This week before heading off to Camrose Weekend 2 presumably Team Moran went to Monaco for a warm up or is it Switzerland. I have not checked.
Day 1 Saturday March 1 saw the Moran team struggling below mid table ... 33 place out of 64 contenders. Now it is Swiss Teams qualifier of 15 rounds so no major panic until day 3.
Day 2 saw Moran score a 14 3 11 3 and 13 ... for a total of 44 ...
This was not going to trouble the scoreboard man either and Moran were resting overnight in 45th position on 91 VPS with 100 being average. We are 23 VPS out of qualifying at this stage. However it is the vast number of teams you have to pass out is the problem ... 29 of the buggers or so ..
Top 16 qualify for the knockouts ...
Day 3 dawned and the Irish wolfed down the banned black pudding and rashers while the other teams feasted on blackberries and raspberries and pieces of apple.
Match 11 Moran got swamped by a very decent POLOWAN team including reknowned English player Tom Townsend. 15-5 loss and down to 50th place. Time to book the flights home.
26 VPS and some change out of qualification. 80 VPS to play for.
Match 12 featured a match against Kiki Ward Platt ...including 2 Helnesses and Buratti of Race car fame. Ward Platt lived in Ireland for a year or so some time ago but don't think she ventured out in CBAI land bridge. A 17-3 victory eased some of the pain for Team Moran now in 43rd place and 22 VPS out of qualification... Definitely time to ring the airport
Match 13 and old foes Buras and Narkiewicz from Poland aided by World famous Versace appear as next opponents... It shows the depth of competition when you find 3 world champions down in 44th place as your opponents.
20-0 was the result .... but MORAN was the winner..
Now into 30th place and 11VPS or so out of the qualification
Match 14 ... and Bridge24PL ...a proffessional Polish squad loom as opponents ...
A 19-1 victory to Moran and things are warming up ..
Moran is now 20th with one match to go and 4 VPS out of the knockouts
More Poles including the multi world champion and world famous bridge coach Krystoff Martens.
Known as Christy in Dublin 4 the man has sat on a high stool and slugged a few guinness a few times. However worries about being wider than he is tall slowed him down.
Martens has been in Dublin coaching the Moran squad from time to time. I even ventured into the session myself and nobody ran me.
I listened to Martens explaining to McGann Hanlon that "You guys are amateurs and need to spend 2 weeks warming up for big events .... me I am ready to go every day "
Martens 4 Moran 16 and Moran enters the knockout phase .....
16 teams and not many bad players left in the event ....
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