Nearly finished IBU trials final.

Despite my best efforts I am a long way behind Carroll Garvey Hanlon and McGann.
However so far I am well ahead of Rory Boland and he is already retired to the bar since board 128.

Still 15 hands to go and I am going backwards ar a fast speed. 

Would be terrible to end up behind Rory Boland. 

Maybe I will get some plus scores to move myself upward. 

Outside in Swords the Beast from the East has landed. Had to sweep snow off Angelas car a while ago so she could go to work. However the dog still asks to go out to do his business. 

Its a little windy and snow is no longer falling. 

Jill Kulchycky who recently won IBU ladies trials (along with Tersesa Rigney) passed away yesterday. Details can be found on www.rip.ie. Jill also took the Ladies prize at the recent Holmes Wilson Trophy with her team mates. Its not normal to win a trials and be gone before the event you qualified for takes place. 

Anyway I will play the last 15 boards in time and report back. 

The Beast is still blowing outside and its only 724am .. Been up an hour already. 

Camrose Trophy this weekend in CityNorth ...all welcome Beast permitting ..

Playing the IBU Trials Final with Jack

Over the past few weeks I have been playing the IBU Trials Final with my trusty computer partner JACK (www.jackbridge.com) using 5 card major and strong NT with 2/1.

I am doing ok ..better than some finalists and worse than others. I would expect to be trailing to Hanlon McGann and Carroll Garvey but given my lesser opponents and my Jack partner should have good chance of beating the other players.

Despite vugraphing nearly all sessions I have little memory of the hands so this means its no problem to play a set of hands from the past despite having seen them in real life.

So after 123 hands nearing the end of the 8th set of 16 here are the scores.

My scoring system added 1 extra table of Jacks and my own extra table to the 2 tables of the final thus giving more reality to the cross imping. However I am aware that the additional JACKS may also flaw the scores in someones favour but think it is better than just cross imping 2 tables.

I have a feeling Hanlon McGann will rise to the top in the final 2 sessions as it felt like that while vugraphing. However we will see how it goes.
Maybe Galligan rises to the top with some good scores.
Regardless of result it is great to compare against Irelands best 2 teams or best 6 pairs.

Of course it might have been different is Onishuk rolled home the 7H contract but we will never know.
Once I floored a 7C cold contract by being a trick ahead of myself playing against Ciara Burns and John Murchan. Moral of the story is keep your focus in the slams no matter how easy it looks.

Recently I attended a Tournament Directors Workshop in Cyprus ... God that is a real headwrecker.
However I am better as a director because of it.

IBU Trials Final Sets 5 6 7

Down in the Clayton Leopardstown on Saturday 27th early the IBU Trials Final between a hard working COYNE panel and a kind of lack lustre Barton team continued.

Set 5 was action packed with 82 imps shared between the two teams ..

Saturday continued with Barton gaining 15 imps early but Coyne responded with a  33-7 imp finish  to  to tighten the match closer. Part of these imps saw 4H redoubled making at one table followed by a quick game swing added to that.

So now after 96 of the 160 boards it was a 3 imp game Coyne 190 plays Barton 193.

Meanwhile back on Galligans laptop Galligan and Jack computer took up the challenge using 1set of Jack comparisons plus my table plus the live trials comparisons.For the moment Galligan is doing well on paper but Galligan received a large gift of Jack flooring 7 spades when cold and gifting Galligan 57 imps when making the contract was probably 20 imps the other way so near 80 cross imps on 1 board of a gift. However that's what happened. Even Hanlon nods the odd time.

The final 16 boards on Saturday came up so lets see.

On the 2nd board Glynn rolled home 4HX while 5C  went down at the other table.
On the 9th board Garvey pulled one of his back catalog 8 card 2C openings and that ended in 3N down 4 for minus 400 ...added to the cold 5C for 600 made 1000 … and 14 imps
Team Barton went on a little rumble for the last 7 boards racking up 25-2 imps trim the lead.
Overall Score on Saturday night left both sides sleeping on 223 imps each ..a draw.

The final board on Saturday saw the first wind of Storm Hanlon on the horizon finding a good berth in 4H on a Moysian fit ...the old 4-3.

IBU Trials Final 2018 first 64 boards and Declan the Donplayer.

Meanwhile over in the Power Suite in the Clayton Hotel in Leopardstown Team Coyne and Team Barton went into battle. Team Coyne after playing Team Barton to a 64-61 match in the recent Camrose Trophy in Belfast felt capable of doing an upset. They had added the formidable partnership of Terry Walsh and Derek O'Gorman and disassembled two other partnerships to make Keaveney Glynn into a working relationship.

