Ruth Giddings Irish bridge legend RIP.

Multiple Irish National champion (won 6 Nationals in 1 year) found a way to go down in 6D

I came across this hand this morning where a well known Irish player found a way to make only 11 tricks in 6 Diamonds. Me a lesser player according to the legend gathered in 13 tricks in the 3NT.

www.bridge-now.com

The above site is one of the better sites to play bridge online these days. You get a robot partner and 2 robot opponents. So if you complain your robot is poor ....you also got to accept you have twice as many poor opponents. A fine site for anyone to practice their bridge with no partner required.

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Sadly a true bridge legend passed away recently. Ruth Giddings played most of her bridge long before my time. However on January 1st 2001 (I think we had a some kind of tornado out around Clonee). It was a Sunday and the annual Wigoder Teams was taking place in the Regent. I was on a Team with Maurice Quinn Joe McHale and Joe Walshe but that is not what this story is about.

We played the 1st session and I had my cheese and turkey sandwiches ready to go.
I went to sit down to eat my sandwiches and realized there was only 1 other person present.

Ruth Giddings ........

So I sat opposite and took out my sandwiches made with bread probably dating back to Xmas Day.
Half way through the first I realized some mould was present and mentioned it.

"Divil a harm it will do you " said Ruth

Later on I mentioned I was going out for a smoke ..

Ruth asked .. " Do you smoke and expressed a negative vibe"

I said "Yes and No" (as 20 cigs could last me 10 days or more ..

Ruth said .. There is no YES and NO in smoking .. you either smoke or you don't
She told me she used to smoke 40 a day (as it was fashionable) but stopped about 50 years before ...like 1951..

Ruth did not win on that occasion but I won as I got maybe 1.5 hours of conversation with a bridge legend and I never did go out for that cigarette and I did eat every piece of the mouldy bread.

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Like every bridge player that exists we all remember our successes but seem to compartmentize our failures. Back in 1994 myself and Maurice Quinn arrived at the table of Ruth Giddings and Barbara Seligman... a legendary pairing at the time .. and in their prime ... Ruth was only about 80 years old then. We played 2 boards and left the two shocked opponents behind. Later on I saw on my scoresheet that we had taken every single matchpoint on those 2 boards ... 1.0 and 1.0 ..
I met Ruth downstairs later and she told me ..."Never before did I get 0 matchpoints from a set of boards"

Another night back around 1989 when I was attempting to join the Regent Bridge club and back then you had to play a game or 2 with your proposers ... I had managed to get Des Scannell and Michael McGloughlin to sign my application. So I was in playing one of my mandatory games with Des Scannell and we had some misunderstanding with a Baron 2NT which Des liked ..

1 heart from me and 2NT from Des and I decided 6NT but Des had 4 card heart support so he put me into 7H.

Well the trumps broke 4-1 but the finesse against the King worked.. The diamond QJx lay nicely under the diamond AKT .. The spade King was offside sitting with the aforementioned diamond QJx


Some how I gathered in 13 tricks as the hand got squeezed as I drew the last trump ...QJx and Kx
and could only hold 4 cards so dumped the spade King and my AQ spades became tricks.

7H made ...and downstairs a 75 year old Ruth Giddings materialized at my side and said ...
"You had the coup of the night .... bid and made 7H ...when others played 4H+2 and 6H="
Nobody else needed to find what I think was a treble squeeze...

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Of course I have no memory of all the bad scores I presumably got against Ruth Giddings. I remember her playing with Sean Stack when I first went to the Regent Bridge Club in the late 1980s.
There must have been loads of them as I was an Intermediate B player in the late 1980s.

Anyway much later possibly in 2006 the annual Regent Bridge Club Presidents Prize was played.
Back then you played 5 weeks with different partners and on the last 2 weeks the leading contenders all sat North upstairs. Now the Regent on a Wednesday night was the toughest game in Ireland and upstairs on Week 4 and 5 of Presidents Prize with 13 contenders and their chosen partner it was the toughest. That year Ruth Giddings at the age of approximately 96 years won the Regent Bridge Club Presidents Prize and trust me nobody gave her a trick.
I know because against me ..Ruth opened 2S and it did not dawn on me until after I had doubled in the balance seat that it might be an strong Acol 2 ... me being used to weak 2s.
Anyway "The Great Mullall" was able to bid 3H as he knew all doubles were takeout. Ruths partner who shall remain nameless failed to double and 3H drifted 2 non vulnerable tricks off and not much score for Ruth. Of course 3H doubled might have attracted a better defence and gone 3-4 down.
I mean I was only trying to push them up a level ... did not really matter to me whether strong 2 or weak 2.

