Ireland Open Team started the day with a match against Finland. Finland with no great bridge pedigree might be beatable. However Finland is geographically located close to Norway and Sweden both bridge powerhouses. Also Finland had won their first 4 matches including victories over France and current world champions Poland. So into battle.
I will look at the double digit swings.
Board 1 .. Ireland got 12 imps when the Finns overstretched to 4S and someone was able to put the double on it.
Board 2 .. 6S on 29 hcp and 5-4 fit was not a thing of beauty but was unbeatable. Finland bid it so 11 imps to them
Board 4 saw the Irish EW attempt 3NT on a combined 24 count. Helness in another match guided it home but our declarer managed 8 tricks.
Board 5 saw our NS get a double on 5C for down 3 and 12 imps .. so 23-29 after 5 boards.
Board 8 4S makes EW but our lads allowed their NS opps declare 3H making losing 11
Board 12 saw the Finns home for 11 tricks in 3NT when a different lead with see the result as
3NT-7 ... You got to read those lead books .. 11 imps out instead of 14 in the bag .. 25 imps swing.
Board 16 saw Ireland miss a game and declare 3H for 10 tricks .. Vulnerable game so 11 imps gone.
Ireland 29 Finland 67 ... Not a good morning in the office for Boland Moran.
...........................................................................................
Match 2 v Austria was live on Bridgebase so we could see all the hands and bidding. The whole match can be downloaded from Bridgebase if required.
Board 22 saw Hanlon McGann down 3NT while Garvey Carroll got a favourable lead in 4S and that was 12 imps. Garvey played the clubs well given the chance. Ireland by 20
Board 29 saw Hanlon McGann bid the skinny but making 4S while the Austrians languished in 3D on a 5-1 fit. 3D minus 1 gave Ireland 12 imps .. Ireland lead by 33-6 ..
Board 32 saw Hanlon on lead against 3NT after an auction showing a decent club suit about to appear in dummy. Hanlon failed to pick the killing diamond lead and that was 10 imps out ..
Final score .. Ireland 33 Austria 16 ... Its still more VPS in the bag
Friday, June 17, 2016
Thursday, June 16, 2016
European Bridge Championship 2016 Day 1
At the European Bridge championships today Ireland had a fine day. 59.84 VPs collected out of a possible 80. Ireland started this morning with a 19.25 score against Czech Republic. ..a 51 imps victory. The team for Match 1 was Rory Boland Mark Moran Hugh McGann and Thomas Hanlon.
In Round 2 Ireland faced England with what might be termed their front 4 in action. England always have a powerful team in this level of competition. They have several podium finishes. With 4 boards to play of the 20 the score stood at 5 imps to 1 for England. Boards 29 and 30 saw Ireland miss a couple of tough chances and England stretched it out to 24-1. Ireland got 5 imps back on board 31 and that was a 24-6 in imps loss. 14.6 to 5.4 ..
Round 3 saw Boland Moran back into the fray partnered by Carroll Garvey against Cyprus ..
One would expect a decent haul against a Cyprus team which was struggling so far. A haul of 18.77 VPs was achieved despite a couple of hiccups at board 9 and 10. 3 scores of 11 12 and 13 imps on boards 11-13 got the team back on course.
Round 4 brought up the multiple champions Italy although with a slightly changed team.
Italy had started the morning in Round 1 cold and trailed Croatia by 45 imps to 0 after 9 boards.
However they recovered 31 imps in the last 7 boards to lose 13.75 to 6.25. A 47 imps pounding of a slow starting Scotland team followed and Italy were up and running. Italy then put 62 imps past an outclassed Portugal team and were into 3rd place.
It looked like Ireland were in for a tough match and maybe a hiding was on the cards.
Ireland got out of the blocks first and led 18-0 after 4. Italy got 10 back to 1 for Ireland so after 10 boards Ireland led by 19-10 in imps. Italy bid a good 7 Spade contract but 2 4-1 breaks in the black suits doomed that contract and 14 imps to Ireland. Italy over reached again in a failing 3NT and another 5 imps to Ireland now 38-10 ahead. Italy bid another good slam this one making and 13 imps to them. On board 31 both teams bid 4S and Italy got doubled. Hanlon McGann doubled 4S and cashed 4 red suit tricks while in the other room Carroll Garvey avoided the 4 top losers.
So Ireland gain a 28 imp win for 16.42 VPS but one suspects Italy will be bemoaning the luck of the Irish. At a quick glance Ireland had the rub of the green and blue and red in this match. 7S down is a 27 imp swing. Italy not being able to cash out was another 12 imps swing. So swings and roundabouts but all going Irelands way.
More tomorrow
http://www.eurobridge.org/repository/competitions/16budapest/microsite/Results.htm
Lots of games are broadcast on www.bridgebase.com
Hopefully my email on some boards from the England match will be forgiven.
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
In Round 2 Ireland faced England with what might be termed their front 4 in action. England always have a powerful team in this level of competition. They have several podium finishes. With 4 boards to play of the 20 the score stood at 5 imps to 1 for England. Boards 29 and 30 saw Ireland miss a couple of tough chances and England stretched it out to 24-1. Ireland got 5 imps back on board 31 and that was a 24-6 in imps loss. 14.6 to 5.4 ..
Round 3 saw Boland Moran back into the fray partnered by Carroll Garvey against Cyprus ..
One would expect a decent haul against a Cyprus team which was struggling so far. A haul of 18.77 VPs was achieved despite a couple of hiccups at board 9 and 10. 3 scores of 11 12 and 13 imps on boards 11-13 got the team back on course.
Round 4 brought up the multiple champions Italy although with a slightly changed team.
Italy had started the morning in Round 1 cold and trailed Croatia by 45 imps to 0 after 9 boards.
However they recovered 31 imps in the last 7 boards to lose 13.75 to 6.25. A 47 imps pounding of a slow starting Scotland team followed and Italy were up and running. Italy then put 62 imps past an outclassed Portugal team and were into 3rd place.
It looked like Ireland were in for a tough match and maybe a hiding was on the cards.
Ireland got out of the blocks first and led 18-0 after 4. Italy got 10 back to 1 for Ireland so after 10 boards Ireland led by 19-10 in imps. Italy bid a good 7 Spade contract but 2 4-1 breaks in the black suits doomed that contract and 14 imps to Ireland. Italy over reached again in a failing 3NT and another 5 imps to Ireland now 38-10 ahead. Italy bid another good slam this one making and 13 imps to them. On board 31 both teams bid 4S and Italy got doubled. Hanlon McGann doubled 4S and cashed 4 red suit tricks while in the other room Carroll Garvey avoided the 4 top losers.
So Ireland gain a 28 imp win for 16.42 VPS but one suspects Italy will be bemoaning the luck of the Irish. At a quick glance Ireland had the rub of the green and blue and red in this match. 7S down is a 27 imp swing. Italy not being able to cash out was another 12 imps swing. So swings and roundabouts but all going Irelands way.
More tomorrow
http://www.eurobridge.org/repository/competitions/16budapest/microsite/Results.htm
Lots of games are broadcast on www.bridgebase.com
Hopefully my email on some boards from the England match will be forgiven.
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Ireland Invitational Pairs Overall result 2016
Last Friday June 10th we had the third and final session of the inaugural Ireland Invitational Pairs. The venue was the Regent Bridge Club and we displayed 2 tables throughout on the Bridge Base Online internet display facility. The event was sponsored and organised by Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite.
The players and staff and spectators were fed and watered on all 3 days of the event. I am not certain of the prize money each day but 1800 euro divided over the 1st 2nd and 3rd on each of the 3 sessions is a good guess. A token entry fee was taken on the day. Again I don't even know what that fee was.
At every session several large baskets of goodies and healthy foods were provided for anyone who was present. Director of the first 2 sessions in April and May Fearghal O'Boyle while not finding his favourite Mars Bars found other chocolate items to suit his palate. The healthy items included Grapes Nuts Apples and Oranges. Writing implements with www.audico.ie were supplies.
Looking on the website it appears to be a hearing solution provider out near Hermitage Golf place near Lucan. People who walk from Lucan to Leixlip for exercise probably pass it as far as I remember.
So back to the bridge .. The conditions of contest were you added your 2 best percentage scores to get your overall result and it had to be the same partnership. So going into the final day about 5 pairs were in the running for the Overall Prize of "A trip to the World Pairs in Poland in September".
Early on Michael McGloughlin and Terry Walsh approached the podium of one overall prize.
Later BJ O'Brien and David Jackson stepped up towards the podium but suffered a 20% set of 8 boards and moved away. Gorchyca and Rudzinski were the leaders entering the 3rd session with a score of 56.59% posted from the first 2 sessions. So that was the target as these 2 lads were having a poor day and were unlikely to improve the target score. Hanlon Carroll were lurking but from early in the day after collecting about 35% on the first 16 boards of 72 they were unlikely to threaten the spreadsheet. Finally from a slow start Mesbur and Fitzgibbon began to gain traction and were threatening the spreadsheet. Entering the final 8 boards and due to play the two long time Irish based Poles it was decided that we would oust the misfiring Hanlon Carroll off the vugraph.
In short we had Gorchyca and Rudzinski facing reigning Cavandish Pairs and legendary Irish pair Mesbur and Fitzgibbon for the overall. The only problem was Mesbur Fitzgibbon needed to win the 8 board match by a small margin. After 2 boards Marcin ordered a bottle of wine. Board 27 was a ruling but I left the score stand. The final board saw Marcin doubled in 3 clubs and it got home.
This meant the previous ruling was irrelevant.
All sessions scores and boards can be found on www.fob.ie or his bridge webs page.
Declan Byrne of the Regent Bridge Club was on hand to make sure all venue organisation went well.
Eamon Galligan Fearghal O'Boyle and Martin Brady handled the vugraph and directing operations over the 3 days. Grainne Barton and Barbara Seligman covered the vugraph room commentary.
As indicated above Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite were overall organisers of this fantastic event.
I don't have any direct quote from any player but over the 3 sessions over 3 Fridays I did not meet any player with a complaint about the event. Several players wondered why they did not get their invitations. One Northern Ireland lad pointed out about his 2 second placings in the Holmes Wilson out of 4 runs. I pointed out about BJ O'Brien .. 6 National 1st places and 3 podium finishes out of 9 National events entered in 1 season .. So you need more than a Northern Ireland Pairs win or a Lady Milne cap to gain an invitation. Eamon got an invitation as the event was being planned but he knew "being involved " meant vugraph organiser not player.
All told I think it was a great event .. Final results are below as best as I can display them on this site.
The players and staff and spectators were fed and watered on all 3 days of the event. I am not certain of the prize money each day but 1800 euro divided over the 1st 2nd and 3rd on each of the 3 sessions is a good guess. A token entry fee was taken on the day. Again I don't even know what that fee was.
At every session several large baskets of goodies and healthy foods were provided for anyone who was present. Director of the first 2 sessions in April and May Fearghal O'Boyle while not finding his favourite Mars Bars found other chocolate items to suit his palate. The healthy items included Grapes Nuts Apples and Oranges. Writing implements with www.audico.ie were supplies.
Looking on the website it appears to be a hearing solution provider out near Hermitage Golf place near Lucan. People who walk from Lucan to Leixlip for exercise probably pass it as far as I remember.
So back to the bridge .. The conditions of contest were you added your 2 best percentage scores to get your overall result and it had to be the same partnership. So going into the final day about 5 pairs were in the running for the Overall Prize of "A trip to the World Pairs in Poland in September".
Early on Michael McGloughlin and Terry Walsh approached the podium of one overall prize.
Later BJ O'Brien and David Jackson stepped up towards the podium but suffered a 20% set of 8 boards and moved away. Gorchyca and Rudzinski were the leaders entering the 3rd session with a score of 56.59% posted from the first 2 sessions. So that was the target as these 2 lads were having a poor day and were unlikely to improve the target score. Hanlon Carroll were lurking but from early in the day after collecting about 35% on the first 16 boards of 72 they were unlikely to threaten the spreadsheet. Finally from a slow start Mesbur and Fitzgibbon began to gain traction and were threatening the spreadsheet. Entering the final 8 boards and due to play the two long time Irish based Poles it was decided that we would oust the misfiring Hanlon Carroll off the vugraph.
In short we had Gorchyca and Rudzinski facing reigning Cavandish Pairs and legendary Irish pair Mesbur and Fitzgibbon for the overall. The only problem was Mesbur Fitzgibbon needed to win the 8 board match by a small margin. After 2 boards Marcin ordered a bottle of wine. Board 27 was a ruling but I left the score stand. The final board saw Marcin doubled in 3 clubs and it got home.
This meant the previous ruling was irrelevant.
All sessions scores and boards can be found on www.fob.ie or his bridge webs page.
Declan Byrne of the Regent Bridge Club was on hand to make sure all venue organisation went well.
Eamon Galligan Fearghal O'Boyle and Martin Brady handled the vugraph and directing operations over the 3 days. Grainne Barton and Barbara Seligman covered the vugraph room commentary.
As indicated above Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite were overall organisers of this fantastic event.
I don't have any direct quote from any player but over the 3 sessions over 3 Fridays I did not meet any player with a complaint about the event. Several players wondered why they did not get their invitations. One Northern Ireland lad pointed out about his 2 second placings in the Holmes Wilson out of 4 runs. I pointed out about BJ O'Brien .. 6 National 1st places and 3 podium finishes out of 9 National events entered in 1 season .. So you need more than a Northern Ireland Pairs win or a Lady Milne cap to gain an invitation. Eamon got an invitation as the event was being planned but he knew "being involved " meant vugraph organiser not player.