Set 1 .. saw Barton take a 7 imp lead. Board 9 had a club slam EW but both North Souths declared in 3S and 4S respectively both doubled and 9 imps to Coyne. Hanlon McGann gained 12 imps for 4DX later on. Otherwise a few small imps in and out.

http://www.fob.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IBU-Trials-2018-Final-Set-1.pdf

Set 2 saw Coyne win by 8 imps mainly due to a Grand Slam bid by Walsh O'Gorman. Barton team got a couple of 9 imps swings in return.

http://www.fob.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IBU-Trials-2018-Final-Set-2.pdf



Set 3 was the final 16 boards of Friday evening and lets see

Hanlon McGann got into 1NT light 3 non-vul while team mates rolled home 3NT EW.
Barton also gained 13 on 5D made against 5D down 1

http://www.fob.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IBU-Trials-2018-Final-Set-3.pdf

So Barton by 23 overnight..

…………….
Top of Set 4 Coyne would blow away that lead with a 36-6 start.
but Barton came back with a slam v game  swing and a game swing.

http://www.fob.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/IBU-Trials-2018-Final-Set-4.pdf

So it was Barton leading by 13 after 64 boards ...Nothing in it.

…………………………………………………………………….
Meanwhile back in Swords … Eamon has mistakenly given Declan the Donplayer a 10% handicap on Bridge-Now. Declan Donplayer beat me in December and I had to buy him a pint.
Now its January and its 2-2 with the final score due on January 31st.
Last night Declan advised me that he has posted 68% after 23 boards so I need an impossible 78% to win. However I don't believe him as he has never broken 60%. 
However he was touting that he would be looking down on BJ O'Brien next week and maybe even beating that Karl Cashin.

IBU Trials Final 2018 COYNE v MORAN

In about 1 hour the Final of the IBU Trials 2018 will be begin.

Venue : Clayton Hotel Leopardstown ... I think

Friday 3 sets of 16 boards starting at 330pm

Saturday 4 sets of 16 boards starting at 10am

Sunday  3 sets of 16 boards starting at 10am

Vugraph on BBO will run throughout along with live running scores on FOB

I presume visitors are welcome but I have not been to the site yet.

Heading off shortly ..

Had to cancel my arranged bridge game with a visibly disappointed Conor O;Hara tonight.

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

Last night in Malahide Conor O'Hara rolled back the years and anchored Dave Terry to success in the 2018 renewal of the Maurice Quinn Memorial Stakes. Did not need to use the whip at all,

Declan the Donplayer ACHIEVES

Late each Wednesday night up to about midnight the dunce with the laptop can be seen beavering away in the local community centre bar attempting to get his 70 hands played by the weekly closing time for Bridge Now.
http://bridge-now.com

About 4 years ago one of the local reprobates took an interest in this bizarre game of bridge as the locals call it. "That's an old dears game Eamon " they say ..
I reply .. "Lads we are old dears .. " ... as we are mostly past 50 and heading for 60 .. and beyond.

Anyway one of the major reprobates took a large interest in this game and this was Declan the Donplayer ...real name Declan McKenna .. painter decorator drinker gambler dancer singer .. you name it he does it ... father carer fisherman card cheat  and ,,,,,,,,,,,,,now bridge player.

Problem is Declan is different than most other bridge players ... He loves the game even though he has only set foot  in  a bridge club once. Everytime I meet him ... "Eamon I love this game and thanks for showing me" ...Now I am going to beat you ..

Of course I never believed him as I am a National champion several times ..and he is a 1 time visitor to a bridge club. It could not happen or could it ..

Early last week maybe around Monday or Tuesday ...I met Declan the Donplayer and he was indicating the time might be here .... He asks .. "How is your Bridge Now going this week"
As I was having a bad week and was chasing hard to reach 60% average ...I told him "Not too good but not bad enough that you will get near me .. " ... "We will see about that Eamon ... Declan is thinking about 62% this week ..... I thought he was messing but I had a doubt in my mind as   Declan the Donplayer loves this game and has progressed to scoring over 55% the odd week.

So to cut a long story short ...

Above is a screenshot from http://bridge-now.com

It shows several Irish players I have flagged as friends or people I know in real life who are all regular bridge players some good and some international and some lesser players.
Karl Cashen and BJ O'Brien are well known at the top of the Irish game.
Most of the rest are above average Malahide players .. The number on the left is placing out of just over 700 players this week.....so 56% got you into the top 200.
Sitting in 40th place for the week is a very proud Declan the Donplayer ...and even prouder Eamon Galligan who educated this player by answering his questions.

I met Declan the Donplayer last night and he was engrossed in the weekly game of DON but as soon as he lost a game and was sat out he was over to me .... "Eamon did you look at the ranking for last week .. Eamon did you look upwards and see Declan the Donplayer looking down on you"

So we agreed that each week for the foreseeable future I would spot him 10% and the winner gets a pint. Anyone who does not post a score loses that week. The secret is Declan only goes past 19 boards when he has a good head of steam up.
........................
Meanwhile we also have Shane Maxwell another bridge learner. Shane has visited Malahide Regional Bridge Club twice and does not believe in playing in the novice game .. or inter B game ..
Its straight in there with anything from 50 years experience downwards.
A few weeks ago Shane came to Malahide and got a bad trimming ...
I asked him .."Well how do you feel now " ... "I feel embarrassed " replies Shane ..

On the way home .. I asked him .. "Is there anything I can do for you from a bridge point of view"
Shane said nothing ... .