Anyway that was some of my interactions with Ruth Giddings ... Maybe tomorrow I will have a look at the book upstairs about Great Irish Bridge plays ... I think Seamus Dowling wrote it ...
and find some Ruth Giddings plays ..
................
I recall playing trials in 1990 the year Derek Stokes found he was no longer directing the trials.
He asked me to play and I only had a few B points and would not qualify to play ..
However he said " I have enough B points for both of us " So I played ..
and I recall Ruth Giddings sitting kibitzing a younger Thomas Hanlon and Hugh McGann  and her knitting away behind him. Of course Derek and Eamon finished near last back then.

So that was Ruth ... I think she played on the Irish Open Team as far back as 1951 or 1953...
She sort of quit playing bridge at the age of 98 as she could not get to the club as easy as before.

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Interprovincials weekend

This weekend is Interprovincial weekend. The Interprovincials are a strange event in almost every sport or game. In the GAA nobody wants them as it is just another chance to get injured. Back when I was a kid it was a big deal for a county player to make the Ulster team and the finals were held on Paddys Day and shown live on TV. This was in a time of no ESPN or SKYSPORTS.

Anyway back to the bridge.

Munster is the only team with anything close to their strongest active players.  They are fielding 3 teams of mostly Open Trials level.

Leinster historically always fields 2 Open and 1 lady team. I think a good performance in the Kelbourne Trophy gets you on the team along with something akin to an international team.

Connacht historically field 3 decent 4somes. This year they have 2 open trials level teams and one team that I know less about.

Ulster looks to be booked for last place as their team lacks most of the recent Camrose Trophy players. Lindsay and Hamilton might argue the point but Greenwood Anderson McKenzie Coffey Lavery Robin Burns John Murchan Ciara Burns Diane Greenwood Tranmer Hastings and probably a few I have forgotten as I don't play so much these days. Ah yes Ruth and Wayne might be worth a try. They could even import Tony from Clones. No doubt someone will tackle me on this as I forgot to mention him or her.

So I will pick Munster for the win ... but someone needs to keep BJ down and the O'Briains could have a good run. Maybe Malahide stars Conor O'Hara will roll back the years but not being a regular partnership trouble might rear its head.

So Munster is my pick and Ulster for the spoon ..

Leading team ... McDonagh of Connacht and O'Gorman of Munster followed by Team O'BJ of Leinster

Results and Running Scores are at  www.fob.ie

....................
Shortly I will be replaying the 100 boards of the Cavendish qualifiers and the 42 boards of the Final.
I want to see how I will do against the champion Mesbur and Fitzgibbon. Watch this space.
.........
Of Irish interest here is a bulletin from 2000

http://web2.acbl.org/nabcbulletins/2000fall/db7.pdf
Maybe Ulster could have fielded Pat McDevitt of Donegal on their interpro team..
A World and NABC Senior champion ..

Adam and Nick win Cavendish Pairs apparently

Despite several messages to the contrary my information indicates Adam Mesbur and NickFitzgibbon are Cavandish Pairs champions for this year.
However I am not on site so I cannot guarantee this result. However I know a man who is on the site
and Rory says they placed first. However someone else has a picture of final scoreboard saying 2nd ..
Either way great result and the rama has been perfect all week ..so I trust "The Proffessor"
So we go with that for now

http://www.cavendishmonaco.com/index.php?lang=en

More details including confirmation might be found here later

Here is the rama

Adam and Nick going well so far in Cavandish Pairs

As stated yesterday ....

Today sees the main event ... The Cavandish Pairs ...
I note the presence of Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon here and don't be surprised if they
perform very well. I would think they even have a chance of making the Final A ..
There are many great players in this event but many are in unpracticed partnerships..
Adam and Nick have been practicing for many years and playing at top level for many years.
Now they won't beat Tor and Geir but could beat many others.

Adam and Nick lead Cavendish Pairs qualifying after 56 boards of 90 
At least I indicated yesterday before the event .. 

http://www.cavendishmonaco.com/index.php?lang=en

Above link is for Cavendish event .. Hanlon Carroll doing ok also

Limerick Congress and Cavandish

Last weekend I was invited down to Limerick Bridge Congress to do some directing. Directing is a handy job when Diarmuid Reddan is in charge. Diarmuid and his Congress Committee seem to have everything under control.
I don't know all the names of the Congress Committee so I best not mention any in case I leave the most important one out or include someone who is not on the Committee.
Last weekend I encountered a new movement .. The Web Mitchel ..
There were 23 tables in the Intermediate Pairs and it went .. 9 tables 7 tables 7 tables all in a row of 1 to 23 .. Boards were put out .. 1-27 then 1-21 with 2 relays at table 7 and 3rd set of boards were played in reverse order again with 2 relays .. East West pairs moved up a table each round and could cross sections during the sessions .. So you reached table 9 and carried onto table 1 (10) of next section. I will have to examine this one
Anyway Maura  Lane and Moira Coughlan won the intermediate pairs with a massive 68.1% score.

