Round 14 Senior Bermuda Bowl v Dubai

This morning after a small loss against Australia Team Ranald went into battle against the powerful Dubai bridge team.
Board 17 (the first one) saw the valient Milne O'Brien partnership find the comfortable contract of 2NT. Chinese Teipei were the only other NS to find this contract. Added to 2S EW from Mesbur this was 6 imps.
Board 18 saw the UAE declare a reasonable 4H but Ranaldo happened to have a Club nearest his thumb and it was the killing lead.
Board 19 saw UAE venture into  a Moysian fit but the incredible BJ O'Brien landed on that with a thud. He done the "I have 5 trumps " double and it was 1100 .... 31-0 to Mesbur
Board 20 saw what was probably a horrific weak NT opening and the UAE landed on it with a thud.

The incredible BJ O'Brien smiled happily at his opponent as he recounted his 11 high card points. 8 tricks later and BJ was minus 500 and down 9 imps. He will sit up straight for the rest of the match.
Ireland by 31-9 ...Look at that 1NT opening .. Your mother would not open it or Ruth Giddings.
Board 21 a quiet 4S
Board 22 saw Mr Nobody fail to negotiate a treacherous 4H contract

Now its 32-14 Ireland ...

And then the lucky opponent on the Incredibles right hammer raised her partner into a very comfortable 3NT and suddenly Irelands 31-0 lead was down to 24-32.

AND then ... the lady from the Right hammer struck again

3NT declared by Fitzgibbon and the experienced SUMAR saw UAE make it and Fitzgibbon come up short. Now normally Fitzgibbon is a serious declarer but something went wrong here.
And with 7 scores to go its the Emerites by 34-32 after a horrific start.

Two part scores on 27 to win 6 imps and regain the lead by 3

We got another 13 imps ... looks like a gift when UAE stumbled into 5H on a 3NT contract hand .
Ireland lead by 51-35

However this is a match of bottom feeders. Most of the Irish team are only reaching match fitness now and the event is long gone from their grasp. You cannot just turn up from a feed of Ireland nationals where you are some of the strongest players probably playing on relatively strong teams and go into a World championships where even the poor players are capable.
Bridge is hard and needs hard work to succeed.

I recall whipping Pat Barry and Rex Anderson into shape before a similar event ...
It was only some bidding practice on Bridgebase but they turned up ready for battle ... like thoroughbred greyhounds... ready to chase that metal hare.

Its over ... Ireland won by 11 to keep a firm grip on their 20th placing out of 24.

Ireland goalkeeper better prepare his back as some heavy hitters are coming in next 8 matches ..
2 times USA .. Italy Denmark Poland Norway ... Turkey .....
Bulgaria and Reunion might provide us with some imps ....but the other 7 matches listed above will require Mesbur and Fitzgibbon at full throttle .....and unfortunately they cannot play at both tables.

So we will need the incredible Ranaldo Briain O'Brien in his HEAT 1 .... this is where every card lands butter side up and every slam makes and every signal is understood by partner ... The Beast O'BrienBriain is about to be launched on unsuspecting Americans and Turks and Poles and Danes.

Its going to be like the Dubs on the drive for FIVE.

So get up at 630am like Eamon and watch the Dream Team ...however they are not vugraph material yet but one can watch RODWELL and follow BJ on the running scores

Bermuda Bowl and lesser events

World Bridge championships Rounds 7-9

Good morning folks

The 4 World championships continue but as we only have representatives in the D'Orsi Bowl we will focus on that. We got as far as round 6 in the last report. 3 rounds of 48 boards a day. Round 12 is running live as we speak. Board 21 just now was a grand slam bid by 21 of the 24 pairs. As two of them were in the same match NORWAY v NEW ZEALAND neither lost any imps. The sole loser was ENGLAND fresh from tonking Ireland in round 11 who lost 13 imps.

Meanwhile its Ireland powered by the awesome Mesbur Fitzgibbon partnership playing Netherlands and the score is 3-3 after 6 boards.

Round 7 . .saw Ireland dish out a 43-6 trimming to SWEDEN ..
Round 8 .. saw Ireland get a hiding from CHINA ...

