This weekend somewhere in Wales we have the Lady Milne Trophy for the championship of the British Isles. You can find a link to the event via the English Bridge Union website.
http://ebu.co.uk
Once you head over to the Welsh site you will find links to Fearghal O'Boyles website and also to Ian Mitvhels website as well. Fearghal will be posting live running scores from the event.
On the playing side there are 2 events .. England versus Scotland for the main championship and Wales WBU NIBU and Ireland for the 3rd place spoon. Scotland and England are just far too strong for the other 4 teams due to training and dedication allied to a better level of bridge skill.
I think it was last year in Northern Ireland that Scotland finished the event on the first night with a 20-0 thrashing of England .. Needing steady results against 2x NIBU WBU and CBAI ..the event was well over. England did recover to take a distant 2nd place. This year the English include Fiona Brown fresh from her Ireland Moylan Cup victory with eagle eagle eagle finish on the last 3 boards as Garve Hanlon double bogied the final board. Garvey Hanlon ran into the normal non regular partnership problem of 1 thought this and the other thought this so Hanlons overbid was deemed Garveys underbid leading to a 3NT that even Sean O'Lubaigh would not think up as a psyche. Down 3 despite a defensive penalty card.
Hopefully this year for the first time in living memory the NPCs will come up with some original party pieces instead of the stupid blonde jokes of recent years or the intelligent woman joke from Scotland. Funny thing is most men spend most of their first year of life inside a woman and then they grow up and tell blonde jokes. They don't seem to notice the jokes are greeted by SILENCE.
From time to time a Welsh NIBU or CBAI sticks their head above the ditch but mostly the ending is the same ..a close 2nd or tight 3rd place. NIBU in 2009 in Limerick and again a couple of years ago before the unfortunate loss of their main pair due to a family illness. I think an NIBU win was certain that year.
Currently I am playing a long match using hands played by Jeannie Fitzgerald and Emer Joyce against various opponents on BBO including many GIB robots. After 210 boards I am back in the lead by 470 to 433 I think but its 37 imps anyway. I started off with a 50 imp lead early on but then thanks to several disasters by Jeannie Emer opponents suddenly I was around 100 imps behind and wondering what happened. I mean one hand saw a "world senior champion" fail to take the setting trick against 3NT doubled in imps ... for me 1 down is good bridge but this chap felt like minus 750 was his choice .. and I think 20 imps swung.... 7 or 8 more of those boards and I was well behind.
However I could see the ending as the average plus imps was well below the requirement so I knew imps were coming my way and so far they have.
Still its possible if Team Ireland have done their homework and the other teams turn up below par and the Irish NPC uses his head instead of the rotation system that Ireland could win. This is a big ask but about 10 players on both England and Scotland have to get hands that don't suit them.
Also an Irish NPC will have to prepare a gracious victory speech for the first time ever in Mrs Milne history.
The Irish team is Jill Kulchycky Petra O'Neill Joan Kenny Teresa Rigney Jeannie Fitzgerald and Emer Joyce. .....
I recall one time playing in a Regent Pairs championship and scoring what would be 3 90% plus scores against Petra O'Neill in the first round. Her partner got up and picked up her keys and departed for home. Bye Bye 3 good boards .. I did not even get 3 average pluses. The boards were thrown out and replaced by a sitout. Its tougher to leave Wales though and its a different partner.
............................
Meanwhile back on the Bridge Now front ... the rating tests continue but we need extra factors as
currently the top players need to score near 70% to hold their ratings.
The top 50 of the 1520 folk who are in my database.
| jim
me |
2205 |
| Karl Cashen |
2178 |
| Pierre DELVAULX |
2113 |
| Patrick 27 |
2098 |
| MC51 |
2093 |
| Graham Hazel |
2075 |
| Igor Milevoj |
2069 |
| Marek.C |
2065 |
| pinco pallino |
2059 |
| Eamon Galligan |
2039 |
| B.J. O'Brien |
2038 |
| John Horn |
2031 |
| Tudor Trocan |
2030 |
| WBridge5 (Robot) |
2030 |
| Bernard CARPENTIER |
2023 |
| David Welsh |
2020 |
| pietro serioi |
2016 |
| Jinn |
2011 |
| Noëlle Delahaye-Levesque |
1993 |
| Paul East |
1978 |
| Igor Bek |
1976 |
| Tamara de Grady |
1974 |
| John Macdonald |
1964 |
| dr. Eddie |
1962 |
| HMN_WPB |
1961 |
| Claude Martin |
1953 |
| tom gilligan |
1949 |
| Jan Stavast |
1947 |
| CHARLIE |
1944 |
| Fran Swift |
1938 |
| George Kissov |
1932 |
| Maire O'Keeffe |
1930 |
| Terry |
1930 |
| Yves Costel |
1924 |
| Jim Wills |
1921 |
| Alice Bayandor |
1919 |
| Jean-François MARZAL |
1918 |
| Kerostia |
1917 |
| Jim Mullally |
1910 |
| David Boxley |
1907 |
| Jean Charles Brothier |
1904 |
| Paul Johnson |
1901 |
| Etienne Delangre |
1901 |
| tigo jean |
1897 |
| Mircea Kivu |
1893 |
| M. Hermsen |
1889 |
| GrantK |
1887 |
| Robert Pascal |
1884 |
| Baile an Mhota |
1882 |
| Ewac |
1879
|
1523 players on the list in total and 4 of them rate below 1000.
The midpoint and starting value is 1500
Soon I will make a list of all people with Ireland flags.
http://bridge-now.com
Above is the website where you can play boards ..
This week I got around 67% average and gained all of 6 rating points
I got passed out by champion robot basher BJ O'Brien
Karl Cashen a champion snorer remains the top Irish robot basher by a distance.