All told I think it was a great event .. Final results are below as best as I can display them on this site.
Thursday, June 09, 2016
Ireland Invitational Pairs Final Session
Tomorrow Friday June 10th at the Regent Bridge Club Waterloo Road starting at 1300 hours we will have the final Day of the Ireland Invitational Pairs. This event is the brainchild of Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite. These two bridge people run a great show. Unfortunately for those looking in from the outside the biggest problem is who gets invited and why do they get invited. Well as far as I know they get invited as most of the competitors have been at the top end of the Irish bridge game for a long time.
Now I have become aware that there is an undercurrent of unhappiness among the top echelon of women bridge players in Ireland with the invitation process. However each year for the past 18 years a representative group of our top Ladies has entered the Lady Milne Trophy and no medals yet.
Part of the reason for this is that winning the Lady Milne Trials (or placing top 3 pairs) was the objective. You qualify for the Lady Milne by playing the trials in October November and then there might be a few games on BBO and maybe the odd training weekend or not. Some of the time 3 pairs
qualify that might not even get on as a team. One time when I was present a pair bid a slam in 6C and got a favourable lead and despite the NPC laughing at the contract .."Good start for your girls " a favourable lead came ...a relatively normal lead from the world class player Liz McGowan. However Eamon could see on this lead that a squeeze was coming but despite several attempts to point this out nobody would listen. Suddenly about trick 9 Ireland npc pipes up "Em This might make .. in fact just playing the cards normally and it cannot be beaten" ...
6C bid and made ... the npc did not know how ... I asked the declarer later and she said ... "I guess Liz threw away the wrong card or something " ...
For some reason that pair were benched for the rest of the event .. It was only Saturday morning.
Looking at 2013-2016 Lady Milne results ..we have a 2nd 3rd 4th and 6th place out of 6 teams.
This year we scored 49.5% of the VPs ...but that is padded by some good scores against 3 weaker teams. 6.34 out of 40 versus Scotland and England and Scotland done England 20-0 ..
16% performance versus Scotland and England ...in 2016
Last place and wooden spoon in 2015 ..
However we want to know why some Lady internationals did not get invited to Invitational Pairs.
The about comments about the invitations to Invitational Pairs is all my own view not the organisers.
Now without Gay Keavney over the last several years there would probably be no BBO training or ladies training weekends. Everytime there is some womens training on BBO or in real life Gay seems to be involved.
10 days ago I put some hands in Adam Mesburs BBO account ... two sets of 160 or so .. Adam and Nick used the hands for practice but Adam was back within 2 days ..."Er Eamon each file has 160 or so hands but after 64 ...they are all numbered 64 ...so can you make it better .. "
10 minutes later I had 6 files of 60 or less hands all with different numbers ..
I have not been on BBO much recently but I saw Nick and Adam doing bidding practice several times over last week and this despite having a 40+ year partnership .. still practicing
Also recently I have spotted kinder1 hmg2 coppers tgarve putting in plenty of practice.
I suspect markpm and roryboland are also doing some but as I say I am not on BBO so much.
........................
1. Thomas Hanlon John Carroll
2. Adam Mesbur Nick Fitzgibbon
3. David Jackson BJ O'Brien
4. Ian Hastings Hamilton Campbell
5. Wojech Gorchyca Marcin Rudzinski
6. Thomas McCormac Ronan McMaugh
7. Anna Onishuk Karel deRaeymaker
8. Cian Holland Dermot Cotter
9. Peter Goodman Zia Mahmood
10. Terry Walsh Michael McGloughlin
Not sure about Zia
Other information can be found on www.fob.ie/national and page down a little
to
Ireland Invitational Pairs
Now I have become aware that there is an undercurrent of unhappiness among the top echelon of women bridge players in Ireland with the invitation process. However each year for the past 18 years a representative group of our top Ladies has entered the Lady Milne Trophy and no medals yet.
Part of the reason for this is that winning the Lady Milne Trials (or placing top 3 pairs) was the objective. You qualify for the Lady Milne by playing the trials in October November and then there might be a few games on BBO and maybe the odd training weekend or not. Some of the time 3 pairs
qualify that might not even get on as a team. One time when I was present a pair bid a slam in 6C and got a favourable lead and despite the NPC laughing at the contract .."Good start for your girls " a favourable lead came ...a relatively normal lead from the world class player Liz McGowan. However Eamon could see on this lead that a squeeze was coming but despite several attempts to point this out nobody would listen. Suddenly about trick 9 Ireland npc pipes up "Em This might make .. in fact just playing the cards normally and it cannot be beaten" ...
6C bid and made ... the npc did not know how ... I asked the declarer later and she said ... "I guess Liz threw away the wrong card or something " ...
For some reason that pair were benched for the rest of the event .. It was only Saturday morning.
Looking at 2013-2016 Lady Milne results ..we have a 2nd 3rd 4th and 6th place out of 6 teams.
This year we scored 49.5% of the VPs ...but that is padded by some good scores against 3 weaker teams. 6.34 out of 40 versus Scotland and England and Scotland done England 20-0 ..
16% performance versus Scotland and England ...in 2016
Last place and wooden spoon in 2015 ..
However we want to know why some Lady internationals did not get invited to Invitational Pairs.
The about comments about the invitations to Invitational Pairs is all my own view not the organisers.
Now without Gay Keavney over the last several years there would probably be no BBO training or ladies training weekends. Everytime there is some womens training on BBO or in real life Gay seems to be involved.
10 days ago I put some hands in Adam Mesburs BBO account ... two sets of 160 or so .. Adam and Nick used the hands for practice but Adam was back within 2 days ..."Er Eamon each file has 160 or so hands but after 64 ...they are all numbered 64 ...so can you make it better .. "
10 minutes later I had 6 files of 60 or less hands all with different numbers ..
I have not been on BBO much recently but I saw Nick and Adam doing bidding practice several times over last week and this despite having a 40+ year partnership .. still practicing
Also recently I have spotted kinder1 hmg2 coppers tgarve putting in plenty of practice.
I suspect markpm and roryboland are also doing some but as I say I am not on BBO so much.
........................
1. Thomas Hanlon John Carroll
2. Adam Mesbur Nick Fitzgibbon
3. David Jackson BJ O'Brien
4. Ian Hastings Hamilton Campbell
5. Wojech Gorchyca Marcin Rudzinski
6. Thomas McCormac Ronan McMaugh
7. Anna Onishuk Karel deRaeymaker
8. Cian Holland Dermot Cotter
9. Peter Goodman Zia Mahmood
10. Terry Walsh Michael McGloughlin
Not sure about Zia
Other information can be found on www.fob.ie/national and page down a little
to
Ireland Invitational Pairs
Sunday, June 05, 2016
The Mixed Teams Continue
Sunday morning and the Mixed Teams trials are in full flow.
12 boards compared across 8 tables and 73 imps swopped.
So that is boards 1-3 done.
4 boards compared now and 115 imps swopped. Sunday morning and boards 1-4 certainly appear to be exciting. The two leaders Kemple and Lillis are both early leaders in Match 6
However Team Moran is also firing goals past Collins, Meanwhile Whelan and Stanley are swopping large imps biggo .. 41-10 after 4 ... 12.7 imps per board. Unreal.
Follow the action on www.fob.ie
It appears I have underestimated the Orla McEntee team. 37-37 imps versus the Lillis Team after 10 comaprisons. after starting off 18-0 down.
So big results in Round 6 were Lillis 10 McEntee 10 .. Kemple 12.3 v Cleary and down the bottom at the time Mary Stanley pounded on Maria Whelans struggling team.
Round 7 saw Team Lillis pound on the Whelan team scoring 18.41 and probably putting the event to bed. Stanley continued to climb the table with another 14.5 VPs posted and the still surprising McEntee clobbered the experienced team of Clearys Porteus McConville 14-6
Round 8 saw big wins by Lillis and Pattinson. McEntee on the verge of getting washed out by Pattinson pulled back some imps on the last few boards to end on 2.76 from a low of 1.22.
Kemple needs Collins to destroy Lillis and that is not going to happen as Lillis has too much experience in their team. At the same time Kemple has to destroy McEntee and hope and that is
unlikely to happen either as McEntee team has performed well this weekend.
So onto Round 9 ..the final round but some of us got to watch Waterford versus Clare ...right Johnny Phelan. My GAA man Paddy Finnegan told me .. Clare by 2 points ..
12 boards compared across 8 tables and 73 imps swopped.
So that is boards 1-3 done.
However Team Moran is also firing goals past Collins, Meanwhile Whelan and Stanley are swopping large imps biggo .. 41-10 after 4 ... 12.7 imps per board. Unreal.
Follow the action on www.fob.ie
It appears I have underestimated the Orla McEntee team. 37-37 imps versus the Lillis Team after 10 comaprisons. after starting off 18-0 down.
So big results in Round 6 were Lillis 10 McEntee 10 .. Kemple 12.3 v Cleary and down the bottom at the time Mary Stanley pounded on Maria Whelans struggling team.
Round 7 saw Team Lillis pound on the Whelan team scoring 18.41 and probably putting the event to bed. Stanley continued to climb the table with another 14.5 VPs posted and the still surprising McEntee clobbered the experienced team of Clearys Porteus McConville 14-6
Round 8 saw big wins by Lillis and Pattinson. McEntee on the verge of getting washed out by Pattinson pulled back some imps on the last few boards to end on 2.76 from a low of 1.22.
Kemple needs Collins to destroy Lillis and that is not going to happen as Lillis has too much experience in their team. At the same time Kemple has to destroy McEntee and hope and that is
unlikely to happen either as McEntee team has performed well this weekend.
So onto Round 9 ..the final round but some of us got to watch Waterford versus Clare ...right Johnny Phelan. My GAA man Paddy Finnegan told me .. Clare by 2 points ..
Saturday, June 04, 2016
The Mixed Teams Trials
This weekend in Templogue (I think) we have Mixed Teams Trials. Seems loads of teams fancy their chances of qualifying for some Mixed event in some place in September.
1 Orla McEntee, Mark Tiernan, Deirdre Tuckey, Seamus Costello
2 Heidi Lillis, Michael McGloughlin, Anne Fitzpatrick, Harold Curran, Ciara Burns, John Murchan
3 Maria Whelan, Willem Mevius, Eileen O'Donovan, Joe Walsh, Barbara Seligman, Wojciech Gorczyca
4 Ena Cleary, Aidan Cleary, Miriam McConville, Paul Porteous
5 Brenda Moran, Joe Moran, Pat Ryan, B J O'Brien
6 Betty Cotter, Dermot Cotter, Maureen Pattinson, Bob Pattinson
7 Barbara Collins, Howard Kent Webster, Mary Kelly Rogers, Danny Liddy
8 Brid Kemple, Terry Walsh, Hilary McDonagh, Diarmuid Reddan
9 Mary Stanley, Martin Brady, Dolores Gilliland, Stefan Ekman
9 teams go into battle ..Who will win ..
Well there are about 20 internationals in the field of 40 players. However there are different types
of internationals like some are Senior and some are Lady Milne and some are Open. Most of the non internationals have played trials of some sorts before and there seem to be a few names I have not seen too often.
However in a Mixed event its not all about the strongest players its about how the partnerships work.
A good partnership of lesser players can easily defeat a put together partnership of strong players.
And in this event the women have to put up with the men bidding the No Trump or vice versa
I went through the teams and made an estimation of bridge stuff for each player ..out of 10 with a low value being strong .. I gave Terry Walsh Michael McGloughlin and BJ O'Brien values of 1
Maybe Terry needs to be dropped to a 2 as he floored a side suit establishment game in the Senior Camrose but reports indicate he was under the weather with influenza that weekend. He looked okay to me in the Invitational Pairs last week when he was close to a podium finish for most of the day until running into the fast finishing Nick Fitzgibbon and David Jackson in the final round.
So my predictions
9th ... Team 1 McEntee
8th ....Team 7 Collins
7th ....Team 5 Moran
After that it gets tougher as the other 6 teams contain 15 of the internationals and lots of trialists and national champions
placing 3rd to 6th and hard to split are
6th Team 3 Whelan
5th Team 9 Stanley
4th Team 4 Cleary
3rd Team 6 Cotter
Leaving the two likely winners
2nd Team 8 Kemple
1st Team 2 Lillis
I put Team 2 ahead of Team 8 solely because they have a 6 person team with regular partnerships versus a team of 4 with a partnership I have not seen before
Of course BJ could strike a rich vein of form in this field of non-regular partnerships
and place in the top 4. He is partnered by one of the Pats who are good enough to be known
by first name. Recent Senior Camrose winner Joe Moran could roll back the years too.
Another player capable of inflicting some damage is the returning Barbara Seligman.
Formerly one half of the Giddings Seligman partnership who were Ireland top ladies pair
for years before my time.
However the Lillis team with its 3 regular partnerships might swing it.
Harold and Anne have done some bidding practice in the last while according to a message on my
phone. Murchan has mellowed since his invitation for the Invitational Pairs got lost in the post.
He seemed to think winning the Northern Ireland Pairs was a cue for an invitation.