I am totally lost as to how one could play this hand in 1NT ... by North South.
And NO this did not happen in Malahide on one of the inter B  or novice nights ..
This was a pair who had flown 9000 km to play a bridge game in the World Championships ..
I just cannot figure it ... 55 in the majors .. surely after whatever WEST opens we reach a 9 card spade contract .... even part score is a start ..
And you cannot just fetch up and play in the World championships ... you got to get on your countries team first and then qualify out of Europe .. and then fly 9000km in a round tin cigar tube.

East West got to declare 4H and NS found the good DOUBLE .. You own 3 ACES and the makings of 2 vulnerable undertricks ,,, but somehow the Chinese magician emerges with 11 tricks and 990 ...a 1490 gain on the board .. 990 plus the 500 he could have lost ..

Mesbur and Fitz dropped 550 on the board but they were losing 400 anyway for 5D making NS so no big deal.
Its like the time I dropped 2200 on a board as Thomas MacCormac whispered quietly from dummy ASAL ASAL ... I think its an Irish word .. and its a compliment for what I did.
We were playing in England and most don't speak Irish there ..
The 670 that McAulliffe McMaugh dropped at the other table  was irrelevant as 2200 or 2870 is much same imps.

Here we saw Mesbur and Fitzgibbon find a STOP sign on their road to 6D and grind to a halt before they were finished bidding. The 3-2 fit was beyond them .. Just shows even THE GREATEST can have an accident .. I am suspecting one was cuebidding when the other thought it was canape .
However I could be totally wrong

Meanwhile in the live match the sheep have escaped again and are eating more lettuce.
Netherlands by 22-4 after 12 boards.

In the China match there was also a missed slam and a nearly making 3NT on board 1 ..as Ireland took the 40 imp hiding from the hosts.

Then came round 9 and INDONESIA ... and a much needed victory against LASUT and MANOPPO two legends of the bridge world .. I even have a book written by Henry Lasut on some bidding system from Indonesia. Lasut has been playing bridge a good while so he must like the game. Almost as long as Nick and Adam have been a partnership.

Breaking News Ireland got 13 imps on the final board as NETHERLANDS attempted a low percentage slam and it failed. So 17-22 loss but about 3 VPS better than after 15 boards.

The Bermuda Bowl started and I forgot about it

Over the weekend the Bermuda Bowl started and I kind of missed that. However I caught a fleeting glimpse of BJ watching on as Ireland sheep-dogged France into a losing position only for the sheep to escape and eat all the lettuce nearing the last hurdle. 

Round 1 started with a comfortable victory for Elder Ireland against New Zealand ... but the concession of 24 imps on the way meant the goalkeeper and defence had some work to do. 

Round 2 saw Ireland play an experienced Canadian squad so a loss was probable.

and so it came about 50-16.... the strikers were not bringing in as much as the defenders let out.

Something like Wolves Chelsea on Saturday ... Wolves lost about 5-3 or so

Round 3 and China Hong Kong slapped another 40 imps in the onion bag .. to 16 or so back 

Round 4 and India fetched up ... Ireland led small after 11 boards but then coughed up a cold 3NT not bid in the Ireland room and followed by a major suit game with good play declared in 2H by Ireland. 

This is a bigger pond than the Regent Bridge Club so we are going to have to sign up some Irish Americans for the squad. So lose by 5 imps instead of win by 5 imps or so 

Round 5 and France loomed on the horizon .. the goalkeeper could be busy but Ireland led with 3 boards to go ...Then came to 11 imp losses and Ireland lost by 5 again ... 

Board 15 looks like a slam that makes with careful play .. 

Board 14 looks like a doomed 3NT 

However I have not got time to study the hands fully 

World Bridge Championships

The link is above ... Don't be scared if you see BJ O'Brien .. He is playing there. 

I will have a bigger look later. A quick glance indicates loads of lucky slams by the opponents. 

However one has to bid some slams ...

I bid a slam today and got doubled .. Off one ace and a 5-0 trump break in 6H. 

Damn .. down 1 as I sneaked a HEART thru the doubler. 

However worse news was I could have bid 6NT and made it .. but I did not know if I was short 2 aces or 1 ace and 5 trumps .. No big deal anyway. 