.............
So on arriving at Limerick I was handed a pile of papers to sort out .. Turned out these were the paperwork required for Gerry Fulham to run his weekend of Open Pairs .. Open Pairs A to F and Table Numbers which he decided not to use ..

Then there was table numbers 1-24 for the intermediate pairs. Meanwhile Diarmuid and Gordon were dealing boards constantly before sessions. There were also many sets of boards already dealt and someone seemed to know exactly what was in each box.

Gordons quiz was also running but it was kind of complex this year and I only got as far as first clue.
Rhymes with Treacle .... I presume it was Feakle ...
Then the next answers were from counties that bordered the first answer or something like that.
Oh what a twisted mind that Gordon chap has ...

As for Diarmuid ..he knows the nuances of every bridge player in the room .. I mentioned some intermediate and gloating and he knew without seeing the person who it was and indicated a lecture was in order.

http://bridge.silvertexter.eu/results/2O3.TXT

http://www.fob.ie/

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Meanwhile in Monte Carlo Team Moran placed 3rd in the Patton de Monaco
One might be able to figure out some results from the link below
http://www.cavendishmonaco.com/index.php?lang=en

in the Cavandish Teams Ireland got smashed in the final qualifying match and followed up with two
small wins to finish in mid table in the Swiss.

Today sees the main event ... The Cavandish Pairs ...
I note the presence of Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon here and don't be surprised if they
perform very well. I would think they even have a chance of making the Final A ..
There are many great players in this event but many are in unpracticed partnerships..
Adam and Nick have been practicing for many years and playing at top level for many years.
Now they won't beat Tor and Geir but could beat many others.

John Carroll partners Thomas Hanlon in the same event
Rory Boland and Mark Moran also take part .. Lets see if the Boland can front load this field.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Recent News Items

In my last post Ireland Seniors backboned by Pat Barry and Rex Anderson had cruised into the D'Orsi Bowl Senior quarter finals. Choosing USA2 as the least of evils ..I think Poland was the other option.

However a USA Senior Team of any shape is going to be no pushover as USA Senior Trials often start with up to 20 teams of hardened bridge veterans. All of whom who would play at least 1 if not all 3 of US Nationals every year. 

So the expected result happened and USA2 slowly ground Ireland to a loss. 

The match was fairly close but Irelands final chance disappeared when a 3NT slipped through swinging about 14 imps. 

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Meanwhile here in Ireland we had the Mixed Pairs/Teams  Weekend. 

The Spiro Cup Mixed Pairs was topped by Rita O'Neill and Brendan Martin from Wicklow

followed by Seamus Costello and Deirdre Tuckey from the far North of Dublin 

with perennial contenders Carol Ann Cummins and John Noonan also from Wicklow in 3rd

Sean O'Lubaigh had a tough day but got through it 

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In the Duais 2015(Thats the Presidents Prize)  Cian Holland and Mary Finn held off 133 other pairs to emerge victorious after 3 gruelling sessions .. The emerging intermediate pair of Jeannie Fitzgerald and Emer Joyce languished in 50th place 1122 matchpoints behind the winners. The well known tennis player Malcolm Swan finished in 9th place. Not bad for a chap with goofy glasses and partnered Stephen Barr. 

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

Meanwhile Drogheda Congress presumably ran its annual bridge extravaganza superbly as normal 

MacCormac and McMaugh led early on before losing strength and being passed out by Marcin and Wojech.

McMaugh and MacCormac bounced back to take the Congress Teams on the Sunday carried by the incredible BJ O'Brien. and the well known Dublin bridge teacher Ranald Milne 

If you want to improve your game .. Google Ranald Milne and surely something will pop up.