So now I can go to www.fob.ie and see how my predictions are going
Round 1 mostly went as predicted expect as mentioned Team Moran put the Cotters and Pattinsons to the sword ... Well we did mention above that Team 5 Moran could emerge out of the pack. Big performances from Pat Ryan and Brid Kemple powered their teams to victory
Round 2 saw the other half of the Kemple Team land a decent set to gather in another win. The McEntee squad put 15 past the unlucky Whelan squad. Most of the win seems to have come from
a good defence to 3NT on board 15 where 5 tricks are there for the defenders but 4 other tables were satisfied with 1 trick. One match flattened the board in a well bid 5D.
Round 3 saw Kemple post their 3rd win with a small victory over the Collins squad.
Meanwhile the Moran squads two solid pairs dominated the McEntee team.
The Lillis team took a small hit as well
Round 4 saw BJ enter the acting Academy as his squad was battered by the Whelan squad.
When you place in the bottom 2 pairs Fearghal awards an Oscar .
Kemple continued to apply the power by crushing the Shillelagh powered Stanley team.
Lillis kept it going by defeating Pattinson small
Round 5 saw two of the big guns meet Kemple versus Lillis .. The two Lillis pairs of Murchan Burns and Michael and Heidi put in two good sets to crush the Kemple team and close the gap which the Kemple team had opened over the previous 4 rounds. Brid and Terry got Oscars.
Meanwhile in a surprising development the Collins team emerged from the depths and crushed
the Whelan team.
1 Orla McEntee, Mark Tiernan, Deirdre Tuckey, Seamus Costello
2 Heidi Lillis, Michael McGloughlin, Anne Fitzpatrick, Harold Curran, Ciara Burns, John Murchan
3 Maria Whelan, Willem Mevius, Eileen O'Donovan, Joe Walsh, Barbara Seligman, Wojciech Gorczyca
4 Ena Cleary, Aidan Cleary, Miriam McConville, Paul Porteous
5 Brenda Moran, Joe Moran, Pat Ryan, B J O'Brien
6 Betty Cotter, Dermot Cotter, Maureen Pattinson, Bob Pattinson
7 Barbara Collins, Howard Kent Webster, Mary Kelly Rogers, Danny Liddy
8 Brid Kemple, Terry Walsh, Hilary McDonagh, Diarmuid Reddan
9 Mary Stanley, Martin Brady, Dolores Gilliland, Stefan Ekman
9 teams go into battle ..Who will win ..
Well there are about 20 internationals in the field of 40 players. However there are different types
of internationals like some are Senior and some are Lady Milne and some are Open. Most of the non internationals have played trials of some sorts before and there seem to be a few names I have not seen too often.
However in a Mixed event its not all about the strongest players its about how the partnerships work.
A good partnership of lesser players can easily defeat a put together partnership of strong players.
And in this event the women have to put up with the men bidding the No Trump or vice versa
I went through the teams and made an estimation of bridge stuff for each player ..out of 10 with a low value being strong .. I gave Terry Walsh Michael McGloughlin and BJ O'Brien values of 1
Maybe Terry needs to be dropped to a 2 as he floored a side suit establishment game in the Senior Camrose but reports indicate he was under the weather with influenza that weekend. He looked okay to me in the Invitational Pairs last week when he was close to a podium finish for most of the day until running into the fast finishing Nick Fitzgibbon and David Jackson in the final round.
So my predictions
9th ... Team 1 McEntee
8th ....Team 7 Collins
7th ....Team 5 Moran
After that it gets tougher as the other 6 teams contain 15 of the internationals and lots of trialists and national champions
placing 3rd to 6th and hard to split are
6th Team 3 Whelan
5th Team 9 Stanley
4th Team 4 Cleary
3rd Team 6 Cotter
Leaving the two likely winners
2nd Team 8 Kemple
1st Team 2 Lillis
I put Team 2 ahead of Team 8 solely because they have a 6 person team with regular partnerships versus a team of 4 with a partnership I have not seen before
Of course BJ could strike a rich vein of form in this field of non-regular partnerships
and place in the top 4. He is partnered by one of the Pats who are good enough to be known
by first name. Recent Senior Camrose winner Joe Moran could roll back the years too.
Another player capable of inflicting some damage is the returning Barbara Seligman.
Formerly one half of the Giddings Seligman partnership who were Ireland top ladies pair
for years before my time.
However the Lillis team with its 3 regular partnerships might swing it.
Harold and Anne have done some bidding practice in the last while according to a message on my
phone. Murchan has mellowed since his invitation for the Invitational Pairs got lost in the post.
He seemed to think winning the Northern Ireland Pairs was a cue for an invitation.
So now I can go to www.fob.ie and see how my predictions are going
Round 1 mostly went as predicted expect as mentioned Team Moran put the Cotters and Pattinsons to the sword ... Well we did mention above that Team 5 Moran could emerge out of the pack. Big performances from Pat Ryan and Brid Kemple powered their teams to victory
Round 2 saw the other half of the Kemple Team land a decent set to gather in another win. The McEntee squad put 15 past the unlucky Whelan squad. Most of the win seems to have come from
a good defence to 3NT on board 15 where 5 tricks are there for the defenders but 4 other tables were satisfied with 1 trick. One match flattened the board in a well bid 5D.
Round 3 saw Kemple post their 3rd win with a small victory over the Collins squad.
Meanwhile the Moran squads two solid pairs dominated the McEntee team.
The Lillis team took a small hit as well
Round 4 saw BJ enter the acting Academy as his squad was battered by the Whelan squad.
When you place in the bottom 2 pairs Fearghal awards an Oscar .
Kemple continued to apply the power by crushing the Shillelagh powered Stanley team.
Lillis kept it going by defeating Pattinson small
Round 5 saw two of the big guns meet Kemple versus Lillis .. The two Lillis pairs of Murchan Burns and Michael and Heidi put in two good sets to crush the Kemple team and close the gap which the Kemple team had opened over the previous 4 rounds. Brid and Terry got Oscars.
Meanwhile in a surprising development the Collins team emerged from the depths and crushed
the Whelan team.
Friday, May 27, 2016
Ireland Invitational Pairs 2
This afternoon in the Regent Bridge Club at 1400 hours we will have the 2nd episode of the
Ireland Invitational Pairs
http://www.bridgewebs.com/regent/
All are welcome to visit and spectate. There will be a vugraph presentation down in the bar all day until the end of the event. Regent Bridge Club is at 25 Waterloo Road Dublin 4 .
In this episode we will have 8 of Irelands top pairs taking their seats
Ian Hamilton John Ferguson
Peter Goodman Diarmuid Reddan
Terry Walsh Michael McGloughlin
David Jackson Nick Fitzgibbon
Anna Onishuk Peter Clifford
Cian Holland Dermot Cotter
Wojciech Gorcyzca Marcin Rudzinski
Thomas Hanlon John Carroll
Well Hanlon and Carroll will be the overwhelming favourite yet again but with 4 non-regular partnerships in the field ..the 3 regular partnerships have to be considered for a podium finish.
Anna Peter being the best possibility. While everybody in the field has plenty of bridge accomplishments Nick Fitzgibbon stands head and shoulder above them all. As a winner of the
Cavendish Pairs he is the big man. However removed from his 40 years partnership with Adam Mesbur for today we will see how that goes. Wojech and Marcin have been prominent recently in
Irish events including winning the first event of this Irish Invitational series.
Cian Holland and Dermot Cotter played in the first running of this event in March.
Hamilton and Ferguson ..well I have not seen Ferguson putting on a pair of bridge togs for about 15 years so we will see how that goes. Hamilton still reads the Bridge World religiously every month so he might have a few strokes in his bag. Goodman and Reddan ..not sure if I ever saw them taking part in a matchpoint event but they run matchpoint events in Wales so maybe they starred down there.
Reddan might find Peter Goodman in good form and make a stretch for the podium.
Walsh and McGloughlin are a recent partnership for Senior events and McGloughlin having won the recent Regent Presidents Prize ...probably the top matchpoint event in the country .. 5 weeks of matchpoints. Walsh is always around when there are prizes being given out so maybe there is some podium potential here. Certainly plenty of experience. Hanlon Carroll are the expected winners after getting ambushed in the first event by the two Polish Irish. Well they have been here quite a while and I have never heard them mentioned as "The 2 Poles" ..always Wojech and Marcin.
However playing 8 board matches will give Hanlon Carroll plenty of chances to apply their superior bidding system and skills and come out on top. 8 boards is a lot of chances for bidding misunderstandings and defensive lapses so the non-regular partnerships will run into bad weather.
..............
Meanwhile Declan the Donplayer appears to have cracked the bridge ... Last week he posted 57.5% on www.bridge-now.com over 53 boards and followed up with 53.5% this week over 144 boards.
Not bad for a chap who has never played in a bridge club and has never played with cards in his hands.
Declan is a lad in the local drinking establishment who on seeing a video of some old lads coughing pointed out that Bridge is rife for cheating but you need your partner in on it .. This was 6 months before several of the worlds top players proclaimed their innocence. "Money talks Bullshit walks " piped Declan .. Eamon I have never sat down to play cards without looking for a way to gain advantage on my opponents ..... However he has confessed that on www.bridge-now.com if he has found a way to cheat he does not know it.. Eamon .."Me and computers ..nope that's not going to work.. .. I just love this game of bridge and I cannot get enough of it .. However painting and decorating makes my money and there is drinking and gambling to be done and a few other sins to commit so not much time for bridge .. but what a game it is .. "
I personally pushed Declan McKenna into playing bridge during a few conversations in the smoking area .. He came with one time to Malahide Regional .. After about 30 minutes he spotted Maurice Quinn ... Handful of cards .. Toothy grin and a can of Guinness ... and Declan said ..
"That's me sorted for when I am 70 ... I have 17 years to learn this game ..
Ireland Invitational Pairs
http://www.bridgewebs.com/regent/
All are welcome to visit and spectate. There will be a vugraph presentation down in the bar all day until the end of the event. Regent Bridge Club is at 25 Waterloo Road Dublin 4 .
In this episode we will have 8 of Irelands top pairs taking their seats
Ian Hamilton John Ferguson
Peter Goodman Diarmuid Reddan
Terry Walsh Michael McGloughlin
David Jackson Nick Fitzgibbon
Anna Onishuk Peter Clifford
Cian Holland Dermot Cotter
Wojciech Gorcyzca Marcin Rudzinski
Thomas Hanlon John Carroll
Well Hanlon and Carroll will be the overwhelming favourite yet again but with 4 non-regular partnerships in the field ..the 3 regular partnerships have to be considered for a podium finish.
Anna Peter being the best possibility. While everybody in the field has plenty of bridge accomplishments Nick Fitzgibbon stands head and shoulder above them all. As a winner of the
Cavendish Pairs he is the big man. However removed from his 40 years partnership with Adam Mesbur for today we will see how that goes. Wojech and Marcin have been prominent recently in
Irish events including winning the first event of this Irish Invitational series.
Cian Holland and Dermot Cotter played in the first running of this event in March.
Hamilton and Ferguson ..well I have not seen Ferguson putting on a pair of bridge togs for about 15 years so we will see how that goes. Hamilton still reads the Bridge World religiously every month so he might have a few strokes in his bag. Goodman and Reddan ..not sure if I ever saw them taking part in a matchpoint event but they run matchpoint events in Wales so maybe they starred down there.
Reddan might find Peter Goodman in good form and make a stretch for the podium.
Walsh and McGloughlin are a recent partnership for Senior events and McGloughlin having won the recent Regent Presidents Prize ...probably the top matchpoint event in the country .. 5 weeks of matchpoints. Walsh is always around when there are prizes being given out so maybe there is some podium potential here. Certainly plenty of experience. Hanlon Carroll are the expected winners after getting ambushed in the first event by the two Polish Irish. Well they have been here quite a while and I have never heard them mentioned as "The 2 Poles" ..always Wojech and Marcin.
However playing 8 board matches will give Hanlon Carroll plenty of chances to apply their superior bidding system and skills and come out on top. 8 boards is a lot of chances for bidding misunderstandings and defensive lapses so the non-regular partnerships will run into bad weather.
..............
Meanwhile Declan the Donplayer appears to have cracked the bridge ... Last week he posted 57.5% on www.bridge-now.com over 53 boards and followed up with 53.5% this week over 144 boards.
Not bad for a chap who has never played in a bridge club and has never played with cards in his hands.
Declan is a lad in the local drinking establishment who on seeing a video of some old lads coughing pointed out that Bridge is rife for cheating but you need your partner in on it .. This was 6 months before several of the worlds top players proclaimed their innocence. "Money talks Bullshit walks " piped Declan .. Eamon I have never sat down to play cards without looking for a way to gain advantage on my opponents ..... However he has confessed that on www.bridge-now.com if he has found a way to cheat he does not know it.. Eamon .."Me and computers ..nope that's not going to work.. .. I just love this game of bridge and I cannot get enough of it .. However painting and decorating makes my money and there is drinking and gambling to be done and a few other sins to commit so not much time for bridge .. but what a game it is .. "
I personally pushed Declan McKenna into playing bridge during a few conversations in the smoking area .. He came with one time to Malahide Regional .. After about 30 minutes he spotted Maurice Quinn ... Handful of cards .. Toothy grin and a can of Guinness ... and Declan said ..
"That's me sorted for when I am 70 ... I have 17 years to learn this game ..