Nearing his home I asked again ..
Shane replies .. "There is actually .. Could you write out what my upbids mean ... "
Upbids says I ????

Turned out that in his world an upbid was a single raise or a double raise ...
like 1H P 2H .. or 1H P 3H ...

So next morning I duly emailed Shane a pdf of a bidding system ...

...................
Going back a little ... I taught Shane bridge in 15 minutes one night when he had a few beers on and now he has progressed to being able to play in some kind of way.
Last year I ran into Shane in the local beer club and we were discussing bridge and I was very confused by what he was saying.
Eventually I figured it out.

Way back on the night I taught Shane I told him about GAME bid bonuses ...but I only got as far as the 3NT or else he missed the 4H 4S ..5C 5D part ...
Shane was playing bridge for 2 years online thinking the 3 Level was game bid in every suit ..
ala 3NT is game ... It was quite a revelation for both of us ..

.................
Last week I met Shane again ... and he was talking about handicap points in bridge ...
I was totally lost again ...... A few days later I worked it out ...

HCP..... he understood it as HANDICAP POINTS ...he is a golfer ...
He knew it was 4321 for Ace King Queen Jack ...but nobody ever mentioned

HIGH CARD POINTS ...

Shane scores regularly on http://bridge-now.com   in the 39% to 49% range
He is not up with Declan the Donplayer yet but he also loves the game.
.....................................
So there you have it ... part of my life on the bridge periphery .. .

Shortly I am off to Malahide to demonstrate the dealing machine .... 10 people claim it does not work.  Last night I dealt two sets of 30 deals in 10 minutes each. The black clouds hovered over me but gradually they softened and turned white..

Dealing machine 1100 from http://www.jannersten.com/
is going like a bullet train ... sometimes the cards come out so fast they fly out the end of the machine. Several folk are doubtful if the machine is fit for purpose.
Galligan sits down and the motors start whirring and the cards fly into the card holders ...

The dark  clouds slowly turn a white shade of pale.

We also have a brand new Mark 5 machine and it also deals like a dream in Galligans hands but sometimes it pulls through 2 cards. However I think it needs some deeper thought.
Maybe there is more to this issue. Could someone be licking the cards or putting shaving cream on them.

Strangely enough Eamon Galligan and Tom Gilligan can work it fine ..

Anyway my robin is outside looking for some crumbs .... soon the squirrel will appear on the window looking for fruit or nuts

Its all go in Swords ..

UPDATE on Dealing machines ...

Mark 5 machine would only deal 1 card if any at all so it needed some tender care and attention.
Eventually it was persuaded to deal a few boards in a row. However it is now in the washing machine on a spin cycle. I need to learn how to clean it. I will get it back to the way it was when I took it out of the box brand new. However Andrew is not sure about the design.

I think it just needs a good cleaning and some daily maintenance.

Machine 1100 is still going like a rocket ..
Andrew dealt some boards this morning for Friday night .. He remains to be convinced though.
Andrew works on the statistics ..10 people cannot be wrong and 1 person right. The saga continues but the boards keep getting dealt.

Bridgez is a good practice website

Folks

Ye could do worse than playing the 16 board daily Bridgez tournament. Several well known Irish players partake from time to time. you get a monthly rating and various reports.

I got some good boards today. 

Meanwhile up in Donegal former Donegal bridge star almost won the Donegal Congress Teams.

Results on 

fob.ie

COYNE WINS CAMROSE 2017 Trials

The 6 man Coyne squad of Gay Keaveney Pat McDevitt Ciaran Coyne Peter Goodman Enda Glynn and David Walsh took the first and only prize in the Camrose Trials this weekend.

I think the prizes are a weekend in Belfast and another weekend in Gormanstown.

I might be playing the hands later in the year against my Jack robots to see if I can beat the Coyne team. However first I have to finish winning the Lady Milne trials. I am only in 7th place after 30 boards of the 150.

Congratulations to the Coyne team on their victory. We did tip them or Fitzgibbon as the winners
and we did indicate the 4 man team might struggle with stamina. A 6 man team gives the pairs a chance for a break and a chance to mentally refresh.

The Coyne weekend looked like a well planned operation. Play 2 sets and sitout. Then play 2 more and sitout and so on for all 3 pairs. The Keavney McDevitt pairing contributed 2.2 imps a board for the final 24 board match ...a decent run rate.

I notice the Phelan yacht went backwards fast as they moved into rougher waters after a fair  weather start. The bigger boats of the top end of the draw caused larger wash on Lake Templogue surface.

As a player who managed to gain entry to his first trials on a holding of 9 B points when Derek Stokes was retired from directing the trials. He offered me a chance to play and had enough B points for the 2 of us to gain entry. We placed 2nd last of a field of about 22 pairs. However the experience moved  me forward in bridge very quickly. I expect the same to happen for several of the newer Camrose trialists if they put in the work. You cannot pretend to be a bridge player.

An Inter B player from Malahide recently posed me a question

"Is Adam Mesbur any good at bridge "

He indicated that their paths crossed in a work related environment many years ago.