Boards 13-26 of MRBC Sep0319 and Billy goes Pula

This morning I completed the final 14 boards of the Tuesday Game in Malahide Bridge Club. I did better this time then the previous attempt. I finished on about 59% score which is always in the running for a prize.
I used Jack Bridge program as my partner and opponents.
Here is my video of the goings on

Eamon plays Malahide   link to movie

..............
Meanwhile out in Pula Croatia some Malahide members are carrying the flag.
You can examine the scores of Billy Ronan Thomas Gilligan and Peter Stewart here.

https://www.pulabridgefestival.com/results/

Magic Murphy had problems finding the 2019 results so if you cannot locate the 2019 results on the above page then you do have company. Might not be good company but ..

Now its time for the haircut ...the bi annual hair cut from Stephanie.

Next door to where the new ALDI resides

Galligan plays Malahide Sep0319 .. Pula Bridge event ..Slow play

Last night I fired up my Python script and generated a pbn file for Jack for the previous Tuesday in Malahide. There are a few reasons for doing this.

1. To see if my bridge strategies work against the average Malahide dude or duchess.
2. To demonstrate how slow the game is in Malahide.
3. To see if I can win the event
4. To allow some lesser players to see a mavericks thought process.

In Malahide Bridge Club the players mainly play straight down the line. Several have said to me that "Eamon you don't play normal bridge like the rest of us"

I often reply "You guys don't play normal bridge like most of the folk I know"

So we will look at item 2. Contract Bridge Association of Ireland indicates that 7.5 minutes should be taken per board and we have chaps out in Malahide who inside on their 22.5 minutes at every table. Then they add some post mortems and some socialising and sometimes spill the tea and other stuff.

Today without rushing my video is south of 48 minutes ....47 minutes 3 seconds to be exact. This includes several pauses for post mortems especially on my bad boards. I  managed to play 12 boards.
Thus its 4 minutes per board WITHOUT rushing in any way. So surely the Malahides could manage to get each board finished in a comfortable 6 MINUTES. Its a long time to make a few bids and play 13 cards in a follow suit game.

So below we have the first 12 boards of Malahide Regional September 3rd.
Thats my next brothers birthday. He is not too good at counting but he is good at painting and art stuff

https://newirishart.com/irish-artists/paul-galligan-artist

Finally here is the video of the first 12 boards. I think I ended on 56.5% .. This is a whole lot better than my previous attempt at Malahide Tuesday.

Galligan boards 1-12 Malahide September 3rd

Meanwhile out in Croatia the Cyclone is taking on the Croatians

PULA bridge congress 2019 results

You will find Malahide Regional Bridge Club member Billy Ronan in some of the events.
His team names so far have been CYCLONE and BILLY don't be a hero.
I have no idea what these names refer too. Its just to help anyone who is looking up the results.

Pula International Bridge Festival is a good event to go to for bridge players and there is some sun as well. I don't know if there are still direct flights to Pula from Dublin.

Bridgebase front page , challenge , Malahide Congress of Bridge

This morning I played the latest Murphyslaw bridge challenge. 16 boards against the might of Kerry's greatest bridge player Finn MacKelan. Also taking part is Cloonboos star player the weirdly named Wonder de Cool. The 3rd wheel is Liarodi Mor as Muillean Cearr. Finally we have the forever struggling unlucky expert Murphyslaw along with myself who is a self professed capable bridge player.

The link to the challenge video is below

Galligan v 4 challengers   video

Also in the above video is a brief walk through of Bridgebase online FREE front page games.
Even the frontpage where you don't need an account is more than fantastic.

Last night in Malahide we had the season opening GALA Pairs .. All went well.
Peter Wilson bought me a new projector to display the results.
Rachel McHale done her GOLDEN ENVELOPE thing.

On a previous occasion someone won a free 3 course meal ...

Rachel emerged with a bag of spuds a lump of steak and packet of soup. Also 3 sods of turf to cook the meal on and a box to carry it home.

Last night there was loads of fancy grub available ..  I got a few tiger prawn things and some other dainty food things in some kind of pastry. There was also loads of coffee cake and brownies and strawberrys with no cream. However I had a carton of sour cream from Avonmore so I was able to use Rachels strawberries for a Wimbledon experience.

......
Recently in Dublin and Wicklow we had two bridge congresses.

We had the Dublin Summer Congress ...a major event which seems to have Rory Egan at the helm.
However I was not there as I could not find the venue. A friend of mine has shown me the venue in the meantime. So I might go there next year. Generally the boot of my car contains all the necessities to attend a bridge congress .. Sometimes I even carry a dealing machine and a few bottles of overtrick juice as Paul Delaney calls it .... lucozade.