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Two hands in Malahide last night (underdeclaring)
Hand 12 above was declared in 3N and 4NT many times . Now 12 declarers out of 30 managed less then 12 tricks. I don't get this at all as there seems to be 5 diamonds and 5 spades and 2 other tricks depending on the lead. All declarers in the room sat in West. So club or heart lead means 12 tricks.
Board 12 mainly declared in 3NT or 4N and 11 times out of 29 the declarer made 11 or less tricks.
Declarers were always West and there seems to be 12 tricks available via 5D and 5S and 2 other tricks. So I don't understand how these declarers shrank the available tricks. Clearly something is wrong. I was drawn to this hand while examining some pairs results and seeing them score badly despite their opps making sub-optimal number of tricks ..
Seems hard to make less than 12 tricks
I was declaring a 4H contract and it seemed fairly safe to make 10 tricks but I felt its a good chance
for overtricks .. So I left a spade lead run to my QUEEN ...
So Denis pipes up as he wins the King ..."Eamon I would not have done that now .. a bad thing might happen .. " ..
And two spade ruffs later and Eamon was gone down in the cold 4H ...
Now Denis was not unethical in any way .. He held singleton Heart Ace and was getting in by force
Its not like he was telling partner take your ruff and get back over to me in a side suit ..
The only problem was my greedy declarer play ..
Anyway last night I heard some mumblings around the room about some people letting a trick run to their queen and then berating themselves as they lost a ruff with a possible 12 tricks on top ..
Some were even in 6H and blew it on trick 1 ..
Others were in 4H and only missed an overtrick ..
About 12 declarers out of 29 managed to condense the tricks to 11 or less ..
..................
Meanwhile we have one of our Rivervalley Club superstars ...Shane Maxwell who to be fair has never played bridge with real cards in his hands. Shane has played various games of cards since he was about 6 years of age. However one night he had a few too many beers and challenged me about DON and Bridge in the local beer place. So I taught him DON for 10 minutes and Bridge for 15 minutes ..starting about about 1150pm ... By 1am he was at home logged on to some website and playing Bridge ..
Fast forward about 1.5 years and yesterday we found Shane with time to spare during his college course and it became clear he was having a few games of bridge to pass the time ..
So Shane declared 3NT and managed to gather in 6 tricks .. The opposition took the first 4 heart tricks and Shane had the Heart 8 as a winner. However he somehow erred and failed to gather in the
5 diamonds 1 heart 2 spades and a club ....making 9 tricks
Shane ended up with 6 tricks
I spotted all this after playing the hand myself in 3NT and making the 9 tricks ..
So I asked Shane on social media about the hand ..
" I misrepresented my hand and I learned a lesson " ...
Now this is a poker term .. misrepresented .... but Shane failed to gather in the 9 top tricks ..
I will have to teach him a little more
However he is playing on
www.bridge-now.com
And this is a fine site to play bridge for free .. It gives you a percentage after each hand and it gives you a weekly ranking ..
Declan McKenna will be watching over his shoulder for Shanes rating this week ..
So if you want a free place to practice and compare yourself with the legendary BJ O'Brien a multiple
National champion or else with online learners Declan and Shane ...off you go and signup for free.
Saturday, May 07, 2016
IBU Trials Final ... The Final 20 boards
Back on January 31 2016 the IBU trials had been turned upside down. The underdogs known as Team O'Brien had doggedly hung on for 60 boards and on boards 61-80 on Sunday morning they suddenly opened up a 52 imp lead.
So what if anything could Team Moran do ... Well they started with a team talk from Hugh McGann out the front of the Regent Bridge Club
We lead well We defend well We bid well and we just hope the boards contain the IMPS..
And so it began
We setup the vugraph and retired down to the Regent Bar and the big screen and we also had
a few laptops
We started watching the Closed Room where Ranald and BJ as North South battled John Carroll and Tommy Garvey ..
Board 19 was a quiet 2S down 1 by EW looking like a gain for Moran as up to 10 tricks were available for NS in a no trump contract ..
Board 20 came on the screen and showed North South declaring 3H with Garvey Carroll taking a cut at it... so 3HX by BJ OBrien
From the off to us kibitzers it looked like 3 simple clubs a diamond and a HEART for down 1 ...
However Carroll and Garvey had other ideas and a clu and two diamond plays later the gallant BJ had a plausible play for 10 tricks ... However like all good players he guaranteed his contract and made 3H for 730...
This looked like about 15 imps out for Team Moran and a deficit of 67 imps ..
At this stage Declan Byrne the Regent Club Manager approached and glanced at the score and indicated we can make better use of our time. He wanted to know about setting up vugraph and some
Pairs Scorer stuff .. so off we went to his private kitchen where the Regent Club computer and other tools reside. For the next 40 minutes we did some computer bridge techy stuff and there was little sound from the battlefront..
When I emerged from Declans Den ... the BJ Milne room was starting board 5....A light 1S opening by McGann caught Wojech with a strong NT without a spade stop so he was confined to DOUBLE and Ruzinski holding a 2452 8 count bid 2H and there they played.
With no opening in this room Garvey Carroll sailed into the cold (as cards lie) 3NT and it was 6 imps for Moran
Board 6 saw a flat 4S
Onto Board 7 Both played in 3NT
Milne chose an attacking spade lead and that sort of was a comfortable 9th trick for Carroll ..
In the other room Hanlon found a safer Diamond lead and Wojech had to sniff out a 9th trick.
He tried for 3-3 HEARTS eventually and down he went .. 12 imps
The gap was 32 imps but the 15 on board 20 still loomed so call it 47 imps
Board 8 and 6C contract flashed on the screen as the Hanlon result in other room
O;Brien Milne stopped off in 5C
Hanlon McGann with slightly better methods were able to indicate DIAMONDS on the way
and Hanlon bid the 6C ... No problems in the play .. ruff out some diamonds ...
11 imps to Moran ... and now its 191 played 170 and the gap is closing but 3HX is still in the bag for Team O'Brien
Board 9
Hanlon sent over 4H in the North for 420 ..
Garvey Carroll found an unfavourable 5D sacrifice doubled off 1 to gain another 6 imps
These guys wear IRON trousers ... 191 plays 176 ...
Meanwhile Rory Boland sitting beside me is looking ahead and analysing the future boards as the mainly pro O'Brien audience look on ... He thinks a small imp win is possible despite the 3H heavy loss looming on board 20
Onto Board 10 Wojech Marcin drop 200 for off 2 vulnerable in 2S
Meanwhile in the other room Carroll also declares 2S and gets the H10 lead
Anyway Carroll got home in 2S for 6 imps and the score was O'Brien 191 Moran 183
Team Moran declared 4H in one room and were defeated by 1 trick whereas Team O'Brien stayed lower and played in 3H and were allowed make that contract for another 6 imps
Some respite for Team O'Brien who opened up a 14 imp lead with Board 20 still to score.
197 plays 183
Onto board 12 and the excitement continued
Hanlon McGann as is their style bid a game and hoped someone might allow it make.
Not today boys so down 1 in 4S. Not a good result when you are on the chase and down 1 normally slows down chasers
However Carroll and Garvey attempted the double fit 5D as East West and the defenders failed to find the club ruffs and 5DX came home for 550 and 10 much needed imps
The score .. 197 O'Brien 193 Moran
Garvey pings out a HEART and that's down 1 and another 12 imps
7 boards to go and the scoreboard amazingly shows Moran 205 O'Brien 197 but more is required to cover board 20
Boards 14 15 16 17 were quiet flat boards played in mostly the same contracts
So we are at board 18 with the score 205 plays 197
an oncoming O'Brien train .. Moran 211 O'Brien 197
Board 19 finally came on the screen ...
Carroll and Garvey stole away in a 2S contract with less than their share of the high cards.
It looked like a NT partcore for North South making about 9 tricks so should be 2 imps to Moran
However Rory Boland in the spectators vugraph room had been touting 3NT by Hanlon McGann since around board 10 when the imps started flowing back ..
He reckoned .. McGann upgrades to a 14-16 and Hanlon drives to game
How right he was
Moran 219 O'Brien 197 and it was onto board 20 with a 22 imp lead
So Congratulations to the Moran team on a terrific comeback. However maybe they need to examine some of the previous 80 boards to find out why they were in the hole
Tuesday, May 03, 2016
Ireland Open Team battle to Spring 4s final
The Ireland Open Team backboned by Mark Moran and Rory Boland sneaked past a powerful Bulgarian squad in Round 7 ....I guess the quarter finals ...
6 once defeated Teams done battle there ..for 3 semi final spots
The undefeated Sinclair Team took a break as per the rules
The Gidman and Alfrey teams joined Moran and Sinclair in the semi finals this morning
Alfrey being the original number 1 seeds and Moran the 9th seeds out of a starting field of 55 teams
So they had 14 direct matches and 9 triangles ... reducing the field to 32 teams ..
Its double knockout so you got to lose twice to be gone so they ended up with
6 once defeated teams and 1 undefeated. The once defeated 6 all took part in 3 quarter finals
and then there were FOUR ...
Undefeated Sinclair picked the Moran Team and got beaten by 10 imps over 32 boards
Alfrey the number 1 seeded OUTED Gidman and currently we have
Moran versus Alfrey for the CUP
All results and bulletins can be found at
www.ebu.co.uk
Look for Spring Foursomes
The Final is currently LIVE on Bridge Base Online
I just spotted a couple of Irish lads declaring a 3-2 HEART fit doubled and vulnerable.
They paid out 15 imps for that one
Then they followed up with a trick reducing lead against a doomed 3NT .. the old 4th highest works wonders ... and they paid 13 imps for that one
And finally on Board 8 it looks like Robson has them in his grippers again .. but it won't be as much to pay this time ..probably ....might even gain as a soft lead left them drop a loser ..
However score after 7 boards is ..Moran 11 Alfrey 39 ...
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
6 once defeated Teams done battle there ..for 3 semi final spots
The undefeated Sinclair Team took a break as per the rules
The Gidman and Alfrey teams joined Moran and Sinclair in the semi finals this morning
Alfrey being the original number 1 seeds and Moran the 9th seeds out of a starting field of 55 teams
So they had 14 direct matches and 9 triangles ... reducing the field to 32 teams ..
Its double knockout so you got to lose twice to be gone so they ended up with
6 once defeated teams and 1 undefeated. The once defeated 6 all took part in 3 quarter finals
and then there were FOUR ...
Undefeated Sinclair picked the Moran Team and got beaten by 10 imps over 32 boards
Alfrey the number 1 seeded OUTED Gidman and currently we have
Moran versus Alfrey for the CUP
All results and bulletins can be found at
www.ebu.co.uk
Look for Spring Foursomes
The Final is currently LIVE on Bridge Base Online
I just spotted a couple of Irish lads declaring a 3-2 HEART fit doubled and vulnerable.
They paid out 15 imps for that one
Then they followed up with a trick reducing lead against a doomed 3NT .. the old 4th highest works wonders ... and they paid 13 imps for that one
And finally on Board 8 it looks like Robson has them in his grippers again .. but it won't be as much to pay this time ..probably ....might even gain as a soft lead left them drop a loser ..
However score after 7 boards is ..Moran 11 Alfrey 39 ...
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
Monday, May 02, 2016
Team Moran in Round 7 of Spring 4s on vugraph now
Team Moran are currently on vugraph. Monday May 02 430pm playing in Round 7 of Spring 4s.
I went to the funeral of Malahide and Regent bridge player Maurice Quinn on Saturday. It was only in late February he made his way over to his computer and played 10 hands of bridge-now while I played same program on my laptop behind him ..A full blog on Maurice later
I still plan to write my blog on the final 20 boards of the IBU trials but I have to play the 20 boards
first ... They were exciting and the chase was on with Moran trialing by 52 and losing about 15 imps on the early board 20
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
I went to the funeral of Malahide and Regent bridge player Maurice Quinn on Saturday. It was only in late February he made his way over to his computer and played 10 hands of bridge-now while I played same program on my laptop behind him ..A full blog on Maurice later
I still plan to write my blog on the final 20 boards of the IBU trials but I have to play the 20 boards
first ... They were exciting and the chase was on with Moran trialing by 52 and losing about 15 imps on the early board 20
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
Thursday, April 21, 2016
The Slow and the Stopped
As a bridge tournament director one of my duties is to keep the game moving. Sometimes one can pick up the 3 boards before the slow players realize they have only played 2 of the 3 boards. In this case one keeps going and nobody is any the wiser except me. Some players will call me and request an average if they are behind. Some players who are caught slow just accept it and take an average.
However I have 3 examples
1. I approached a player last month who had been half of North South at say table A4 in a 3 sections competiton and indicated to her that it was great that her table had finally completed the boards.
She was very happy to point out to me that all the slow players in the room were in her section and they were all moving as East West and she had to play against them all. No mention of 20 seconds pause before every card played by her side.... Nope it was all the fault of the moving pairs who were dreadfully slow in her view.
2. One night I spotted a slow declarer starting to play a 4S contract and the table was already slow.
I asked them to speed up and went over to the computer which had www.bridge-now.com on the screen. I managed to bid and play 3 full hands while this lady (a different lady than Item 1) played the 13 tricks or made a claim
So 3 hands played in the 4 minutes ..Does not often happen due to internet lags in that club as the computer is connected to the net by an extender thing. However it shows the speed of play.
3. Last month another pair indicated with anger "WERE NOT SLOW .." I pointed out they had travelled through tables 6 7 and 8 all who were in the last 3 tables finishing each round .. so they
were not fast. 28 tables in play and no gain made on time. So must be slow.
