually the heat got to them. so a player told me.
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The Ladies Team started out very well and despite getting destroyed by Russia in round 7 they still had chances of a Venice Cup qualification up to about round 15 when Sweden emptied the dumper truck of large stones on them. Further crushing defeats against Poland and Austria ended the fading hopes.
However one does note that Ireland ladies did defeat the Netherlands who won the event in the opening round 14-6 and they did crush the 8th place finishers Romania 20-0. However those results were early on in rounds 1 and 2 so maybe the effects of their heavy training program was still paying off dividends.
In short the Irish ladies team needs to add 50% to their games to be competitive at the top end of womans bridge. Can it be done ... they will say unlikely ..but I personally think we can field 3 pairs who are 50% improved on the current team ..... This could be the exact same pairs if the work is done ...
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As for the Seniors ..well I am not familiar with their team selection process but if Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon are on my team ... I am going to warm the bench unless one of them has left the country where the event is taking place.. Ireland Seniors went very well to qualify into the final 10 teams out of the Swiss.
However unfortunately Adam and Nick were not present for 2 matches and Team Ireland got destroyed in those matches. To repeat ...if I am on their team .. I am sitting on the bench while our European GOLD medalists just turn up and their presence alone is worth 20 imps ..
Now Adam and Nick might get slapped for 1400 and lose 14 imps but they will be capable of gathering 10 imps on the next board to make up for it ... Other pairs might lose a 2nd 14 imps and thus be 28 imps down. Anyway Big chance missed for Ireland to take a place at the Seniors Bermuda Bowl in 2015.
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The answer for all Irish bridge players is ... More training ..and then some more training ...
Perseverance and determination defeats genius and talent so get training as we are a little short on genius and talent. This is all players not just international aspirants.
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Meanwhile our well known bridge genius is out in Las Vegas battling against the bridge giants. This is in the Spingold Trophy one of the top bridge events in the world. World champions ate 10 a penny in this event and even being a world champion does not guarantee one a top seeding.
Vugraph of this event will start at 9pm tonight and there might be 2 matches covered. Usually starts with top seeds and after that they move to the closest fought matches. I once got to vugraph one of these major matches ..sitting behind Meckstroth and Rodwell typing in their moves.
Speaking of Meckstroth he looks a much slimmer animal in the most recent picture. Hopefully it is a training regime as opposed to something else.
Thomas Hanlon plays on a team with Fred Gitleman Les Amoils Bred Moss and Justin Lall.. For some reason Joe Grue is the NPC. I remember when I worked in Rochester Minnesota there was a bridge regional event in the hotel I was staying in and somebody pointed out the Grue family winning some prize. This was 1998 and Joe Grue was a 14 year old kid with a sleepy eye. I think he has got better at bridge since and I did a quick search to make sure he was not sick or dying.. Turns out he is just unavailable to play in the event.
http://web3.acbl.org/nabcresults/?sanction=NABC142
Results and Bulletins can be found at the link above.
I met Justin Lall Bred Moss Fred Gitleman in the past. I only know Les Amoils from a few bidding practice sessions with Thomas Hanlon on BBO. Fred used to come over and smoke with me at US Nationals in SanFrancisco in 2007. I asked why not smoke with your bridge friends. He said " I see them every month so no panic" Fred is one of the owners of Bridgebase Online and played for USA in the Buffet Cup in Ireland in 2006.
God be with the days when Eamon Galligan and Donal Bell worked a massive photocopier thru the night at the 1991 European Bridge championships in Killarney. Just to ensure the folk had a copy of the Bulletin at their breakfast table. We managed to photocopy a few bridge books as well. I still have my photocopy of Adventures in Cardplay ... Mind you I also now own 2 copies of the real book but back in the day bridge books were expensive and drink was cheaper.
http://www.eurobridge.org/52nd-ebl-team-championships.aspx
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