There is a robin and a bird with a yellow chest eating bread on my apple tree.

https://www.bridgewebs.com/bray/

https://www.bridgewebs.com/dublinsummercongress/

Next March we will have the Rachel McHale organised congress in the Grand Hotel Malahide.
Now that will be something ... There will be strawberries as there are always strawberries at Rachels events.

I only notice now that we have Diarmuid Reddan on the directors list as well. Thats great as he is almost as good as Brian Lawlor at the organisation. Diarmuid would be able to run the whole lot on his own. Hope ye like the picture. Malahide is a nice place. You can go to the seaside across the road.

A night behind the Flash

Every bridge club owns a Flash. We have Flash Finnegan in Fitzwilliam and we have the Flash Smith brothers in Elm Park. Out in Malahide we have a few flash players. However some of them are slow due to human frailties. These are not the people we are talking about.

I know a lady in one club where I direct and she has severe arthritis in her hands. So for her I do my best to sort the cards for her and also sometimes get help from the table feeding the cards to her and they sort them as they finish.

Another thing that slows down play is the odd person who is recovering from a stroke or the like. Things just don't work as fast. Therefore the director helps out. Again sorting the cards and maybe a seated position.

Then we have the Bridgemate dummy. This is the person who despite being dummy has to do the bridgemate entries BEFORE putting the DUMMY on the table. We could have 2-3 tricks played while the DUMMY is sorting out the bridgemate.

Then there are those champions of DUMMY LAY. One card at a time .. slowly but surely the DUMMY materializes. The bridge teachers need to teach the good and quick methods of laying out the dummy. One card at a time ... this might take 30 seconds .. if same person is dummy all night that could be 20 minutes in a night because some of them also pause for effect.

Galligan versus Galligan bridge movie

Above the last 6 boards of a Sean v Eamon bridge movie.

And finally ..THE FLASH

every morning when you read the daily bulletin there is a small topic about slow play, “ slow play, especially habitual slow play, is a violation of law and subject to penalty” How does it work in the real world? The second session of the Kaplan Blue ribbon pairs I had the pleasure of sitting EW and following “ the Flash” First round, with 2 minutes on the clock the round is called, we try to change tables but they just started bidding their 2nd board. I call the Director. 2nd round, we only have to wait 5 minutes this time, I call the director again. 3rd round the same as well as the 4th round. 5th round is only a minute late, thanks to the hospitality break. I called the director 7 times, the only thing he told me was they had noted my concern.......In total the Flash was late 9 out of 12 rounds. (maybe round 13 as well but I didn’t care, that was the last round. how can directors let this happen? Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely don’t mind if a pair is late once in a while, some boards are more difficult, time consuming, then others. But playing match points, 2 boards a round, horrifying. Funny side fact, in one of the rounds where we started only 4 minutes late, we had a difficult board and the bidding took a least 4 minutes, so we had only 7 minutes or so left on the clock. My opponent called the director and he started pushing us....... This is insane, everybody has 15 minutes for 2 boards, no more, no less. If you can’t play by the rules, don’t play.

I am putting the link to the full article here in case any THOUGHTFUL  PLAYERS read my blog.

Full FLASH article and comments

Galligan v Donegalman .. Bray Congress NIBU Congress is coming

Last night I played 10 boards of a challenge against Wilson and did fairly well. Good content for a video. This morning we finished off the last 6 boards with a cup of tea and a sandwich.

The video is here.

Galligan Wilson video

Results of Bray Congress can be found here as in at the below link.

Link to  Bray Congress   Congress results.

Next Friday we have the Gala Pairs in Malahide to open the season.
Should be 40 tables of Bridge legends in action.
I expect Pat Dunne the tournaments officer has a good plan.

Ann Hassan says Go to Congress before Brexit

Above the link to Congress.

Soon Muttley will be laying down the LAW with a selection of partners.

Galligan plays Malahide boards 11-22

As promised yesterday myself and Jack went into battle again and failed to trouble the scorers when playing the Malahide Strong Game on Tuesdays. Too many mistakes by me and a few errors by the Malahides diminished my score. It has to be somebodies fault. Must be Jack bridge program.

Nobody will fear me anymore. 43% is hardly to be feared.

17th place out of 22 pairs ..well 24 if you count Eamon and the Jacks.