4. Everytime I indicate a slow table they look around to check how next door tables are doing ..
"They are still playing .." they pipe up ... I say .. Yeah that's true they are on 2nd board of the next round .. or they are on last 3 cards of the equivalent board to the one you are playing ..
5. Its never the slow players fault .. some of them are just permanently in 1st gear .. always travelling up hill
6. In another club where I direct there are two slow players .. Fergal and Tommy ... Now these two
lads just think slow and then when the thinking is done the fingers slowly pick out the calculated card and place it slowly on the table ...Then they repeat all the same for the next 12 tricks
7. Then we have the 1.5 minute dummy putter downer... This man or woman will place each card down in dummy individually and give each card a little pat as it goes on the table.. and maybe look for a little encouragement from partner for a large honor card.
8. And we have not got near a POST MORTEM yet ..
However I have 3 examples
1. I approached a player last month who had been half of North South at say table A4 in a 3 sections competiton and indicated to her that it was great that her table had finally completed the boards.
She was very happy to point out to me that all the slow players in the room were in her section and they were all moving as East West and she had to play against them all. No mention of 20 seconds pause before every card played by her side.... Nope it was all the fault of the moving pairs who were dreadfully slow in her view.
2. One night I spotted a slow declarer starting to play a 4S contract and the table was already slow.
I asked them to speed up and went over to the computer which had www.bridge-now.com on the screen. I managed to bid and play 3 full hands while this lady (a different lady than Item 1) played the 13 tricks or made a claim
3. Last month another pair indicated with anger "WERE NOT SLOW .." I pointed out they had travelled through tables 6 7 and 8 all who were in the last 3 tables finishing each round .. so they
were not fast. 28 tables in play and no gain made on time. So must be slow.
4. Everytime I indicate a slow table they look around to check how next door tables are doing ..
"They are still playing .." they pipe up ... I say .. Yeah that's true they are on 2nd board of the next round .. or they are on last 3 cards of the equivalent board to the one you are playing ..
5. Its never the slow players fault .. some of them are just permanently in 1st gear .. always travelling up hill
6. In another club where I direct there are two slow players .. Fergal and Tommy ... Now these two
lads just think slow and then when the thinking is done the fingers slowly pick out the calculated card and place it slowly on the table ...Then they repeat all the same for the next 12 tricks
7. Then we have the 1.5 minute dummy putter downer... This man or woman will place each card down in dummy individually and give each card a little pat as it goes on the table.. and maybe look for a little encouragement from partner for a large honor card.
8. And we have not got near a POST MORTEM yet ..
Jimmy the Donplayer converts to Bridge
Last weekend I went to Belfast to broadcast the Lady Milne Trophy on Bridgebase Online. All good and most people had a good time. Scotland had a better time and pretty much dominated the event posting an 87% score.... over the full event
In 2001 when the Coen Trophy was limited to above intermediate level my team managed to post
148 VPS out 150 in a single session of 30 boards and 6 matches of 5 boards.
However these Scots posted 87% over 160 boards and 5 long matches of 32 boards.
So I returned from the Lady Milne on Monday and recalled that I had promised to run a DON competition in my local pub that same night. DON is a game often referred to as poor mans bridge as it was often played by tradesmen whereas bridge was played in the big houses.
Anyway only 4 pairs showed up and we ran like a Two table Howell and all played 6 hands against the other pairs. So we got that over by about 1125pm. Eamon did not win.
1st place was Jimmy Donplayer and Liam Carrick.
.............................
So I was thinking ...great I can go home and have a good sleep.
Next thing Jimmy pipes up ... " Eamon give us a quick run through that bridge stuff ....and we will give it a spin for a while"
So Galligan deals out 4 hands and gets the lads to put them face up and quickly explain about winning the first 6 tricks to reach the book and thus bidding starts at 1 level but that means you need 7 tricks. They got that.
Then I explained .. bonus's kick in at 9 tricks for NT 10 tricks for Hearts Spades and 11 tricks for Clubs Diamonds. I have not told them about Small Slam and Big Slam yet.
I did a second hand face up with me explaining the bidding but they picked up the cards and declared the hand. They know the cardplay and what a trick is from DON..
Then Jimmy Donplayer says ... "This is an interesting game .. You could not play this and be drinking at the same time as you would lose count of the suits .. "
Then he says .. Can we play a few hands without showing them on the table ..
So first hand went 1H 2D 2N and Jimmy says "What did you say about a bonus for 9 tricks ..
and I explained and he said ... ok 3NT so ..
Then I made my lead and told Jimmy put his hand on the table ... Jimmy said " but Eamon we are not teaching anymore ..we are keeping our cards held up "
This is where I had to explain the dummy hand ........
Anyway Liam made 10 tricks for plus 1 in 3NT and 430 as Nil all on board 1
Next hand they played 3NT again and Jimmy declared for 9 tricks with a struggle..
I wrote down 600 ...
Then Jimmy piped up ..how does this scoring work .... and I said ... I will look after the scoring for
tonight and Jimmy says .." How will we know you are being honest "
The next 6 hands were part scores and undertricks and then it was time to go home.
Result .. Jimmy 1030 .... Eamon 780 ..
We were playing Chicago ... Nil All on hand 1 Dealer Vul on hand 2 and 3 .. Game all on hand 4
And Jimmy ..goes " What a game !! ... DON is like SNAP compared to this bridge "
We will give it a spin again soon .. "
Then it took 20 minutes to get down the normal 7 minute walk home as Jimmy questioned me on
various bridge stuff and how it works in the club and scoring and stuff ...
I went in the next night and Jimmy comes over ...Eamon whats this T on that paper you gave me last night. ... I explained T = 10 ..
.........................
Meanwhile during that game Declan the Donplayer from previous articles was finally having his first game of bridge with real cards in his hands. For the last 18 months or so he has played only online on the computer. Lurking with intent in the background was Shane the barman who I also taught bridge but he also has never played with real cards as he only plays on www.Bridge-Now.com
Seamus Costello delivers beginner lessons in my local community centre and Declan Donplayer called in there once or twice and indicated ...these people are learning what a trick is and what a trump is ... I already know those things.
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
In 2001 when the Coen Trophy was limited to above intermediate level my team managed to post
148 VPS out 150 in a single session of 30 boards and 6 matches of 5 boards.
However these Scots posted 87% over 160 boards and 5 long matches of 32 boards.
So I returned from the Lady Milne on Monday and recalled that I had promised to run a DON competition in my local pub that same night. DON is a game often referred to as poor mans bridge as it was often played by tradesmen whereas bridge was played in the big houses.
Anyway only 4 pairs showed up and we ran like a Two table Howell and all played 6 hands against the other pairs. So we got that over by about 1125pm. Eamon did not win.
1st place was Jimmy Donplayer and Liam Carrick.
.............................
So I was thinking ...great I can go home and have a good sleep.
Next thing Jimmy pipes up ... " Eamon give us a quick run through that bridge stuff ....and we will give it a spin for a while"
So Galligan deals out 4 hands and gets the lads to put them face up and quickly explain about winning the first 6 tricks to reach the book and thus bidding starts at 1 level but that means you need 7 tricks. They got that.
Then I explained .. bonus's kick in at 9 tricks for NT 10 tricks for Hearts Spades and 11 tricks for Clubs Diamonds. I have not told them about Small Slam and Big Slam yet.
I did a second hand face up with me explaining the bidding but they picked up the cards and declared the hand. They know the cardplay and what a trick is from DON..
Then Jimmy Donplayer says ... "This is an interesting game .. You could not play this and be drinking at the same time as you would lose count of the suits .. "
Then he says .. Can we play a few hands without showing them on the table ..
So first hand went 1H 2D 2N and Jimmy says "What did you say about a bonus for 9 tricks ..
and I explained and he said ... ok 3NT so ..
Then I made my lead and told Jimmy put his hand on the table ... Jimmy said " but Eamon we are not teaching anymore ..we are keeping our cards held up "
This is where I had to explain the dummy hand ........
Anyway Liam made 10 tricks for plus 1 in 3NT and 430 as Nil all on board 1
Next hand they played 3NT again and Jimmy declared for 9 tricks with a struggle..
I wrote down 600 ...
Then Jimmy piped up ..how does this scoring work .... and I said ... I will look after the scoring for
tonight and Jimmy says .." How will we know you are being honest "
The next 6 hands were part scores and undertricks and then it was time to go home.
Result .. Jimmy 1030 .... Eamon 780 ..
We were playing Chicago ... Nil All on hand 1 Dealer Vul on hand 2 and 3 .. Game all on hand 4
And Jimmy ..goes " What a game !! ... DON is like SNAP compared to this bridge "
We will give it a spin again soon .. "
Then it took 20 minutes to get down the normal 7 minute walk home as Jimmy questioned me on
various bridge stuff and how it works in the club and scoring and stuff ...
I went in the next night and Jimmy comes over ...Eamon whats this T on that paper you gave me last night. ... I explained T = 10 ..
.........................
Meanwhile during that game Declan the Donplayer from previous articles was finally having his first game of bridge with real cards in his hands. For the last 18 months or so he has played only online on the computer. Lurking with intent in the background was Shane the barman who I also taught bridge but he also has never played with real cards as he only plays on www.Bridge-Now.com
Seamus Costello delivers beginner lessons in my local community centre and Declan Donplayer called in there once or twice and indicated ...these people are learning what a trick is and what a trump is ... I already know those things.
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Team Dee Charity Saturday 2pm April 16
Good afternoon
http://www.bridgewebs.com//malahideregional/Team%20Dee%20Flyer%2016.04.2016.pdf
There is a charity event in Malahide Regional Bridge Club on Saturday at 2pm.
Click the link above for details ..
This event was supposed to be on last weekend but there was some confusion with the Moylan being in Malahide or not being in Malahide so the organiser's cancelled the Charity by a week.
I was all set to help out with Tournament Directing or as a float but now the event moved by a week.
So unfortunately I will be working the vugraph at the Lady Milne ..
So if you get bored watching Lady Milne then there is always the bridge game in Malahide.
(Regarding the Moylan not being in Malahide this year .. I think someone forgot to book the venue and I have no idea who that person might be)
I know that over the last few years I have run the Schools Bridge Pairs in Malahide with Thomas MacCormac and we always have to write to the Secretary to book the venue.
..............................
So our man in the West chooses to open a weak 2 with the 7 card suit .. and North declares 3NT.
HEART JACK lead and NORTH pops the Queen thinking 6-2 HEART break and that it does not
matter. However there was no cost to duck the HEART JACK and roll home 3NT via the working
club duck and maybe a DIAMOND 10 play or ACE and a small diamond .. but making
due to the lack of communication in HEARTS.
Now if WEST is a player who often opens WEAK 2 with 7 card suit then he needs to advise his
partner who when explaining will then mention the 7 card possibility.
However I don't think there is any cost to duck the HEART JACK ...
I have come across some international Ireland lady players who open a weak 2 with a 7 carder.
I think Eamon Galligan has tried the effect of the 4 card weak 2 opener...
Eamon also has operated the 5 card weak 3 opener
However these are dangerous moves which should only be used with caution .. and against counting
opponents.
........
A man with grey hair and glasses just motored up the road outside my house at speed and he was not driving a car. FAST WALKING..
The TV is talking about migrating from Excel to Access ..
.................
If one wanted to have some FREE practice at bridge one could use
www.bridge-now.com
Play a hand and you get a percentage score after each hand
Each week it will give you a rating which moves up or down each week.
.......................
If you want to watch FREE bridge lessons go to www.youtube.com and type in what you want
Example .. someone asked me last night and I showed them and typed in WEAK 2 bid into youtube.
About 20 videos popped up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_POgbpMjEBM
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
http://www.bridgewebs.com//malahideregional/Team%20Dee%20Flyer%2016.04.2016.pdf
There is a charity event in Malahide Regional Bridge Club on Saturday at 2pm.
Click the link above for details ..
This event was supposed to be on last weekend but there was some confusion with the Moylan being in Malahide or not being in Malahide so the organiser's cancelled the Charity by a week.
I was all set to help out with Tournament Directing or as a float but now the event moved by a week.
So unfortunately I will be working the vugraph at the Lady Milne ..
So if you get bored watching Lady Milne then there is always the bridge game in Malahide.
(Regarding the Moylan not being in Malahide this year .. I think someone forgot to book the venue and I have no idea who that person might be)
I know that over the last few years I have run the Schools Bridge Pairs in Malahide with Thomas MacCormac and we always have to write to the Secretary to book the venue.
..............................
So our man in the West chooses to open a weak 2 with the 7 card suit .. and North declares 3NT.
HEART JACK lead and NORTH pops the Queen thinking 6-2 HEART break and that it does not
matter. However there was no cost to duck the HEART JACK and roll home 3NT via the working
club duck and maybe a DIAMOND 10 play or ACE and a small diamond .. but making
due to the lack of communication in HEARTS.
Now if WEST is a player who often opens WEAK 2 with 7 card suit then he needs to advise his
partner who when explaining will then mention the 7 card possibility.
However I don't think there is any cost to duck the HEART JACK ...
I have come across some international Ireland lady players who open a weak 2 with a 7 carder.
I think Eamon Galligan has tried the effect of the 4 card weak 2 opener...
Eamon also has operated the 5 card weak 3 opener
However these are dangerous moves which should only be used with caution .. and against counting
opponents.