I indicated "good" would hardly describe it ... some other word several levels above ...

Camrose Trials 2017 Match 8.5

Meanwhile out in Templogue a shocked Fitgibbon quartet have started well in the 2nd stanza. Eamon sits here in Swords playing the daily Wbridge5 tournament.

http://bridgez.net:3002

Boards 4 and 5 yielded me a 95% and a 96% scores. This can also happen any pair in the Camrose Trials if the boards contain the imps and the pair contains the skills and knowledge.

Anyone want to take up the Daily Challenge on the above website. You can challenge legendary Army bridge player Elvis or top Northern Ireland star MrT2000 or the more ordinary eamongall.

Anyway back to http://fob.ie for the end of Match 8.

Fitzgibbon is on the move but running out of boards and still trailing by 2 imps to the SouthEast Warriors. However they have climbed back into 2nd place. However Coyne is still holding Onishuk at bay.
With 2 boards to go on Match 8 Coyne has reeled Onishuk in and its a draw. This means Coyne has also probably seen off all challengers. Mind you I think Coyne has still to play the rampaging O'Gorman squad who have as expected and mentioned in a previous issue of this blog come on strong.
Nah I got that wrong ....

The final round is Coyne v Ekman .. Fitzgibbon v Elvin .. Onishuk v O'Gorman
MacCormac plays Doyle and Phelan plays Donnelly in dead rubber matches.
An unlikely loss for Coyne and a large win for O'Gornan ..could see the rankings change.
Fitzgibbon also needs a large win after getting ambushed for a winning draw by Doyle.

However the Ekman team does not have the killer instinct required to trouble the vastly experienced Coyne team. The mainly Connacht based squad has recently signed up honorary Leitrim man Peter Goodman to the squad. They also managed to distract David Walsh from one of his other loves
http://lapteck.com/

He repairs and sells technology for Galway area geeks and ordinary folk who still use laptops like me in between the odd game of bridge.

Camrose Trials 2017 after Match 7 of 9

The final day of the Camrose Trials 2017 has just started. The main matches of Round 8 are Coyne versus Onishuk and a side order of Fitzgibbon versus Doyle. Fitzgibbon and Onishuk both need to score heavy in this match to reel in Coyne. However Coyne is a 6 player squad and their lowest scoring pair upped their run rate considerably yesterday. Strangely Onishuk have started the bumbling KK pair. Kelan volunteered a full VP of slow play on his partner in Match 7 allied to a 2 VP penalty for his phone going off during play. Phone are meant to be visible and turned off while bridge is in play. This is currently the biggest rule in trials bridge at the moment. Boland and McAulliffe have been playing very well for Team Onishuk but Kelan Karel have put in lots of work over the last few years. However they failed to fire in the recent Jim Cahill Premier Pairs held in October.
Meanwhile the unheralded and struggling South East team of Jim Doyle has jumped out to an unexpected  22-1 lead after 4 boards against the powerful Fitzgibbon team. All this points to Team Coyne placing first and being selected for the party in Gormanston in March.
However the Onishuk Clifford pair have a good scoring rate of 0.6 imps a board if they appear in the 2nd half.
Update after about  8 boards of Match 8

The South East Warriors have increased their lead against Fitgibbon to 30-3. This is a strange position for Team Doyle who have averaged less than 2.5 VPs per match so far. However its going to require a large turnaround for Fitzzgibbon to get back in contention. However there is no better pair in Ireland then Fitzgibbon Mesbur to grind down the opponents. These two players have enormous bridge skills and experience. Allied to the incredible ability of BJ O'Brien to find rabbits in hats and the solid if boring bridge of Ranald Milne one expects a comeback but we are now down to 16 boards to save the trials. After 9 boards Doyle has stretched the lead to 35-3. The outlier is here to sing it seems. Eventually Fitzgibbon runs out of boards. Only 16 boards left and 32 imps in the bin.

Meanwhile Onishuk is doing the business against Coyne and is within 5 VPS at this stage in the direct match.

A further but unlikely scenario is that Fearghal or someone unwittingly swopped the bridgemate.

Running scores at http://fob.ie
............
On a another item completely I took delivery of a new Mark V dealing machine for Malahide Regional Bridge Club, It looks like a cross between a Dealer4 and a Duplimate machine.
Declan Murray will love this one. We were using an early model of Duplimate for the last few weeks and it started to come into its own in the last week or so once we learned its strange ways.
I think the Mark V has a camera instead of a barcode reader but I only had a cursory glance.
........
Meanwhile I spotted a nice piece of software from Poland ..

http://bcalc.w8.pl/   a fine piece of kit for a nerd bridge player.

The programmer Piotr Beling even responded positively to my suggestion that his software could do with some PBN output script. After examining his output I guess I can make a script myself to create PBN files but Piotr indicated the next release might have PBN.
.......

