Declan the Donplayer overtakes

Many years ago I taught a guy in secondary school in Saint Patricks College Cavan how to play chess. Soon he became competitive and started to go close to beating me if I was not watching. We used to move on the 15 second hand of his watch. One day the inevitable happened and he won a game. This was almost 40 years ago and that guys name was Barry O'Reilly. He was a year older than me and a boarder in Saint Patricks College Cavan. I have never seen or come across him since he left Saint Pats. However I taught him chess from scratch and before leaving Saint Patricks College Cavan he was beating me in half our games. He was also a late developing GAA player and made the college team in his later years in Saint Pats. He was from somewhere down around Templeport or Ballyconnell I think. At this time I was travelling to Dublin as a teenager to play chess for Cavan Chess Club in the Dublin Leagues in the Ennis Shield. Bizarrely two of my opponents of those days live in the same roads as me as an adult in Swords. Arthur and Brendan Daly of POESSBA Chess Club(Eircom)

So what has this all to do with bridge. Well I have played and directed bridge for many years since my teenage chess years. As some folk will know I taught a guy called Declan the Donplayer how to play bridge in my local drinking club. Last night he came over to myself and the laptop and was spouting something about having a 20 euro bet that he would beat me one of the weeks on
http://bridge-now.com

I took this with a grain of salt as most of Declans bet provide no upside for me.
The bet will be 20 euro if I beat you one week on Bridge Now before Xmas 2017.
However there is no mention of how Eamon can win.

Anyway Eamon woke up this morning and noted the Bridge Now results had arrived.
Declan the Donplayer had been touting a 54% game this week.
Eamon knew that Eamon had struggled this week and was going to be lucky to make 57%.

With trepidation Eamon entered http://bridge-now.com and noted my score was 56.22%.

Looking at the Ireland players I had marked ...Eamon saw

2	pat cassidy	71.41%
4	Michael Beirne	70.46%
10	Karl Cashen	67.42%
21	Jeannie Fitzgerald	64.94%
38	Jester	62.24%
66	tom gilligan	59.99%
93	Dermot O'Brien	58.93%
103	M.T. Keane	58.66%
117	declan mc kenna	58.15%
141	mary mcnamara LPP	56.80%
157	Eamon Galligan	56.22%
166	Umberto Verdi	56.09%
200	barbara mccaul	54.73%

There was Declan the Donplayer sitting in 117th place 40 places ahead of Galligan.

Amazingly this chap has been once in a bridge club and never attended as much as a beginners lesson but here he is scoring 58.15% over 71 hands on a site where several very decent Irish bridge players play each week.

At least now I should be able to get some bet on with him for the weeks from now until Xmas.
He did tell me that this day would come as he is a Sherriff Street man and Sherriff Street men get what they decide they want. He reckons he is blessed as he got baptised 7 times. Apparently that's the way it was done in Sherriff Street. Every new baby produced 7 new mickey money applications.

No time for bridge ....

Fishing Drinking Gambling Looking after the elderly parents ,trying to get visits with his kids , earning a few euros from his painting and decorating gigs all come ahead of playing bridge for Declan the Donplayer.

However he always says " I love this game .. I love it "

Strangely enough I don't here many folk in the bridge clubs indicating they love the game.
Noted a quote from Thomas Bessis a French world champion who said
"I learned bridge aged 11 and I will play until my last breath"

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

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