Ireland Senior Bridge Team cruise into QF

Irelands Senior Bridge team after receiving a late invitation to the World Bridge Finals cruised through the round robin and finished in 3rd place out of 22 runners in the d'Orsi Trophy.
The d'Orsi Trophy is an over 60s version of the Bermuda Bowl. Ireland had failed to qualify out of European championships when fading to 7th place late on. However there was a good chance of getting into the main draw as first reserve. However thru early September there was no white smoke.
Finally Sri Lanka withdrew and Ireland were on their way.
The Irish team of Padraig O'Briain Michael O'Brian Pat Barry Rex Anderson Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon certainly had some pedigree but would lack match practice at this level of bridge.
Mesbur and Fitzgibbon had kept up their ferocious training regime since leaving the Irish Open setup and would still retain match fitness even two years later from their Open battles. Mesbur and Fitzgibbon had even outran the cheating German  doctors to win a recent European Senior pairs event.
Barry and Anderson upon hearing of their pending trip to Chennai set about some bidding practice session with Eamon Galligan. We got through 6 or 8 training sessions of 2 hours a piece. One day we even started at 10am as Eamon had to run vugraph for Camrose trials.
Meanwhile the O'Briain brothers powered to victory in the Telscher Trophy in City North in May but there was no mention of Chennai back then. However they continued with their own preparations just in case. As I understand it the O'Briains were not even part of this prospective team back in May.
However they are definitely present and contributing right now.
So in round 20 of 21 this morning Ireland dismantled USA2 and guaranteed Quarter Final status with a full match to spare. Ireland broke Austria in Round 15 with a heavy defeat of the erstwhile 3rd place Austrians. Round 16 saw Norway defeated. Round 17 saw Mesbur Fitzgibbon take a rest as the other 4 dispatched Chile. Round 18 saw Ireland post 24 imps in the last 3 boards. The late boards historically had been Irish bridge teams weak points.
We awoke early on Saturday morning to watch proceeding on the internet .. Ireland held a 15 point lead on 9th place but wanted more. A top 3 placing would give some leverage in determining knockout opponents. Round 19 saw Ireland paste New Zealand 20-0 and climb into 3rd place.
The New Zealand bridge players are not on a par with their rugby players. Round 20 saw a possible banana skin as Ireland faced USA2 possibly one of the pre tournament favourites. However 20 imps in the last 3 boards posted a 22 imp victory and guaranteed Quarter Final status.
Ireland sat out Mesbur Fitzgibbon on round 21 and built a 44-2 lead by board 10.

Tomorrow morning at presumably 0630 Ireland time Ireland will take on the USA2 team in a 96 board quarter final. The USA2 team is made up of Denis Clerkin Jerry Clerkin Jeff Aker Doug Simson Mark Tollivar and Marc Zwerling. Clerkin would be a good Cavan Monaghan name.
Some Clerkins emigrated to USA from Cavan and Monaghan in early 1900s.

So roll on tomorrow but a 96 board match against 6 top players is not as straight forward as a 16 board match. However I have every confidence in the Irish lads. Not many come out the right side of Mesbur Fitzgibbon. The O'Briain brothers have been mainstays of Irish bridge for many years. Michael O'Briain the silent asassion. Says little but knows lots. Finally the elder statemen Pat Barry and Rex Anderson. Rex Anderson celebrated 100 caps for Northern Ireland in 2013 and was introduced for an award by Tony Forrester.

www.bridgebase.com for Ireland v USA2 at 0630 Irish time. Your only chance
to see Ireland playing live all day. Otherwise you can watch the scores coming in on
the live scoring thru the day.

Good luck to Ireland tomorrow.

Currently England are mounting the comeback against Australia in the rugby but I have already cashed out my winnings so can watch in peace.

Conversation with a Cheater

Last night in my local den of Guinness Declan the Donplayer commiserated with me on the recent cheating scandals in top level bridge. He started by reissuing his challenge that Himself and Shane would destroy me at bridge if they had a month to prepare their methods. 4 months ago when he made this statement I had laughed at him indicating his very basic knowledge of bridge would not be enough added to the most sophisticated cheating system to beat Eamon and another reasonable player. Shane and Declan are both very knowledgeable in card games and both picked up enough basics of bridge to manage to play online in under an hour. Shane's first hand on Bridge-Now involved finding a defensive unblock from a suit headed by KQJT to allow his partner win with the 9.
So there was something there.

Last night Declan the Donplayer indicated "Eamon I have played DON since I was 10 and I am from Sheriff Street and in every game over those 40 years I have cheated. It was a way of life in painter decorators lives. You cheated at lunchtime and got the good jobs in the afternoons. "Declan you win the game for me at lunchtime and I will teach you paper hanging this afternoon"

"Eamon the one game I hate is Texas Holdem you only get two cards and you have no partner and someone else deals the cards and they do this burning thing so there is no way for me to cheat"

"Eamon but this bridge stuff ...you giving me 13 cards and a cheating partner... Nobody would have a hope against us once I learn a little bidding. 13 cards to play = 13 chances to cheat." "Ye even play these transfers so my partner can let me play every hand. I open the No trump and he pitches his suit so I can bid it. Trained monkey stuff. I don't even need a partner who knows bridge.

