Junior Bridge Fundraiser

Last weekend we ran a fundraiser in aid of Irish junior bridge out in Malahide.
The we was Dublin North Region , Billy Ronan , Thomas MacCormac and Mary Reid aided by a decent supply of junior players. Juniors moved boards and filled in for some late arrivals who got the start time mixed up.

Junior bridge supports under 15 under 20 and under 26 age group levels of bridge

We had 15 teams of novice and 1 team made up of 3 Bs and a novice ..

For the B team any novice team meeting them was credited with 3 VPs added to their score.

Two big wins here were some funds towards junior bridge and being able to run a novice teams event for the novices of the Dublin North Region. We hope maybe next year with more advertising to formulate a Dublin North versus Dublin South type novice event. Something like say if we get 24 teams ... We would put 12 DNR teams as Teams 1-12 playing 12 DSR teams 13-24. Then we could have a true North versus South matchup.

Thomas MacCormac went through some hands mainly about having your rebid prepared and also about the value of distribution …meaning it is possible to make slam with only 24 high card points then Thomas threw it open to the floor for as long as people had questions.

Getting 15 teams of novices into one venue at the same time is a big deal.

I noted said novices exhibited normal bridge behaviour ..

1. We are not slow
2. We were held up
3. The opponents think too much
4. Going to wrong tables
5. Playing wrong boards
6. Its never their fault
7. Carefully laying out dummy 1 card at a time
8. Carefully playing out the last 7 tricks of winning cards .. (“Oh I knew they were all winners but they (opps) might not agree.
9. Many mobile phones were in use throughout the play despite it being disallowed
10. One lady was watching some sport on her lap as she played …well it looked like Blue and Gold jerseys
11. Arguing that we are North South and we never move tables ..

When I indicated Thomas McCormac was an international bridge player …the lady said ..April Fool .. pull the other one

Dublin North Region and Malahide Regional Bridge Club and Paddy English  were the hosts and I understand Paul Porteus donated a nice prize too. Some day he will get 2 boxes of stuff that are in my car boot.

Thomas said .. “The big point is Malahide/DNR/Paddy English done this for juniors …now I can go to the other regions for a similar event possibly helping organise an event solely for novice players of other regions.

Results and hands and full details of the event have been posted by Aidan Synnott

http://www.dnrbridge.com/styled-41/index.html

Some junior bridge players who were in my car afterwards getting a lift to Malahide Railway station were very impressed with the 3H opening made by the Fitzwilliam pre-empter in a recent blog.
"That's the kind of player we would like to partner .. No fear bridge "