Camrose Trials 2017 Half-time review

In the 2017 renewal of the Camrose Trials Onishuk powered by winning performances by Boland McAuliffe and Onishuk Clifford lead at the half-way point. Their 3rd pair Kelan/Karel have found the boards unsuitable so far.
Meanwhile Team Phelan is going well due to a powerful 0.69 imps per board from the Phelan household. One might note the presence of 6NT-1 on a hand that looks cold especially on the Club to Ace lead versus the Elvin team. However this is only 0.1 of the score. There is still 0.59 per board on
the rest of the boards. I better not play that pair for money. However they are going to need some pick up from their team mates to win the event. However the Phelan squad have been here before.

Team Coyne is also powering along with their top 2 pairs near 0.5 imps a board and their 3rd pair of Keaveney McDevitt is average so far.

Team Fitzgibbon powered by a surprising  0.55 imps per board collection from Ranald Milne and BJ O'Brien allied to the expected steady 0.3 imps per board of Nick and Adam are sitting comfortably in 3rd place. A small worry is what appears to be 2 time penalties of 0.5 VPs against presumably the more thoughtful side of the team. They shared the penalty with their opponents.

The Donnelly team made up of what appears to be most of the probably Junior Camrose team are motoring along in 5th place and well in contention. Synnott is past Junior Camrose age I think and I don't know about Gormally.

Team O'Gorman is strolling along at average pace in 6th place and that level of performance is not going to win the event. Still having to play 1st 3rd and 4th places so a decent pick up in performance could see them compete for the prize.

Further down Gilliland Whelan are finding the going tough but with team mates Connor and Doyle also below average nothing is being lost and good experience is being gained by all.

The Elvin team backboned by the elegant bridge player that is Peter Pigot and the "Art of Declarer Play" author Justin Corfield has struggled thru the first half. The arrival of Holland Cotter might help but that means either of the aforementioned elegant players are on the bench.

Ekman has suffered 2 heavy losses and two small wins don't make up for that. Both pairs are leaking 0,5 imps a board so are not going to win many matches.

The final team of MacCormac are struggling despite a Friday cameo by the well known chess player Paul Delaney. Delaney also owns some National Bridge titles. The 2 MacCormac pairs are underperforming compared to their normal level. I might challenge MacCormac mcMaugh to a money game at this rate.

All information is published on the Fearghal O'Boyle website. Last year while directing in Ballinasloe someone asked me if I was FOB.ie ..

The Trials continue in Templeogue Bridge Centre on Sunday and Monday.
Spectators are welcome.

http://fob.ie
has all the information and running scores ..

Camrose Trials Weekend

Today I noticed that the Camrose Trials are taking place for the 2nd Ireland Team in the 2018 Camrose Trophy. Team Moran is already pre-selected and I think that's a fair selection as they are playing well and working hard.
Now this weekends event looks like a good game of bridge.

I notice already that Wojech Gorchyca has morphed into Paul Delaney. Delaney is a pretty powerful player to bring in as a sub if such is the case. Delaney is also a sometime partner of Marcin. Maybe Delaney is on the team but just not listed on fob,ie.

So we have 10 teams in the battle ...I will rate the teams out of 1000 per team
I rated players on a sliding scale from 10 for the strongest players in the field down
to 1 for the least experienced.

1. Nick Fitzgibbon 775
2. Ciaran Coyne  733
3, Derek O'Gorman 600
4.Thomas McCormac 580
5,Anna Onishuk 575
6,Richard Elvin 517
7,John Phelan 425
8,Michael Donnelly 400
9.Stefan Ekman 325
10 Jim Doyle 225

So Eamon expects Coyne or Fitzgibbon to win but O'Gorman MacCormac or Onishuk could make
it if they perform to the best of their ability or if somehow they have added some recent bridge skills
thru training sessions. Fitzgibbon might suffer from Milne O'Brien stamina issues being a 4 man team. MacCormac seems to be using Paul Delaney along with his 4 named players.

I note the presence of 5 lady players in the event but only one in their regular lady partnership.
A leading Irish bridge columnist indicated the Jim Cahill Premier Pairs would have provided a good training session for the Lady Milne squad. Any Lady Milne squad pair could have entered Camrose Trials but there is only one pair. These Camrose Trials have most of the 12 Premier Pairs playing so is also a decent event.

Lets see how good my tipping is...

Live Camrose in running results are on
http://fob.ie

Lady Milne Trials Match 5 and 6

Sometime in the last week I must have played Match 5 of the Lady Milne Trials.

Board 11 saw 15 hcp opposite 8 hcp and a 5-4 spade fit and a singleton in each hand.
However 4 pairs did not get to the unbeatable 4S. This allowed me 4 imps against the datum of 320.

Board 13 saw 1 pair Jeannie Fitzgerald and Emer Joyce arrive in a delicate 4-3 4H contract which had no beating. 4H 5C and A of diamonds. The rest of us generally hung out in 3NT or 5C going down.

Board 14 saw me leaving out 1NT to the East West robots. One pair on this 20-20 hand reached the incredible contract of 3NT... Pender McDonagh.. Down 3 only cost them 3 imps. I mean 16 opposite 4 ...how does one arrive in 3NT.

