Nearly finished IBU trials final.

Despite my best efforts I am a long way behind Carroll Garvey Hanlon and McGann.
However so far I am well ahead of Rory Boland and he is already retired to the bar since board 128.

Still 15 hands to go and I am going backwards ar a fast speed. 

Would be terrible to end up behind Rory Boland. 

Maybe I will get some plus scores to move myself upward. 

Outside in Swords the Beast from the East has landed. Had to sweep snow off Angelas car a while ago so she could go to work. However the dog still asks to go out to do his business. 

Its a little windy and snow is no longer falling. 

Jill Kulchycky who recently won IBU ladies trials (along with Tersesa Rigney) passed away yesterday. Details can be found on www.rip.ie. Jill also took the Ladies prize at the recent Holmes Wilson Trophy with her team mates. Its not normal to win a trials and be gone before the event you qualified for takes place. 

Anyway I will play the last 15 boards in time and report back. 

The Beast is still blowing outside and its only 724am .. Been up an hour already. 

Camrose Trophy this weekend in CityNorth ...all welcome Beast permitting ..

Playing the IBU Trials Final with Jack

Over the past few weeks I have been playing the IBU Trials Final with my trusty computer partner JACK (www.jackbridge.com) using 5 card major and strong NT with 2/1.

I am doing ok ..better than some finalists and worse than others. I would expect to be trailing to Hanlon McGann and Carroll Garvey but given my lesser opponents and my Jack partner should have good chance of beating the other players.

Despite vugraphing nearly all sessions I have little memory of the hands so this means its no problem to play a set of hands from the past despite having seen them in real life.

So after 123 hands nearing the end of the 8th set of 16 here are the scores.

My scoring system added 1 extra table of Jacks and my own extra table to the 2 tables of the final thus giving more reality to the cross imping. However I am aware that the additional JACKS may also flaw the scores in someones favour but think it is better than just cross imping 2 tables.

I have a feeling Hanlon McGann will rise to the top in the final 2 sessions as it felt like that while vugraphing. However we will see how it goes.
Maybe Galligan rises to the top with some good scores.
Regardless of result it is great to compare against Irelands best 2 teams or best 6 pairs.

Of course it might have been different is Onishuk rolled home the 7H contract but we will never know.
Once I floored a 7C cold contract by being a trick ahead of myself playing against Ciara Burns and John Murchan. Moral of the story is keep your focus in the slams no matter how easy it looks.

Recently I attended a Tournament Directors Workshop in Cyprus ... God that is a real headwrecker.
However I am better as a director because of it.

IBU Trials Final Sets 5 6 7

Down in the Clayton Leopardstown on Saturday 27th early the IBU Trials Final between a hard working COYNE panel and a kind of lack lustre Barton team continued.

Set 5 was action packed with 82 imps shared between the two teams ..

Saturday continued with Barton gaining 15 imps early but Coyne responded with a  33-7 imp finish  to  to tighten the match closer. Part of these imps saw 4H redoubled making at one table followed by a quick game swing added to that.

So now after 96 of the 160 boards it was a 3 imp game Coyne 190 plays Barton 193.

Meanwhile back on Galligans laptop Galligan and Jack computer took up the challenge using 1set of Jack comparisons plus my table plus the live trials comparisons.For the moment Galligan is doing well on paper but Galligan received a large gift of Jack flooring 7 spades when cold and gifting Galligan 57 imps when making the contract was probably 20 imps the other way so near 80 cross imps on 1 board of a gift. However that's what happened. Even Hanlon nods the odd time.

The final 16 boards on Saturday came up so lets see.

On the 2nd board Glynn rolled home 4HX while 5C  went down at the other table.
On the 9th board Garvey pulled one of his back catalog 8 card 2C openings and that ended in 3N down 4 for minus 400 ...added to the cold 5C for 600 made 1000 … and 14 imps
Team Barton went on a little rumble for the last 7 boards racking up 25-2 imps trim the lead.
Overall Score on Saturday night left both sides sleeping on 223 imps each ..a draw.

The final board on Saturday saw the first wind of Storm Hanlon on the horizon finding a good berth in 4H on a Moysian fit ...the old 4-3.