Dublin Summer Congress Teams predictions

Dublin Summer Congress Results Photos Information



In the Pairs events I did quite well, mentioning several of the top few placers. In the Mixed I did mention Barbara Seligman if she was playing with Nicolas Fitzgibbon. Named a few other good runners in the Saturday pairs events.

For the Teams ..

Inter B Teams ... 8 entries so I will pick Team 6 of McNeills Hamilton and Kelly.

Inter A Teams is tougher with 14 teams on the list.

Maybe Team 12 O'Briens Brennan and Moriarty or
Team 13 who are made up of ex-Saint Vincents Dundalk players and who do a little training and have young brains but are Karel influenced so could suffer the odd 1100 out.
An outside chance are the keen but fair weather team of Lighning Murray and his harem.

Area Master Teams ..

I will go with the experienced Westmanstown crew of McNamara Kelly Fitzgerald and Cummins.
They are on home ground so should be able to defend the realm.
However there is also a Malahide Regional Team led Lilian Foley who used  regularly trouble the scorers in Inter A events. They should be competitive in this higher grade also.


Congress Teams ..

The standout pick is O'Brien Jackson Mesbur and McGloughlin. There is lots of bridge experience there added to the incredible BJ O'Brien. Should be enough to triumph.

However

12

Roche,Tomas

Delaney,Paul

Corfield,Justin

Van Woerkom,Norbert

will be close to the podium at the end as will

8

De Raeymaeker,Karel

O'Connor,Kelan

Boland,Conor

McAuliffe,Michael

Team 3 Billy Ronan will find it too early in the season and are carrying excess weight and have two

newish partnerships. 

6

Newell,Sandra

Rigney,Teresa

Fitzgerald,Jeannie

Kenny,Joan

Two newish partnerships but if Fitzgerald Kenny put in a good shift they will be near the podium.

However new partnerships have too many agreements not in place to win.

15

Trench,Mary

McConville,Miriam

McAndrew,Jim

Gannon,Elva

Team 15 above ..a team packed with experience and caution so if the slams are not making then 

this team could arrive. Countless years of battling in Ireland's strongest bridge club should see this team take some large victories today.

16

Rudzinski,Marcin

McMaugh,Ronan

Gorczyca,Wojciech

I don't know who their 4th lad is .. maybe it is the Pole from Kilmacthomas in Waterford.

but whoever it is will give them a chance of a podium finish. 

11

Elvin,Richard

Noonan,John

Vaughan,Kathleen

Joyce,Emer

Again this team have a new partnership on board so lack of fitness will affect them. 

So its still Mesbut for me but his team have to win many matches against  teams who will fancy 

their chances of a victory. Justin Corfield is a mean declarer of the cards so if the hands are technical he might have the knowledge to guide something home. 

I don't know much about the organisation of this event but I suspect Rory Egan is heavily involved 

so well done to him and his team as this looks like a major event which will be continued. 

It seems to have good support from all Dublin Regions. I see names from MLR DNR DSR and EASTERN all present. Just because it says DUBLIN on the Congress heading does not mean 

we should not get more players from 50 mile radius. I note the presence of NIBU pair Harold Curran and Anne Fitzpatrick. They travelled a fair distance. No doubt there are some North Eastern Region players who came down. 

Dublin Summer Congress Predictions

The massive Dublin Congress takes place this weekend in Westmanstown. Rory Egan appears to be the chief bridge organiser. According to CBAI website we have 82 tables playing on Saturday alone.
I did not count numbers for Friday or Sunday yet.

Lets see who I think might win the events starting with the Mixed Pairs
45 pairs entered on CBAI website but that may not be the whole lot as they probably closed out and the organisers took later entries.

So Mixed Pairs ..for the top 5

Its hard to look further than

Thomas and Mary Roche
The incredible BJ O'Brien + Siobhan Part
The experienced Hugh McDermott and Joan Ryan are stellar performers in Regent for decades
An outside bet Tom Gilligan and Mary Kelly Rogers could do something
Another  outside bet could be Peter Stewart and Dolores Gilliland
And finally from the NIBU Harold Curran and Anne Fitzpatrick are doing a little work.