Board 15 saw my robot opps bid a reasonable 4S which had no play and went 3 off for 150.
One of the leading ladies pairs stopped off to double Whelan and O'Donovan in 2H and then allowed
the top score of 200 EW to slip away and lost 670 and 11 imps. Most pairs dropping a couple of tricks in 4S.

Board 16 I gained 7 imps when I persuaded my robots to languish in 3S with 13 opposite 13.
6 clubs was the top spot but 5C up 1 was enough to gain 5 imps on the field. 4S was good too.
However 3NT was hopeless but Cotter Kelly were allowed make it. 2 others attempted 3NT and went down.

Board 18 saw me gain 5 imps in making 120 in 1NT. Incredibly Joyce and Fitzgerald stole away with 10 tricks in 3NT when there is no play for it. 7 tricks double dummy and they are gone off with 10 tricks.

Board 19 saw me lose 5 imps to my robots making 5Ds which is cold despite missing the AK and trumps. One unfortunate pair attempted 6C and this was not a success missing the AK diamonds and suffering a diamond ruff to boot.

Board 21 was a painful hand for me. The robots rolled home an easy 12 tricks in 4H and I lost 6 imps on the field despite 13 tricks available. The whole thing depends on picking off a doubleton Heart Queen. However 3 pairs went light in the 4S contract.

Board 25 the robots allowed me away in 4S when most of the field went down as expected.
Sometimes robots are generous. However I losr imps several times on nothing boards.

Finally on board 28 came the moment I was waiting for. Holding AKJx of spades my robot opponents bid to 2S and my partner backed in with a double. 

I decided passing 2S was a little risky so bid 3H. 

The robots pushed on to 3S and I was able to drop the hammer.

1    10 Joan Kenny & Teresa Rigney                   82.98
  2     3 Dolores Gilliland & Sandra Newell            75.68
  3     6 Anna Onishuk & Lucy Phelan                   74.54
  4    14 Valerie Burke-Moran & Ann O'Connell          72.78
  5    11 Aoife Mac Hale & Antoinette McGee            68.68
  6    12 Cathy Bearpark & Liz Ann O'Reilly            68.01
  7    17 Jack & Eamon Galligan                        65.84
  8    15 Jeannie Fitzgerald & Emer Joyce              64.11
  9     9 Marian Croke & Catherine Lonergan            63.30
 10     2 Eileen O'Donovan & Maria Whelan              58.66
 11     7 Betty Cotter & Jean Kelly                    56.54
 12    18 Jacky & Jackie                               54.16
 13     5 Liz Taaffe & Kathleen Vaughan                53.74
 14     1 Jill Kulchycky & Avril Whelan                51.11
 15     8 Hilary McDonagh & Gilda Pender               48.06
 16     4 Louise Mitchell & Maureen Pattinson          46.94
 17    13 Bernie Lodewijks & Mary Stanley              38.87

Still only in 7th place but chasing hard as I have to reach the number 1 position.
Still 90 boards to go I think ..

Lady Milne Match 4 ..board 7 killed me

I am just after finishing Lady Milne trials match 4 and thought I did pretty good although missed a few chances near the end on boards 9 and 10. However there are no mulligans allowed so we don't go back and replay any board.
On scoring up I find out I got killed on Board 7 where the Jack robots East West bid and made 4H against me. Going to look at this board now and see if I butchered the defence or it was a bad lead or what. I am losing 11 imps on the board against the Ladies datum. That's like half a match.
Just like the slam on board 30 of last match.

There is nothing I can do against 4H no matter how I defend.
Simple and maybe double dummy line of spade towards QT7 and playing 7
or running the 8 eventually set up the spades for a diamond discard. However we won't suffer on that simple line that works. Also after my 1!C opening and Heart King appearance any declarer is in good shape regarding the big cards..
Finally the line of play which would produce a fine burst of energy ...
There is some kind of guard squeeze which operates ..
On the run of the Hearts even after playing a spade to the 10 (a lesser play)
South gets squeezed out of his(in my case) 3rd diamond or 3rd spade..and the spade Queen is up for a diamond discard ...or the 3rd diamond in declarers hand grows up.
No problem Eamon loses 11 imps to the Ladies field ...

I guess Jack can play a bit of bridge ...

Somebody on 5H-2 ..Somebody in 4S-2 Two folk down in 4H.

Its just impossible to go down in this contract of 4H.

Eamon is the poor sod in the 17v 18 pairing losing 11 imps 

Playing the Lady Milne trials

I am currently playing the Lady Milne trials as North South using my Jack computer bridge program as partner and opponents. After 30 boards and thus 3 10 board matches I am holding down 10 place of the 15 pairs plus myself and the Jack pair. I lost heavily on board 30 where my Jack partner roared into a failing slam.

Oddly enough my robot found the Heart Queen lead and this left me in a making position
but playing honestly I tried for some sort of Spade King Heart Jack squeeze before taking the spade finesse and going down. Only one other pair ventured into the slam. I even told my robot NO HEART FIT AND NO CLUB FIT but there was no stopping it. Still if I had known a HEART QUEEN from Qx was possible I would have gained some imps instead of losing imps.
One working finesse can meant 15-5 win or 5-15 loss. Still I am ahead of 6 pairs after 30 boards.