........
A man with grey hair and glasses just motored up the road outside my house at speed and he was not driving a car. FAST WALKING..
The TV is talking about migrating from Excel to Access ..
.................
If one wanted to have some FREE practice at bridge one could use
www.bridge-now.com
Play a hand and you get a percentage score after each hand
Each week it will give you a rating which moves up or down each week.
.......................
If you want to watch FREE bridge lessons go to www.youtube.com and type in what you want
Example .. someone asked me last night and I showed them and typed in WEAK 2 bid into youtube.
About 20 videos popped up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_POgbpMjEBM
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
First Ireland invitational Pairs complete
Last Friday in the Regent we held the Inaugural (think it means first) Ireland Invitational Pairs event. This event requires a severe amount of organisation. We were limited to 7 tables of Pairs so that's 14 pairs in action.
So how are the pairs selected ... Well the first 7 pairs might be easy so lets have a go
1. Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon ...
2. Thomas Hanlon and someone ..in this case John Carroll was easy as he would be making any list himself
3. BJ O'Brien ..well its probably 35 years since any event started without BJ.. and his current partner
David Jackson is also a very active player still
4. The O'Briain brothers ..
5. Karel de Raeymaker and Anna Onishuk
6. Gay Keaveney is a solid citizen and as it happens one of his current partners is regular Welsh international player Peter Goodman
7. Terry Walsh and Michael McGloughlin have been in the top ranking of Irish bridge players from
the early 80s and before ..and having recently made a partnership in Senior Trials cannot be ignore
8. 9. 10. Current trials form should not be ignored so all 6 players on the recent losing finalist team in the IBU trials are included
Wojciech Marcin Ranald Thomas and Ronan with the very capable James Heneghan added as BJ O'Brien was already selected.
11. Donal MacAonghusa and Ciaran Coyne are a shoe in ...
12. Cian Holland has been showing well in various partnerships over the last 10 years so is included with partner Dermot Cotter
13. A Northern Ireland pair should be included .. David Greenwood and Rex Anderson would be the
expected choice but Ian Hamilton and Hastings Campbell showed up. Both are multiple capped
Camrose players for Northern Ireland
14. CBAI CEO and Regent President Paul Porteus and Fred Barry made up the 14. To the best of my
knowledge this pair are present as a flexible pair who might be present or not in Weeks 2 and 3 ..
The problem for the organisors is if a pair is asked to play in Week 1 then how can you kick them out for Week 2 and 3 ...so you need some wriggle room.
Well known names who come to mind and are missing are
1. Peter Pigot
2. Tommy Garvey
3. Hugh McGann
4. Rory Timlin
5. Pat Barry
6. Pat McDevitt
7. David Scannell
8, Paul Scannell
9 Enda Glynn
10. John Phelan
11 Diarmuid Reddan
12. Karl Cashen
13. Donal Garvey
14. Pat Quinn
15. Michael McDonagh
16. Eddie Fitzgerald
17. Paul Barrett
18. David Walsh
19. Alan Johnson
20. John Murchan
21. Grier McKenzie
22. Ian Lindsay
23. Bob Pattinson
24. David Greenwood
25. Rex Anderson
26. Aidan Cleary
27. PC Kiely
28 Rory Boland
29 Mark Moran
Names listed at the top as pairs ... in no particular order apart from First 2 pairs
Names 1-22 in no particular order either and maybe I have forgotten some
Next ...The women are going to wonder why no mention of them ...
Hilary Dowling Long
Gilda Pender
Louise Mitchel
Lucy Phelan
Valerie Hand
Aileen O'Keefe
Joan Kenny
Teresa Rigney
Jill Kulchycky
Maureen Pattinson
Brid Kirby
Valerie and Kathleen
The 2 Pats
Patsy Meehan Petra O'Neill
Jeannie Fitzgerald Emer Joyce
Diane Greenwood
Ciara Burns
Mary Finn
Rebecca Brown
Ena Cleary
Maria Whelan
Dolores Gilliland
Barbara Seligman
Grainne Barton
Maria Barry
Miriam McConville
I have not concentrated very hard on the Woman's list but listed out names that
came to mind from recent trials /Lady Milnes so if I left you out don't take offence
For the 29 men listed above probably half them were unavailable for some of the 3 sessions
The other half probably did not make their way into the Final 14 pairs as not enough
dropouts
So no Lady Pairs in the Final 14 ... Well what pair could a lady pair legitimately replace
A measure of Legitimately is you would beat the pair you are replacing 7 out of 10 times
in a direct match. There are lots of capable players in the 29 who the ladies also have to displace
before making consideration for the top 14 pairs.
.................
A thought just struck me ... Maybe a non invited pair could be allowed play but must pay a hefty entrance fee which would be returned on finished above average otherwise it goes into the prizes
pot.
..........
Anyway .........
www.fob.ie has all the boards and results of the 1st Invitational Pairs
So if you did not receive your invitation to play .. consider who would you displace
from the Top 14 competing pairs
You also need to be a more capable player than Eamon Galligan (who would not expect to get anywhere close to playing in this event) However I am stronger than lots of names mentioned on this
blog post ... (Its ok Thomas MacCormac you are not behind me)
Last weekend on BBO ...Declan the Donplayer partnered James Heneghan on BBO while I had a few
Guinness in my local pub. Declan the Donplayer is intrigued by bridge but has never ventured into a bridge club as it would interfere with his betting and drinking time.
Tonight in Malahide we have the inaugural Danny Doona Captains prize as far as I know ..
1H 2H X P
P 3C P P
3D P P
coming back to Adam Mesbur with opposition wanting to declare in 3D after his partner had
made a bid at all vulnerable
Adam knew what to do ... and Carroll went minus 1100 ..
So how are the pairs selected ... Well the first 7 pairs might be easy so lets have a go
1. Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon ...
2. Thomas Hanlon and someone ..in this case John Carroll was easy as he would be making any list himself
3. BJ O'Brien ..well its probably 35 years since any event started without BJ.. and his current partner
David Jackson is also a very active player still
4. The O'Briain brothers ..
5. Karel de Raeymaker and Anna Onishuk
6. Gay Keaveney is a solid citizen and as it happens one of his current partners is regular Welsh international player Peter Goodman
7. Terry Walsh and Michael McGloughlin have been in the top ranking of Irish bridge players from
the early 80s and before ..and having recently made a partnership in Senior Trials cannot be ignore
8. 9. 10. Current trials form should not be ignored so all 6 players on the recent losing finalist team in the IBU trials are included
Wojciech Marcin Ranald Thomas and Ronan with the very capable James Heneghan added as BJ O'Brien was already selected.
11. Donal MacAonghusa and Ciaran Coyne are a shoe in ...
12. Cian Holland has been showing well in various partnerships over the last 10 years so is included with partner Dermot Cotter
13. A Northern Ireland pair should be included .. David Greenwood and Rex Anderson would be the
expected choice but Ian Hamilton and Hastings Campbell showed up. Both are multiple capped
Camrose players for Northern Ireland
14. CBAI CEO and Regent President Paul Porteus and Fred Barry made up the 14. To the best of my
knowledge this pair are present as a flexible pair who might be present or not in Weeks 2 and 3 ..
The problem for the organisors is if a pair is asked to play in Week 1 then how can you kick them out for Week 2 and 3 ...so you need some wriggle room.
Well known names who come to mind and are missing are
1. Peter Pigot
2. Tommy Garvey
3. Hugh McGann
4. Rory Timlin
5. Pat Barry
6. Pat McDevitt
7. David Scannell
8, Paul Scannell
9 Enda Glynn
10. John Phelan
11 Diarmuid Reddan
12. Karl Cashen
13. Donal Garvey
14. Pat Quinn
15. Michael McDonagh
16. Eddie Fitzgerald
17. Paul Barrett
18. David Walsh
19. Alan Johnson
20. John Murchan
21. Grier McKenzie
22. Ian Lindsay
23. Bob Pattinson
24. David Greenwood
25. Rex Anderson
26. Aidan Cleary
27. PC Kiely
28 Rory Boland
29 Mark Moran
Names listed at the top as pairs ... in no particular order apart from First 2 pairs
Names 1-22 in no particular order either and maybe I have forgotten some
Next ...The women are going to wonder why no mention of them ...
Hilary Dowling Long
Gilda Pender
Louise Mitchel
Lucy Phelan
Valerie Hand
Aileen O'Keefe
Joan Kenny
Teresa Rigney
Jill Kulchycky
Maureen Pattinson
Brid Kirby
Valerie and Kathleen
The 2 Pats
Patsy Meehan Petra O'Neill
Jeannie Fitzgerald Emer Joyce
Diane Greenwood
Ciara Burns
Mary Finn
Rebecca Brown
Ena Cleary
Maria Whelan
Dolores Gilliland
Barbara Seligman
Grainne Barton
Maria Barry
Miriam McConville
I have not concentrated very hard on the Woman's list but listed out names that
came to mind from recent trials /Lady Milnes so if I left you out don't take offence
For the 29 men listed above probably half them were unavailable for some of the 3 sessions
The other half probably did not make their way into the Final 14 pairs as not enough
dropouts
So no Lady Pairs in the Final 14 ... Well what pair could a lady pair legitimately replace
A measure of Legitimately is you would beat the pair you are replacing 7 out of 10 times
in a direct match. There are lots of capable players in the 29 who the ladies also have to displace
before making consideration for the top 14 pairs.
.................
A thought just struck me ... Maybe a non invited pair could be allowed play but must pay a hefty entrance fee which would be returned on finished above average otherwise it goes into the prizes
pot.
..........
Anyway .........
www.fob.ie has all the boards and results of the 1st Invitational Pairs
So if you did not receive your invitation to play .. consider who would you displace
from the Top 14 competing pairs
You also need to be a more capable player than Eamon Galligan (who would not expect to get anywhere close to playing in this event) However I am stronger than lots of names mentioned on this
blog post ... (Its ok Thomas MacCormac you are not behind me)
Last weekend on BBO ...Declan the Donplayer partnered James Heneghan on BBO while I had a few
Guinness in my local pub. Declan the Donplayer is intrigued by bridge but has never ventured into a bridge club as it would interfere with his betting and drinking time.
Tonight in Malahide we have the inaugural Danny Doona Captains prize as far as I know ..
1H 2H X P
P 3C P P
3D P P
coming back to Adam Mesbur with opposition wanting to declare in 3D after his partner had
made a bid at all vulnerable
Adam knew what to do ... and Carroll went minus 1100 ..
Friday, April 01, 2016
Friday April 08 at 2pm Invitational Pairs Regent Bridge club
Next Friday we will have the Irish Invitational Pairs Championship. 14 of Irelands top pairs will do battle in a 52 board all play all barometer event scored by matchpoints.
We will run a vugraph theatre on site at the Regent Bridge Club and folk can also
watch live on Bridgebase Online. We will probably show 2 tables.
The event is organised by Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite.
Declan Byrne will manage the hosting club facilities.
http://www.bridgewebs.com/regent/
The event starts at 1400 hours and runs until around 1030pm
More information later
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
watch live on Bridgebase Online. We will probably show 2 tables.
The event is organised by Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite.
Declan Byrne will manage the hosting club facilities.
http://www.bridgewebs.com/regent/
The event starts at 1400 hours and runs until around 1030pm
More information later
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
Monday, March 21, 2016
Top 14 Invitational Pairs at Regent
Folks
I have been informed that a new event will be hosted at the Regent Bridge Club in the near future.
Unfortunately most of ye will not be allowed to play. I don't know the exact qualifying details but two of the constraints are something like being a grandmaster and having an active regular partner who is also a grandmaster or good enough to not drag you down from your own high level.
The event will take place over 3 days in the Regent Bridge Club.
http://www.bridgewebs.com/regent/
I have been informed that a new event will be hosted at the Regent Bridge Club in the near future.
Unfortunately most of ye will not be allowed to play. I don't know the exact qualifying details but two of the constraints are something like being a grandmaster and having an active regular partner who is also a grandmaster or good enough to not drag you down from your own high level.
The event will take place over 3 days in the Regent Bridge Club.
http://www.bridgewebs.com/regent/
Dear
I’m writing to tell you about an exciting new sponsored
match pointed pairs competition for Ireland’s Premier Pairs Partnerships.
Three competitions will take place before the end of
June, the first event to take place in Dublin in the Regent Bridge Club on
Friday, 8th April, commencing at 14.00 (on the eve of the Moylan) The
dates for the remaining events are 27th May (eve of the Egan) and 10th
June.
-
Prize Money for each event will be €1,000
with 1st, 2nd and 3rd Prizes being awarded.
-
In addition, the leading pair of the three
events (provided they are eligible) will receive a generous subsidy towards the
World National Open Pairs Competition which takes place in Wroclaw, Poland from
11th September. This pair must have played together on at least two occasions.
-
The number of entries will be limited to
14 pairs
-
All pairs will play each other with a
minimum of 52 boards at each event.
-
Visiting International Pairs of required
standard may be invited to play in any of the competitions.
-
Pairs to be invited have been selected
by a committee of some of Ireland’s leading players.
-
I have been appointed organiser of the
competition
I hope you agree that this Competition will provide
a marvellous opportunity for Ireland’s best pairs to meet in a challenging
environment and I look forward to your participation.
Full details of competition rules, etc. will be
provided on receipt of your confirmation.
Kind regards,
Ann Tuite
.....................