Here is the link to the pain

No pain No gain

A player in this event in real life said I am very brave to post my losing result. I have nothing to hide ..sometimes I lose. Possibly my two table opponents were tougher than the opponents I might have played on the night. However I did tone my Jack down to 75% so that should have evened things up.

Galligan plays Malahide Tuesday with Jack6

This morning I decided to play some of Tuesday night August 20th hands with my trusty partner Jack against the Malahide human comparisons. Unfortunately I did not fare too well.
A comfortable 23rd place out of 24 pairs was a large eye opener. It must have been my partners fault.
Except it was not ... it was some of Eamons too agressive moves.

So 10 boards played and Galligan in 23rd place with only 22 pairs in the field. That says it loud and clear.

Link to Galligan dreadful 10 boards with commentary

However I will be back for the next 2 sessions of 10 boards so watch this space.

Galligan v Mullingar Man Monday AM commentary

This morning I had to finish a bridge video against my original bridge teacher. He is also known as Mullingar Man in my Bridge Video series.

Galligan versus Mullingar man

So we finished that challenge and won by 3 imps ..
However Mullingar man got about 30 imps in presents from Eamon and the robots.

Every challenge I play against Mullingar man I give him a couple of presents and he also gleans some from the robots.

Anyway the bridge keeps him alive.

Meanwhile I Played a BBO challenge against some Malahide intermediates and that did not go well.
Eye was not on the ball and the results prove it.

With Kitkatsist failing to tog out we were left with 4 players and Eamon Galligan finished last place.
However it was my turn as Eamon had destroyed the field in the previous 2 renewals.

Meanwhile Eamon went to Malahide Regional Bridge Club on Monday morning and made some good contracts. He also done several things wrong. The video below gives a quick commentary on the 21 boards we played.

Video Commentary of 21 boards Monday AM

New Bridge Season arriving fast and Malahide Bridge Congress returns

Good morning all

I have neglected my blog recently and this was brought to my attention by a top player from Malahide recently. So here we are.

First exhibit ... A video created on Sunday August 25th. However I could not upload it until the opponent completed the challenge.

Bridgebase challenge Galligan v Magic

Meanwhile the Dublin Summer Congress passed off without any hitches or anything else.
I failed to attend as I had no partner or as Magic Murphy regularly says "Nobody asked me"

Shortly I will play the Tuesday night game of Malahide from August 20th. Rachel and Martin McHale won that game with a large 65% score. I DOUBT if I can beat that score. However I will give it a run.

Dublin Summer Congress results can be found on Bridgewebs at an account called Dublin Summer Congress. One can also Google .. " Dublin Summer Congress 2019 " and probably get the results.

Two new players from Malahide Regional stormed the Inter B section of this congress winning the Teams and Pairs events.

The Malahide Bridge Congress will return in 2020 under the strong guiding arm of Rachel McHale.
Rachel has been active as Social Secretary and possibly other Council positions in Malahide Regional Bridge club. The Congress will be resident at the Grand Hotel Malahide which in the past was a host of some older Malahide Bridge Clubs before my time.

MacCormac starts the run to Spingold history

Tonght at 9pm Irish time Thomas MacCormac enters the ring against the powerful Nickell team.
Thomas is part of the Pressure team which employs a powerful method of bidding to put the opponents under pressure.
I don't know who gets shown on vugraph but I suspect it is the more closer matches like 32 v 33 send rather than 2 v 63 seed. However all will be revealed at 2100 hours. Thomas will be backed up in his efforts by the former Gonzaga bridge expert Stephen Barr.
Yesterday the reserve Pressure team had the air left out of their tyres by the coffee swilling Lavazza team. I think it was 171 imps after 60 boards but maybe they retired early.
.......................
Meanwhile other news saw Galligan power to victory over Mullingar man by 46 imps yesterday.
However Magic Murphy took out Galligan by 17-13 with 2 lucky strikes earning 13 imps.
Kelan O'Connor continues to hold the upperhand at bridge and quiz.
..............
Catherine Carabine only managed 2nd place in the Declan Murray Open Pairs on Monday morning.

Noel Hughes and Anthony McMackin think they dumped on Conor O'Hara yesterday in the evening pairs but Ronan and O'Hara still won the war with a first place finish.
...............................
Meanwhile Team MacCormac fired 18 imps past Nickell who responded in kind with 84 in the first 15 boards. The Hanlon powered Street team lead small by 4 imps against Team Amalia.
Unfortunately Team MacCormac suffered another 84 imps with nothing going back so far in the 2nd set of 15 boards. So its 170 plays 18 now.