1     6 Anna Onishuk & Lucy Phelan                   39.79
  2    10 Joan Kenny & Teresa Rigney                   38.44
  3     3 Dolores Gilliland & Sandra Newell            35.93
  4    12 Cathy Bearpark & Liz Ann O'Reilly            35.53
  5     9 Marian Croke & Catherine Lonergan            33.57
  6    11 Aoife Mac Hale & Antoinette McGee            33.05
  7     1 Jill Kulchycky & Avril Whelan                32.99
  8     2 Eileen O'Donovan & Maria Whelan              32.36
  9     8 Hilary McDonagh & Gilda Pender               31.10
 10    17 Jack & Eamon Galligan                        30.08
 11    18 Jacky & Jackie                               29.92
 12    15 Jeannie Fitzgerald & Emer Joyce              28.82
 13    14 Valerie Burke-Moran & Ann O'Connell          27.04
 14     5 Liz Taaffe & Kathleen Vaughan                26.17
 15     4 Louise Mitchell & Maureen Pattinson          23.28
 16     7 Betty Cotter & Jean Kelly                    22.21
 17    13 Bernie Lodewijks & Mary Stanley              21.72

invitational Pairs Sunday Indo article

Today in the Sunday Independent weekly bridge column John Comyn indicated the Jim Cahill Invitational Pairs would have provided suitable practice for this years Lady Milne squad. The top end of the Jim Cahill Invitational included several  European Class pairs (as opposed to World Class). Some of the players on the top 7 pairings could have claims to be world class but that is another argument for another day.
As this years Lady Milne squad involves 6 pairs is John really suggesting that all 6 pairs should have been invited or allowed entry in some way to the Invitational Pairs. At the bottom end of the Invitational Pairs we have Donal Garvey Pat Quinn Terry Walsh BJ O'Brien Karel deRaeymaker Kelan O'Connor. In Tier3 on the overall results we have John Carroll Mark Moran Wojciech Gorczyca & Marcin Rudzinski Eddie Fitzgerald & Michael McDonagh.

I don't know how to run a comparison but I would expect if 3 teams of the above mentioned 6 men played a 2 session teams event against the Lady Milne squads 6 pairs we would see a comfortable victory for the bottom half of the Invitational Pairs.

Some years ago we ran a weekend session where the Senior over 60s squad took on the Irish Open team in a 3 pairs versus 3 pairs training session. The Open Team won by average of 14-6 per match of 16 boards. That senior team included Adam Mesbur Nick Fitzgibbon Pat Barry Rex Anderson and I cannot recall off the top of my head if it was BJ+1 or the O'Briain brothers who filled the 3rd slot that weekend.

If the Lady Milne squad feel the need to check their strength against some opponents they could issue a challenge to for example The Regent Bridge Club or the Bankers Bridge Club. I suspect either of these clubs could field capable teams up for the challenge.

The above named 12 players would be who the Lady Milne squad would replace in the Invitational Pairs if it came to it. Some other capable pairs such as McMaugh MacCormac , the O'Briain brothers, Tommy Garvey John Phelan Diarmuid Reddan Rory Timlin Michael McGloughlin James Heneghan and a few Northern Ireland males and maybe a few Junior Camrose current players could also be considered for inclusion in the Invitational Pairs ahead of most Lady Milne squad members.

Recently the Lady Milne squad have been receiving some training from one Michael Byrne a fine English international player and coach of many English youth teams over the last decade or so.
This should enable a placing of at best 3rd to be achieved in the Lady Milne Trophy.
Currently Scotland and whatever combination England will send are too strong.

My only aim is to encourage all Irish teams to more training and dedication and eventually more successes at international level. The 2 recent Irish Open formations have had lots of success to a European extent. The Bermuda Bowl proved a "Bridge Too Far" in 2007 but getting there was an achievement in itself. I saw Thomas Hanlon's happiness at reaching that goal along with the rest of his team and NPC David Jackson. Paul Porteus even threw us a party at the Airport.

So to more Irish success and no more Lady Milne wooden spoons. We might win the Junior Camrose as well if we sneak up on England.

Ireland Invitational Pairs Session 1 extra

Yesterday in the Regent Bridge Club I witnessed some fine bridge plays. I saw Adam Mesbur bring home 2HX by enlisting some help from the opposition to take a finesse. I saw Nick Fitzgibbon deem a lad held JT8x in a side suit ...and play the suit for no loser. I saw Cian Holland roll home 3DX against Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon. It was unbeatable but one still had to make it with KQTx of trumps against you. Cian took about 7 minutes before touching a card at trick 1 ..making his plan.