Barbara Seligman is on the list but her position will depend on whether partnering Nick Fitzgibbon or Rory Egan. Karel is also around ...
Two other pairs of note are John Noonan and Eileen Vickers ...along with Finian O'Donaghue and Mary Trench.
.............................

The Novice Pairs ...

Catherine Carabine plus 1 should go well

The Inter B Pairs

Carmel and Giles Murnin
Dorothy Arthurs and Beatriz Brain
Max and Marjorie McNeill

The Inter A Pairs

Martin and Adrienne Purdy
Maeve Delaney and Carol Daultry
John Moyles and Breda Dolan
Also Carol Sheridan claims she is good at bridge
Eileen O'Hare and Catherine Egan might do ok

The Area Master Pairs

Coughlan and Lane
Breheny and Phelan
Fitzgerald and Cummins are pretty good I hear
Gill and Gill could go well especially if it rains
O'Mara and O'Hanlon

The Congress Pairs

Roche Delaney
Onishuk Boland
O'Brien Jackson
Mcmaugh Rudzinski
 Kenny and Fitzgerald have a chance

However the hard ground will not suit Henry Lappin

I had a brief look for running scores on Friday but I found nothing.
I expect the running scores are there somewhere.

.........................
Meanwhile down in my local drinking club in Rivervalley a chap called Colin Darcy has indicated he will take me down at the bridge after he spends a couple of years learning the game.
He claims to be taking lessons from Dot Callinan out in Swords.

The robots on Bridgez treated me well again today .. I await the peleton

For the last few days I have taken my daily dose on Bridgez .. Getting mid 50% scores .. after my heroics on Friday where the peleton finally overhauled me late in the evening with tof90 and lechene posting 81% and 76% scores to leave my 74% in 3rd ..

Today Tuesday I got off to a decent start and played steadily thru 12 and finished off nicely 13-16 ..
So today the peleton is chasing a 76.73% score. I notice patbill has posted a 57% score which is almost 20% behind the yellow jersey

I played in Malahide Regional Bridge Club yesterday morning and you could not buy a score.
One player opened 12-14 No trump and her partner bid 2NT passed out and placed a chunky 13 count in dummy

Declarer mumbled I had 3 aces and you cannot do anything with them except make a trick.
Declarer eventually made 7 tricks for one down. For that effort declarer earned 42%.
A rather generous score.

Another more experienced chappie had a go at 3NT on the below hand.

After receiving a CLUB lead which gave him 4 CLUB TRICKS our man set about looking for tricks 10 and 11 ... He has a comfortable 9 tricks sort of on top.
4 Clubs Ace Diamond Spade Trick and 3 top HEARTSs .. this is 9 .. Most players will get 9 plus tricks from here.
Our man could have tried finessing the Spade 10 .. which even if it loses gets him 10 tricks..
A lesser option was the happy position of the DIAMONDS ..
Can also finesse the HEART 10 .... which will work ..

So 3 working options ..one in each suit to get extra tricks ...

However our man ended up with the very basic 9 tricks and earned a full 75% score for that effort.

Now I will communicate with these 2 players individually by email to see if we can do some learning or card playing improvement.

Maybe duplicate bridge should include 3-4 lines of the par score to boost things up a little.
Now there is an idea .. maybe its a good idea ..

Maybe I will do some trials on it

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

A bridge player could do worse than play Bridgez daily tourney

Folks

Sometimes I play the Bridgez Daily 16 board tourney .. Today I got a good start and then took a break after 10. On returning I got another few good boards and was up around 68%. I now knew a good finish would get me near the top of the table for today. Board 14 a 93% came my way and board 15 a 78% so one needed a nice finish on board 16 ... It came in around 70% and I figured top 5 or so ..
Currently it is numero uno and I await the pelethon or whatever they call that chasing group in the Tour de France that gobbles up folk who try to run away from the field ...

So if anyone wants to join todays peleton and chase down the Yellow Jersey worn by Galligan please do. I actually am wearing a yellow jersey ...One of  those Tourney Director or BBO tee shirts that you get when you are working at EBL events .. I have about 6 of them ... one could hardly wear the same one 13 days in a row.

http://bridgez.net:3002/playonthecloud