There is a plan being formed to show this event on BBO vugraph so those not near to Regent can watch this tough pairs event. Scoring is by matchpoints at the moment but I personally don't know if that is the best system with only 7 tables in operation.
My understanding is the event is being organised by Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite.
I suspect Declan Byrne will not be too far away as he has been a mainstay of the Regent Bridge Club for a good few 10s of years.
I don't know exactly who will take part at the moment but more details later as they come to hand.
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
Monday, February 22, 2016
CBAI win Peggy Bayer Trophy for 1st time ever
Last weekend Feb 19-21 The CBAI under 20 squad won the Peggy Bayer Trophy for Home International Teams. I don't think CBAI have ever won a junior event before. These events are usually dominated by England teams and from time to time Scotland put in a spoke.
However this year CBAI had developed a capable foursome who were quite surprised back in 2013
when the breakfast chef interrupted their 4 month old bridge game to offer some advice.
Nobody had told them about former CBAI President and very capable bridge player Commandant
Eddie Fitzgerald. Eddie has been the B&B host for several schools bridge participants including
some of the winning team above.
Conor Boland Michael Donnelly Stephen Barr and John Connolly along with NPC Thomas MacCormac another former CBAI President. Nice dicky bows lads .. as well as several dominating
performances after a sluggish start in rounds 1-4.
These lads and several others were each assigned a trials level and beyond mentor. Mentors include
Pat Quinn Gay Keavney John Phelan Thomas MacCormac Karel deRaeymaker Kelan O'Connor and I won't mention anymore just yet as I am not 100% certain. Will add more as soon as I know.
as I am not certain of my facts.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
IBU Trials boards 61-80
So after 60 boards of nip and tuck Team BJ O'Brien led by 5 imps much to my surprise. How could a team playing in top level competition for 2 years and in full training be struggling to put away a team playing inside Ireland at a lower level and with less visible training/practice ..
Well the lid was about to come off the pot in a big way.. and new vugraph operator Galligan was there to see the action.
The gladiators in my room were
North : Ranald Milne ... regarded as Dublins 2nd best bridge teacher after Paddy English....
English just keeps churning out brand new players year after year ... Milne is more for the advancing player.. Peter Pigot is also receiving good mentions in the bridge teacher world ..
South .. BJ O'Brien who turns up at every bridge game
East ,, Mark Moran who played junior for Ireland in Budapest some years ago and also has won some
Camroses as player and possibly NPC.
West ..Rory Boland ,,,,,a really great natural bridge player but maybe needs to learn some of this centurys new bridge tricks..
So we started with 19 and a flat part score.
Then Moran declared 4S and needed to divine a KQ of hearts stiff with Milne following with K on first round so not much hope and down he went and 12 imp to O'Brien
Boards 1-4 saw 5 small imps go to Moran and they trailed by 12 overall
Board 5 saw Milne O'Brien attempt a 50% 6D slam but it went off but no problem as Hanlon McGann floundered in a hopeless 4S ... 3 imps to O'Brien ..now by 15
Board 6 saw Moran gain 4 imps for getting contracts down in each room. Both 2H and 3N can make one will say as double dummy says it but look at the plays needed for this and if you making these the police will be keeping an eye on you. You might even make it into a Michael Clark bridge video.
Board 7 ..4S in both rooms but Moran team doubled it and 5 imps to O;Brien up by 16
Board 8 saw Milne roll home a double dummy beatable 3C for 470 and 8 imps
Board 9 saw Moran and McMaugh make 8 tricks in NT but Moran was in game so 6 more imps to O;Brien.
Board 10 saw Moran down in 4S while MacCormac rolled home 1NT and Team O'Brien had opened up the gap to 39 imps
Board 11...An imp to Moran
Board 12 13 were flat
Board 14 saw Moran make 9 tricks in NT partscore while his teammates sacked in 2H
Board 15 saw Moran defend a hopeless 3NT holding AQJT32 of Hearts and thinking this was the road to victory got distracted from Bolands 5th highest spade lead and 3NT rolled home and
11 imps to Team O'Brien now ahead by 47 imps
Moran got 4 back on 17 after a flat board 16 and we reached the final board in this session board 18
Grand slam was available to double dummy folk but several things lay well to allow 13 tricks
Hanlon McGann took a low road in 3NT for 720 ..,, and after 2 passes Boland tried a Galligan style 2S opening ..Milne doubled with his truckload of 25 hcp and BJ puffed out his chest and passed with his KQxx of trumps. As North South can make 4S or multiple grand slams Boland was doomed and squeezed out 3 tricks for -1100 and 9 imps in the bin.
So O'Brien by 52 imps with 20 boards to go
At this stage Team O'Brien who might not have planned for this amount of bridge seemed to have a small problem. 2 of their team still needed more boards according to the regulations .. All players
needed to play 50% of the boards ...So we paused for a short break ..
Don't go away as the most exciting 11 boards of bridge are ahead of us as Team Moran hopes the boards contain the required imps to make a comeback. 52 imps is a big ask but they almost pulled back 80 in the recent Camrose Trials but ran out of boards.
Link to pdf of boards 61-80
You can find the hands here
Oh I nearly forgot about Mark Morans good lead on board 4 to threaten 4S but unfortunately the next part of the puzzle failed to fit the jigsaw .. A Heart lead set him up to get some tricks but
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
PS .. www.bridge-now.com is a great site for getting in some matchpoint practice and a rating
Well the lid was about to come off the pot in a big way.. and new vugraph operator Galligan was there to see the action.
The gladiators in my room were
North : Ranald Milne ... regarded as Dublins 2nd best bridge teacher after Paddy English....
English just keeps churning out brand new players year after year ... Milne is more for the advancing player.. Peter Pigot is also receiving good mentions in the bridge teacher world ..
South .. BJ O'Brien who turns up at every bridge game
East ,, Mark Moran who played junior for Ireland in Budapest some years ago and also has won some
Camroses as player and possibly NPC.
West ..Rory Boland ,,,,,a really great natural bridge player but maybe needs to learn some of this centurys new bridge tricks..
So we started with 19 and a flat part score.
Then Moran declared 4S and needed to divine a KQ of hearts stiff with Milne following with K on first round so not much hope and down he went and 12 imp to O'Brien
Boards 1-4 saw 5 small imps go to Moran and they trailed by 12 overall
Board 5 saw Milne O'Brien attempt a 50% 6D slam but it went off but no problem as Hanlon McGann floundered in a hopeless 4S ... 3 imps to O'Brien ..now by 15
Board 6 saw Moran gain 4 imps for getting contracts down in each room. Both 2H and 3N can make one will say as double dummy says it but look at the plays needed for this and if you making these the police will be keeping an eye on you. You might even make it into a Michael Clark bridge video.
Board 7 ..4S in both rooms but Moran team doubled it and 5 imps to O;Brien up by 16
Board 8 saw Milne roll home a double dummy beatable 3C for 470 and 8 imps
Board 9 saw Moran and McMaugh make 8 tricks in NT but Moran was in game so 6 more imps to O;Brien.
Board 10 saw Moran down in 4S while MacCormac rolled home 1NT and Team O'Brien had opened up the gap to 39 imps
Board 11...An imp to Moran
Board 12 13 were flat
Board 14 saw Moran make 9 tricks in NT partscore while his teammates sacked in 2H
Board 15 saw Moran defend a hopeless 3NT holding AQJT32 of Hearts and thinking this was the road to victory got distracted from Bolands 5th highest spade lead and 3NT rolled home and
11 imps to Team O'Brien now ahead by 47 imps
Moran got 4 back on 17 after a flat board 16 and we reached the final board in this session board 18
Grand slam was available to double dummy folk but several things lay well to allow 13 tricks
Hanlon McGann took a low road in 3NT for 720 ..,, and after 2 passes Boland tried a Galligan style 2S opening ..Milne doubled with his truckload of 25 hcp and BJ puffed out his chest and passed with his KQxx of trumps. As North South can make 4S or multiple grand slams Boland was doomed and squeezed out 3 tricks for -1100 and 9 imps in the bin.
So O'Brien by 52 imps with 20 boards to go
At this stage Team O'Brien who might not have planned for this amount of bridge seemed to have a small problem. 2 of their team still needed more boards according to the regulations .. All players
needed to play 50% of the boards ...So we paused for a short break ..
Don't go away as the most exciting 11 boards of bridge are ahead of us as Team Moran hopes the boards contain the required imps to make a comeback. 52 imps is a big ask but they almost pulled back 80 in the recent Camrose Trials but ran out of boards.
Link to pdf of boards 61-80
You can find the hands here
Oh I nearly forgot about Mark Morans good lead on board 4 to threaten 4S but unfortunately the next part of the puzzle failed to fit the jigsaw .. A Heart lead set him up to get some tricks but
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
PS .. www.bridge-now.com is a great site for getting in some matchpoint practice and a rating
Friday, February 12, 2016
IBU Trials boards 41-60
Reporting on the IBU Trials final after 40 boards the BJ O'Brien squad led the Moran squad by 4 imps. So onto boards 41-60 out of the 100 total. This event was shown live on BBO and the files can be found on www.bridgebase.com with a small amount of searching. Along with Fergal O'Boyles fantastic results site all the information is available for anyone who wishes to examine how the legendary BJ O'Brien wins bridge games.
With 40 boards gone we the general public expected Team O'Brien to fold but they were not going anywhere yet.
Board 1 was flat 4S
Board 2 both sides played in 4S and Team Moran led HA and that was made. At the other table played the opposite way up it was HQ lead which led to 2 heart tricks and presumably a club ruff later on for down 1... 12 imps to O'Brien
Board 3-4 were flat games
Board 5 saw MacCormac McMaugh over reach into 6D and lose 13 imps. 31 hcp and 9 card trumps often is enough but not today.
Board 6 flat
Board 7 saw O'Brien grab 5 imps for 2 downed partscores
Board 8 saw the O'Brien team attempt declarership in spades at both tables. It does not often show a profit. So this time they lost 600 in undertricks some of them doubled and 12 imps to Moran
Board 9 was an overtrick imp to Moran
Board 10 saw Moran win 2 partscores for 6 imps ...You got to play pretty good to go down only 1 in
3H but it got home.
Board 11 flat
Board 12 saw 4 imps to O'Brien for a knock and a small partscore .. 90 + 50
Board 13 saw Moran win 3 imps for a bigger knock of a contract
Hanlon declaring 3NT as far as I recall played a kind of terminal CT and CK on trick 1 and
went down in a kibitzers cold one .....However even Hanlon nods
However Boland Moran had his back with 200 and 3 imps off 4S
Board 14 saw 5 imps for an impetuous double of a comfortable 6H by Hanlon McGann.
5 imps to O'Brien
Board 15 flat
Board 16 also flat but down 3 at both tables ... in 2S and 4S ..
Board 17 saw Hanlon McGann doubling another cold 1 and lose 10 imps. They were doomed on
this board anyway as MacCormac McMaugh had found the good 5D sacrifice
Board 18 flat
Board 19 saw Hanlon McGann float home a defeatable 2S to cover Boland Morans 4H-2
Board 20 an overtrick imp to Moran
So after 60 boards and Saturdays action completed O'Brien led Moran by 5 imps much to my surprise. However I know one English lad who was not surprised. He holds that Carrot Club is doomed and all the dunces just pile in and interfere with it. He also believes the Boland Moran
bidding system is antique and last played by 1980s bridge players.
However next post we will see what Sundays action brought. Obviously this event is over and I am
writing after the fact.
http://www.fob.ie/sites/default/files/files/IBU%20OT%20Final%20R4.pdf
http://www.fob.ie/national
Hand records can be found above
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
With 40 boards gone we the general public expected Team O'Brien to fold but they were not going anywhere yet.
Board 1 was flat 4S
Board 2 both sides played in 4S and Team Moran led HA and that was made. At the other table played the opposite way up it was HQ lead which led to 2 heart tricks and presumably a club ruff later on for down 1... 12 imps to O'Brien
Board 3-4 were flat games
Board 5 saw MacCormac McMaugh over reach into 6D and lose 13 imps. 31 hcp and 9 card trumps often is enough but not today.
Board 6 flat
Board 7 saw O'Brien grab 5 imps for 2 downed partscores
Board 8 saw the O'Brien team attempt declarership in spades at both tables. It does not often show a profit. So this time they lost 600 in undertricks some of them doubled and 12 imps to Moran
Board 9 was an overtrick imp to Moran
Board 10 saw Moran win 2 partscores for 6 imps ...You got to play pretty good to go down only 1 in
3H but it got home.
Board 11 flat
Board 12 saw 4 imps to O'Brien for a knock and a small partscore .. 90 + 50
Board 13 saw Moran win 3 imps for a bigger knock of a contract
Hanlon declaring 3NT as far as I recall played a kind of terminal CT and CK on trick 1 and
went down in a kibitzers cold one .....However even Hanlon nods
However Boland Moran had his back with 200 and 3 imps off 4S
Board 14 saw 5 imps for an impetuous double of a comfortable 6H by Hanlon McGann.
5 imps to O'Brien
Board 15 flat
Board 16 also flat but down 3 at both tables ... in 2S and 4S ..