Just to indicate how powerful an event this Spingold is ... the Street team powered by Thomas Hanlon among other world class players also went out in the first round.

The Ballina Congress 2019

I just realized that this weekend is Ballina Congress weekend. I stumbled onto Ferghal O'Boyles wonderful results website and checked out the Mixed pairs winners.

Looks like a power packed performance by the Dublin Delaneys. 68% in a Congress event is not to be taken lightly. Maeve has Paul well schooled at collecting good scores.

Looks like there was no Out of State prize for the NIBU  internationals Hilary and John  Ferguson. Maybe the prizes were planned before Brexit got postponed.

Meanwhile the Congress Pairs is about to start and one has to pick a few horses.
In no particular order we choose

1. Brady Delaney
2. Heneghan DeRaeymaker
3. Pat Quinn Enda Glynn
4. Marcin and Ronan
5. Better mention the Fergusons as some day they will win something.

Malahide Regional Bridge Club are represented on 3 pairs

Billy Ronan Tom Gilligan
Fran Ronan Mary Kavanagh
Mary Kelly Rogers Danny Liddy

One expects the top 3 to emerge from my top 4 picks but we will see ..
Maybe Malahide pair Gilligan and Ronan will turn on the style that wins regularly in Malahide.
However the Washington schooled James Heneghan is going to have too much knowledge and then there is Marcin and Ronan just back from a decent performance in European Open Pairs.
Quinn and Glynn should be able to collect lots of overtricks.
However to sum up I think I will go for

1. Heneghan DeRaeymakers
2. Delaney Brady

Ballina Congress and Bridgebase 4 hands

link to video

Bridgebase Group Challenge and THE APPEAL

Last night or early this morning I started to play a group challenge against Murphy Sean Wondercool and Kelan. This morning I logged in and decided to finish the Bridgebase challenge with the camera turned on. 

Kelan says ..."You only post when you are winning " but I did not know I was winning. 

Kelan scores 21.75

Link to last few boards of Bridgebase Group challenge

We also visited Galway Congress in the video. 

In the above video we also revisit the controversial appeal from the Moylan. 

A totally unbelievable turn over of the directors ruling of result stands. 

Eamon would lose loads of good boards in Malahide if this ruling was the standard. 

Eamon is forever bidding STOP 3NT with no agreements. 

One is supposed to ask some other folk their opinion ..

58% lead a diamond with no alert and 52% lead a diamond with an alert. 

The 2 polls are posted on bridgewinners and can be seem in the above video.

.....................

The Bridgebase Group challenge is a great innovation. The only bad thing is Kelan always wins 

European Teams Day 6

Meanwhile the Ireland Youth team continue their training plan towards victory in next Seasons Junior Camrose. A bye in Round 18 allowed them collect a morale boosting 12 VPS.

Currently they are in a titanic battle with the always powerful Netherlands.
After a bright start where they took an early lead the Netherlands made the comeback and then the overtake.

Meanwhile Galligan finished off the Wilsopd challenge and expects a comfortable victory after gathering in some large final boards.

Galligan should tame Wilson but one never knows

The link to the final 4 boards is above.

Results from the European Youth Team championships can be found here

European Youth U26 Teams championships

Unfortunately the IRELAND East West Nathan Doyle and Michael Donnelly just suffered a painful experience. Their team mates had an imp making score of 2CX and made for 180.
However sadly our boys found their 8 trump cards were not enough to deal with the Dutch in 1H redoubled holding only 5 trumps in a 5-0 fit. Minus 8 imps.

I suppose that is called a DOUBLE BURNS law breaker.

Yes unfortunately 1H redoubled making 7 tricks.

And a final score of IRELAND 16 NETHERLANDS 41

The Final match of today is IRELAND V FRANCE ..STARTING SHORTLY

The European Youths championship 2019

Good morning folks

For the last few days Eamon has been casting a wary eye on the European Youth championships.
The Irish team of

1. John Connolly
2. Michael Donnolly
3. Nathan Doyle
4. Stephen Barr
5. Jarlath McDonnell
6. Conor Farrell.

sprinted out of the starting blocks with almost 68 VPS out of the first 100.