Starting today Saturday October 7th we will have current leaders Ciaran Coyne and Donal MacAonghusa on one of the vugraph tables Play starts at 11am.

http://www.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php

One can find the schedule by examining the above link.

http://www.fob.ie/

One can fnd the results above but might need to do a little work.

http://bridgewebs.com/regent/

One can find the venue here ....well at the above link ... or 25 Waterloo Road Dublin 4

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Irish invitational Pairs Session 1

Yesterday October 6th I attended the Irish Invitational Pairs organised by Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite.
This is a fantastic event but one has to be quite good at bridge to make the roster or else own a good partner.
Today we played 64 boards and we vugraphed 2 tables all day.
Not too many spectators turned up on site but that meant more of the wonderful sandwiches for the lads. I had no need to go for any chipper or anything all day. oranges cups of teas fantastic sandwiches and loads of chocolate things and grapes too .

www.fob.ie
has all the results but focus on the one that mentions 64 boards .. .

Tomorrow Saturday we have a full day ... at least 64 boards .. .
Sunday we have whatever is left of 176 boards .. maybe 44 boards ..
Spectators are welcome all day .... Come in and have a look.

Venue ... Regent Bridge Club ..

Regent Bridge Club has been the Premier Bridge Club in Ireland for as long as I can remember..
and maybe Declan Byrne the club manager have nurtured that ... He has a tough job negotiating
all those club members and now Declan has to negotiate Academy members too.
Younger but braver maybe

Anyway here in the Premier Invitational Pairs ...I saw this board ..

Now a couple of great bridge players expressed horror when they spotted this result.

They were expecting a fine score for making 5D doubled .. .but noted 2 episodes of 6D making on the board. The general indication was IMPOSSIBLE ..

However Thomas Hanlon made it ...

Now any old dunce knows that only other dunces bid slam off 2 cashers .. 

so slam off 2 cashing Hearts and you got KQx of clubs is serious ..

So you get serious and win a HEART trick and you bang out King of Clubs.

How bad can it be ...dummy has one HEART ...so do something ..

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

Anyway some heroes decided to bang a LAZY HEART ...

and HANLON done the squeeze ...same way as Eamon would have done it ..

Eamon loves squeezes ...and this might be a PUN ////

The legendary Charlie Cullen ...former Regent member and partner of Joe Walshe...

carried a battered and torn copy of CLYDE LOVE squeezes in his pocket.

Eamon also owns a copy but my copy is cleaner and less torn.

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

KING of Clubs ...break that looming SQUEEZE ...

because you don't want Hanlon doing you like SEABISCUIT .....

or maybe it was HMG2 ....the lad who used to have 4 books of KELSEY squeezes in hard back on his FERMOY bedroom floor back in late 80s ... I saw them there ..

Ireland Premier Pairs 2017

Next weekend we hold the Ireland Invitational Premier Pairs event in the Regent Bridge Club at 25 Waterloo Road Dublin 6. 12 of Irelands top pairs have been invited to play in this prestigious event.
The event is  sponsored and organised  by Jim Cahill and Ann Tuite respectively.

http://www.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php

Check the above link for vugraph and playing times thru the weekend.

Mark Moran & John Carroll

Tom Hanlon & Hugh McGann

Adam Mesbur & Nick FitzGibbon

Eddie Fitzgerald & Michael McDonagh

Peter Goodman & Mike Pownell

BJ  O'Brien & Terry Walsh

Wojciech Gorczyca & Marcin Rudzinski

Donal Garvey & Pat Quinn

Ciaran Coyne & Donal MacAonghusa

Rex Anderson & David Greenwood

Gay Keaveney &Cian Holland

Karel de Raeymaeker & Kelan O'Connor

Above the list of players ...All of them quite good at bridge. 

We plan to vugraph 2 tables to the outside world and will run a vugraph

room downstairs in the Regent. All are welcome to attend and watch.

Friday October 6th 2017 .. 

12:00-13:30	Session 1 of 11 (2 tables)	12 boards
14:00-16:00	Session 2 of 11 (2 tables)	16 boards
16:15-18:15	Session 3 of 11 (2 tables)	16 boards
19:30-22:00	Session 4 of 11 (2 tables)	20 boards

Scoring is matchpoints throughout. 

Bermuda Bowl in progress in Lyon France

Meanwhile out in France the various World Bridge championships are in progress. Ireland has no teams qualified for this prestigious event. In order to qualify a team has to be in the top 6 or 7 countries in Europe and that is beyond Ireland at the moment. It was also beyond England and Poland so that's how tough it is.
However despite not being present at this fantastic event I took the opportunity to take on the Worlds best by downloading the BBO files for Match 1 of the event. BBO provides vugraph coverage so I was able to download files from 8 matches across Ladies Open and Senior.
I joined the 8 files together giving me about 8 replays of each board. I then used Jack bridge program to make an imps pairs tourney and sat down to play with my Bessie partner Jack.
16 boards later after a bright start I lost heavily on 2 boards and ended up on minus 5 imps.
This is not so bad as the legendary Eric Rodwell and Jeff Meckstroth were 2 imps behind me.
Brown and Brock the great English ladies pair were on plus 6 imps thus 11 imps ahead of me.

Other software programs can also be used to do the same job as far as I know.

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

Meanwhile there is also 

http://bridge-now.com

or 

http://bridgez.net:3002/

Finally if you go on 

http://bridgewinners.com 

you will find links to the World Bridge Championships pages and bulletins.