Board 17 saw Hanlon McGann doubling another cold 1 and lose 10 imps. They were doomed on
this board anyway as MacCormac McMaugh had found the good 5D sacrifice
Board 18 flat
Board 19 saw Hanlon McGann float home a defeatable 2S to cover Boland Morans 4H-2
Board 20 an overtrick imp to Moran
So after 60 boards and Saturdays action completed O'Brien led Moran by 5 imps much to my surprise. However I know one English lad who was not surprised. He holds that Carrot Club is doomed and all the dunces just pile in and interfere with it. He also believes the Boland Moran
bidding system is antique and last played by 1980s bridge players.
However next post we will see what Sundays action brought. Obviously this event is over and I am
writing after the fact.
http://www.fob.ie/sites/default/files/files/IBU%20OT%20Final%20R4.pdf
http://www.fob.ie/national
Hand records can be found above
Thanks
Eamon Galligan
Thursday, February 04, 2016
WEXFORD Bridge Congress IBU Trials 2
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35491852
Looks like the Thai police raided a bridge club and found more then 2 decks of cards
Maybe its an April Fool
http://cbai.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Wexford-Congress-Brochure-2016-1.pdf
Wexford Congress is on this weekend ... GO GO ..
........
Board 1 saw Marcin Wojech bid a 6S slam versus the 4S up 3 by Hanlon McGann.
Looks like a hand played in club bridge at 4S+3 with lots of things working.
However 3-2 club break and 3-2 club break makes it very cold ... and that's 46% odds.
However there are several other small pieces of odds to add into that.. like if trump queen
drops doubleton .. so adding all up probably over 60%...
10 imps to O'Brien
Board 3 saw Moran winning imps for defending at both tables ... 8 imps for 5 undertricks
Board 7 saw 4D making and 5D down 1 for 6 imps to O'Brien
Board 9 saw one of the Carveys slip home a 4H with 4 top tricks off it and 10 imps
against the 3H up 1 at other table
Board 12 was a 2H part score up and down for 5 imps
Board 13 saw Carvey attempting a strange manoeuvre declaring 3S with 6 trumps.
Sometimes Irish mentor/coach has attempted to explain for years about holding at least
7 trumps to declare ..unless you are Rueful Rabbit or James 3-1 Heneghan.
James rolled home 4H one time with a 3-1 fit ..
Board 14 saw Woj Marcin roll home 4S with lots of trumps and 6 imps in versus partscore by Hanlon McGann. In my club it goes P P P 1S 2S 4S at all tables but my players are not internationals.
Board 15 was the opposite ..partscore v game the other way and 6 imps back
Board 16 saw Carroll Garvey roar to the 5 level and take a chinning ... lose 800
Hanlon McGann got 500 from 4SX ,,but that was 7 imps out
Board 18 saw O'Brien win a part score versus knock 3NT for 5 imps
So fter 40 boards the match is pretty well tied up
http://www.fob.ie/sites/default/files/files/IBU%20OT%20Final%20R3(1).pdf
www.fob.ie
.................
Last night a chap in my club declared 3NT ...
xx opposite AQJTxx and he led a diamond towards the AQ ...
I searched out my singleton Diamond King as quick as I could ...but the impatient declarer
had already called for the Queen as he knew from bidding I owned all high card points ..
He attempted some bluster but I fished out the rule book and recalled Mauricio ...
"ITS ALWAYS A PLAYED CARD " ... when declarer does it ..
One more simultaneous pairs and then we are off to Wexford Bridge Congress
http://cbai.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Wexford-Congress-Brochure-2016-1.pdf
Looks like the Thai police raided a bridge club and found more then 2 decks of cards
Maybe its an April Fool
http://cbai.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Wexford-Congress-Brochure-2016-1.pdf
Wexford Congress is on this weekend ... GO GO ..
........
Board 1 saw Marcin Wojech bid a 6S slam versus the 4S up 3 by Hanlon McGann.
Looks like a hand played in club bridge at 4S+3 with lots of things working.
However 3-2 club break and 3-2 club break makes it very cold ... and that's 46% odds.
However there are several other small pieces of odds to add into that.. like if trump queen
drops doubleton .. so adding all up probably over 60%...
10 imps to O'Brien
Board 3 saw Moran winning imps for defending at both tables ... 8 imps for 5 undertricks
Board 7 saw 4D making and 5D down 1 for 6 imps to O'Brien
Board 9 saw one of the Carveys slip home a 4H with 4 top tricks off it and 10 imps
against the 3H up 1 at other table
Board 12 was a 2H part score up and down for 5 imps
Board 13 saw Carvey attempting a strange manoeuvre declaring 3S with 6 trumps.
Sometimes Irish mentor/coach has attempted to explain for years about holding at least
7 trumps to declare ..unless you are Rueful Rabbit or James 3-1 Heneghan.
James rolled home 4H one time with a 3-1 fit ..
Board 14 saw Woj Marcin roll home 4S with lots of trumps and 6 imps in versus partscore by Hanlon McGann. In my club it goes P P P 1S 2S 4S at all tables but my players are not internationals.
Board 15 was the opposite ..partscore v game the other way and 6 imps back
Board 16 saw Carroll Garvey roar to the 5 level and take a chinning ... lose 800
Hanlon McGann got 500 from 4SX ,,but that was 7 imps out
Board 18 saw O'Brien win a part score versus knock 3NT for 5 imps
So fter 40 boards the match is pretty well tied up
http://www.fob.ie/sites/default/files/files/IBU%20OT%20Final%20R3(1).pdf
www.fob.ie
.................
Last night a chap in my club declared 3NT ...
xx opposite AQJTxx and he led a diamond towards the AQ ...
I searched out my singleton Diamond King as quick as I could ...but the impatient declarer
had already called for the Queen as he knew from bidding I owned all high card points ..
He attempted some bluster but I fished out the rule book and recalled Mauricio ...
"ITS ALWAYS A PLAYED CARD " ... when declarer does it ..
One more simultaneous pairs and then we are off to Wexford Bridge Congress
http://cbai.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Wexford-Congress-Brochure-2016-1.pdf
Monday, February 01, 2016
IBU Trials for Budapest 2016 first 20 board set
Last weekend two squads of Irelands best players faced off in a 100 board final for the honor of representing Ireland in the European championships in Budapest.
Team .. O'Brien
1. BJ O'Brien
2. Ranald Milne
3. Wojech Gorchytca
4. Marcin Rudzinski
5. Thomas MacCormac
6. Ronan McMaugh
BJ a continuous podium finisher in almost every dogfight that has happened for the last 35 years and maybe longer. The man went off to Templeogue to play more bridge after playing 40 boards in the trials final. Even the opponents expressed amazement at this when they heard.
BJ has also played for Ireland Open many times. BJ is the only npc to have benched a player for winning a match by making a slam on a squeeze.
Ranald .. Dublin Norths 2nd best bridge teacher after the legendary Paddy English put down his
teaching stick and went into battle against 6 of the best players ever seen in CBAI land.
I recall Ranald playing on the Irish Open team with Joe McHale some years back.
Wojech ........ I don't know much about this guy except he seems rather thoughtful. I think I saw him winning a National Mixed Teams recently. Anyway I don't think there are any bad Polish bridge players.
Marcin Rudzinski ... Again I don't know so much about this guy but Marcin has been appearing in Irish trials for the last few years and performing pretty good.
Thomas MacCormac ... One cannot say anything bad about Thomas. Mild mannered away from the table but a very tough opponent at the table. Also a well known bridge teacher and schools/junior ambassador. Never think he is ignoring you if he walks away as you speak to him ...He does not hear too well in one ear so you got to make sure you are standing on his good side.
Ronan McMaugh ... Now this guy is the perfect partner ...Its always his fault ... so he says ..
No matter what stupidity you put on him ...Ronan will say .."Well I could have made it easier"
.................
The opponents and heavy favourites starting off were
Thomas Hanlon
Hugh McGann
Mark Moran
Rory Boland
Tommy Garvey
John Carroll
I don't need to introduce these guys ...
Boards 1-10
Just 3 major swings here ...MacCormac making 4HX on board 10 was 14 imps
Board 6 was 4H made and defeated for 13 imps the other way.
O'Brien by 29-10..............
Boards 11-20
Board 15 saw Garvey make a vulnerable game against Milnes part score for 10 imps
Board 17 saw MacCormac make 4S while Boland went down for 13 imps
Board 18 saw MacCormac defend 3HX for a tasty 800 but unfortunately OBrien Milne
took a higher view and were beaten 5 off doubled for a 600 differential.
9 imps to Moran and the overall score was O'Brien by 1 imp after 20 boards of 100.
Team .. O'Brien
1. BJ O'Brien
2. Ranald Milne
3. Wojech Gorchytca
4. Marcin Rudzinski
5. Thomas MacCormac
6. Ronan McMaugh
BJ a continuous podium finisher in almost every dogfight that has happened for the last 35 years and maybe longer. The man went off to Templeogue to play more bridge after playing 40 boards in the trials final. Even the opponents expressed amazement at this when they heard.
BJ has also played for Ireland Open many times. BJ is the only npc to have benched a player for winning a match by making a slam on a squeeze.
Ranald .. Dublin Norths 2nd best bridge teacher after the legendary Paddy English put down his
teaching stick and went into battle against 6 of the best players ever seen in CBAI land.
I recall Ranald playing on the Irish Open team with Joe McHale some years back.
Wojech ........ I don't know much about this guy except he seems rather thoughtful. I think I saw him winning a National Mixed Teams recently. Anyway I don't think there are any bad Polish bridge players.
Marcin Rudzinski ... Again I don't know so much about this guy but Marcin has been appearing in Irish trials for the last few years and performing pretty good.
Thomas MacCormac ... One cannot say anything bad about Thomas. Mild mannered away from the table but a very tough opponent at the table. Also a well known bridge teacher and schools/junior ambassador. Never think he is ignoring you if he walks away as you speak to him ...He does not hear too well in one ear so you got to make sure you are standing on his good side.
Ronan McMaugh ... Now this guy is the perfect partner ...Its always his fault ... so he says ..
No matter what stupidity you put on him ...Ronan will say .."Well I could have made it easier"
.................
The opponents and heavy favourites starting off were
Thomas Hanlon
Hugh McGann
Mark Moran
Rory Boland
Tommy Garvey
John Carroll
I don't need to introduce these guys ...
Boards 1-10
Just 3 major swings here ...MacCormac making 4HX on board 10 was 14 imps
Board 6 was 4H made and defeated for 13 imps the other way.
O'Brien by 29-10..............
Boards 11-20
Board 15 saw Garvey make a vulnerable game against Milnes part score for 10 imps
Board 17 saw MacCormac make 4S while Boland went down for 13 imps
Board 18 saw MacCormac defend 3HX for a tasty 800 but unfortunately OBrien Milne
took a higher view and were beaten 5 off doubled for a 600 differential.
9 imps to Moran and the overall score was O'Brien by 1 imp after 20 boards of 100.
Monday, January 04, 2016
Camrose 2016 Weekend 1 City North ...Meath or Louth I think
Next weekend January 8th to 10th the CBAI host the first weekend of the Camrose Trophy
6 teams will take part.
England Scotland NIBU CBAI Wales and Wales2(final weekend hosts) and Father Glynns team.
England should be favourites to start this event well as they field capable bridge players like David Bakhshi and David Gold as well as players like Mike Bell and Alexander Allfrey who are almost as good as me (at spelling) as well as Andrew Robson and Tony Forrester. Lets put it this way don't play them for money if you happen to visit.
Camrose 2016 Teams
Above is a link to the other teams in this event.
Donal MacAonghusa will tog out at great expense for the Glynn team. Donal is a fantastic bridge player who has spent his last 20 years or so as one of Irelands leading poker tournament directors.
The Diarmuid Reddan of the Ireland poker scene.
Donal used to sing ... "Pop goes the weasel" as he felled another singleton King
I think Donals nickname is Younis for some reason
Now the Sligo gang will be up in arms because Fergal is this and Fergal is that and GOD ranks below Fergal as a TD but Diarmuid Reddan does not have a Mairead.
.....................
Spectators are welcome and entry is free at the venue. A vugraph room with commentary from some top Irish bridge players like BJ O'Brien will be in operation. The event will also be shown on Bridgebase Online vugraph.
Timetable for the Weekend
City North hotel room prices look very decent.
A quick glance saw room rate for 3 nights at 222 euros
6 teams will take part.
England Scotland NIBU CBAI Wales and Wales2(final weekend hosts) and Father Glynns team.
England should be favourites to start this event well as they field capable bridge players like David Bakhshi and David Gold as well as players like Mike Bell and Alexander Allfrey who are almost as good as me (at spelling) as well as Andrew Robson and Tony Forrester. Lets put it this way don't play them for money if you happen to visit.
Camrose 2016 Teams
Above is a link to the other teams in this event.
Donal MacAonghusa will tog out at great expense for the Glynn team. Donal is a fantastic bridge player who has spent his last 20 years or so as one of Irelands leading poker tournament directors.
The Diarmuid Reddan of the Ireland poker scene.
Donal used to sing ... "Pop goes the weasel" as he felled another singleton King
I think Donals nickname is Younis for some reason
Now the Sligo gang will be up in arms because Fergal is this and Fergal is that and GOD ranks below Fergal as a TD but Diarmuid Reddan does not have a Mairead.
.....................
Spectators are welcome and entry is free at the venue. A vugraph room with commentary from some top Irish bridge players like BJ O'Brien will be in operation. The event will also be shown on Bridgebase Online vugraph.
Timetable for the Weekend
City North hotel room prices look very decent.
A quick glance saw room rate for 3 nights at 222 euros
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)