All going well so far but one noted the goalkeeper was leaking at the same time.

The next 100 VPS unfortunately saw Ireland only adding another 16 VPS.
16 per cent return is not too good but according to Facebook the team remained upbeat.

Round 11 saw a drilling from GERMANY
Round 12 saw a medium loss to SLOVAKIA.

Day 4 TUESDAY started with 2 wins but then ITALY AND NORWAY piled on the AGONY.

A 3 point haul from these 2 matches left IRELAND struggling in 20th place of 23.
..............................................

Now before we get too bothered about these results we need to understand that 90% of this field are damn good players. The kind of player who would easily be dominant in the top Dublin clubs. Those clubs are probably still the BANKERS and the REGENT.

Recently Eamon has been playing 16 board challenges against Kelan O'Connor and I have been shipping about 1.5 imps a board out on average. So Eamon is losing each match by about 16-4.
The IRISH team is doing better than Eamon as they are averaging about 7.5 per match.

So now they got to start winning some matches and so does EAMON..
KELAN BEWARE as the tide is going to turn.

Unfortunately for IRELAND YOUTH they just got pole-axed in the first match today ..

.............................
Meanwhile Eamon has been playing a few boards against Wilsopd ..
and I probably am in a losing position at this stage

Eamongall v Wilsopd

The First renewal of THE MUTTON CUP 2019

Good morning few and Garve

This morning I was recording a BBO challenge against Mullingar Man. Unfortunately I probably lost but I landed a good slam on the last board to give me a shot at the title.
I don't know the result as Mullingar man had not completed.

Then entered thegarve and walked all over my video.

Galligan v Mullingarman

Some of his news was good .. Jason Hackett a top English bridge player and chinease food expert is nearly 49 years on this earth.

Hence the inaugural Mutton Cup

The Inaugural Mutton Cup

This is an individual event and all entrants must be known to Mr Mutton or at least be known to someone. Maybe they might like some vugraph.

Meanwhile out in Malahide it looks like the bridgemates gave up or something happened but nobody has rang me so no need for me to vault into firefighting mode. One notes the presence of the newly honed Magic Murphy in the middle of the field

Kelan loses the head and the challenge and MacCormac delivers

This afternoon we had the end of the Qualifying 6 rounds for the European open Pairs
We have some good news. I don't know how clear this is but in short our 6 players qualified for
the A semi final of the European Open Pairs.

Thomas MacCormac B Saker
Thomas Hanlon John Carroll
Ronan McMaugh Marcin Rudzinski

This afternoon I finished the challenge with Kelan and I was successful. Kelan was unlucky on the first 2 boards as he bid a decent 6 clubs contract and hit a 4-1 break and a few other odds and ends.
Then on the 2nd board Kelan bid a good 7 clubs grand slam. Unfortunately for him there was 4 to the JACK of trumps offside. Needless to say Kelan still attempted the endplay.

Galligan v Kelan boards 1-10

Galligan v Kelan Boards 11-16

European Pairs and Kelan

This morning the 2nd stage of the qualifying for the Open Pairs takes place. We have 3 Irish Pairs involved.

1. Legendary Irish bridge teacher Thomas McCormac partnered by Saker

2. Famous Tyrone bridge player Ronan McMaugh along with Polish national and 

    Irish international bridge player Marcin Rudzinski 

3. Thomas Hanlon and John Carroll. 

All 3 are currently running well in the qualifying positions. 

.............

Today while watching the scores coming through on the webfeed I was playing a  BBO CHALLENGE against the unknown bridge player Kelan from Kerry. 

He is a great supporter of Kerry GAA. 

Here are the first 10 boards and Eamon thinks he is in good shape for a tight game against Kelan.

Galligan versus Kelan 1-10    Movie

...........

Also there was a Twitch feed with commentary on the Euro Teams Final 

Twitch feed of Netherland v Mossop

.............

On Monday I saw the most bizarre bid ever 

After a weak 2H open by West the bridge player found the bid of 2NT showing 12-14 hcp and the other major. Apparently this is called Hackett convention.

A few boards later another demonstration of the Hackett convention in flying form. 

Again 2H opening by West and the bridge player bids 3 Diamonds alledgedly the Hackett convention showing 15+ points and bidding will continue from there. 

Galligan is wondering why there is no 2 Spades bid in Hackett ..