"So Declan all the games of DON we played over last 3 years ..you been cheating me ?
"Afraid so Eamon but remember sometimes you were my partner so you did not get cheated"
"But Declan I won more games against you than I lost. "
"Eamon that's because you count and remember the cards so I  cannot renege or pick up the last 2
tricks into my pile as you will remember all the tricks ..I have lost more euros since you started playing but I don't mind as you have produced more victims for me. You taught all those 20 something lads how to play and now I get their euros.

"Eamon I told you months ago ... "Where there are humans and money there will be cheating and don't think for a minute there are only 4 dunces at the top of the game cheating. There are probably about 10 pairs in the top 100 pairs of bridge. There are also a few shifty characters in all those clubs where you referee. However they won't be cheaters like me as they don't come from a tradesmans background where we played DON every lunchtime and if you lost at lunchtime you fetched and carried paint cans and washed brushes all afternoon"

DON is a bridge like game where you win points by winning tricks contraining 9s an 5s
The 9 is the big DON and the 5 is the little DON.
AKQJ of trumps are worth 4321 points
DONs in trump are worth double so trump dons are 18 and 10
So 80 points in every deal and 2 deals and first past 80 wins.

Cheating in DON is called BILLYING and involves stuff like

1, Drawing partners attention to a suit illegally
2. Leading out of turn
3. Speechplay
4. Reneging (called revoke in bridge)
5. Peeking in an opponents hand
6. Claiming more points than you scored
7. Picking up an opponents trick and putting on your pile
8. Reusing cards from quitted tricks
9. Marking a high scoring card with a nick
10 Putting an Ace on the bottom of deck for yourself when dealing

As DON is played in less serene surroundings than bridge getting caught BILLYING
might involve some physical violence and little evidence.

DON in our drinking place is played for 1 euro a corner and a game lasts about 30 minutes and involves up to 6 hands of 13 tricks. In my last 12 games I am leading Declan the Donplayer by 10-2 in games so I have 8 of his euros in my pocket.

I don't think Declan bothers cheating anymore as its too much work for a euro.

However he told me ..Eamon there are loads of lads out there like me who are "good" at cards.

One night I brought Declan to the bridge club and within 10 minutes he found some ex-DON players and was chatting away. He also spotted Maurice and his can of Guinness and his hand of cards and his toothy smile.

"Eamon you showed me a new life .. That's me over there when I am 70 ..Guinness cards and victims"

Bridgewinners reveals the Queen of Spades

Good afternoon folks

Things are hotting up. Two blogs from Galligan in one day.

Well I just thought I might breeze over to www.bridgewinners.com
 for a little read.

I was not shocked by what I saw there as I already knew about the subject matter since early September. There are allegations or evidence which indicate that the TWO highest ranked bridge players in the world have not been fully disclosing their signalling methods to their opponents.

In full disclosure one is supposed to supply all knowledge to the opponents.

The top ranked players did not advise their opponents of the means of the placement of their
cards on the table ..

Some of us play UDCA .. upside down count and attitude ... well it sounds good..
Some of us play Italian discards
Some of us play just Upside down count

These lads play Horizontal and Vertical leads ... When grafted onto Slavinski leads this becomes
the Harrier jet propelled leading system ...

As far as I remember the Harrier could do Horizontal and Vertical take-offs..

.................................................
At the Camrose Trials Final last weekend there was a chap doing the vugraph operating and he was
intrigued by the fact that the players in the Trials did not always play their lowest card.
He is a former chess player who now plays bridge.

He said "Eamon up to now if I was not winning the trick I always played my lowest card.. Now a whole new world has opened up for me in bridge. I am going to telling my partner now how many cards I have in the suits .. Its going to be great "

Wait until Vincent finds out about Italian discards or UDCA..or God forbid Smith Peters.

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

The Camrose appeal ..Final Session 5

Here is a deal from the Camrose Trials Final Session 5.
Donal MacAonghusa opened 1 offbeat No Trump. Terry Walsh up North doubled to show a CLUB suit according to the vugraph record. So for the moment we will presume its a CLUB single suiter.

So our man in the EAST Ciaran Coyne makes a Helvic type REDOUBLE meaning I got a long suit so bid 2C and I will let you know. Walsh/Coyne are screenmates as are MacAonghusa/O'Gorman.
Coyne tells Walsh its for rescue .. MacAonghusa tells O'Gorman its to play..

So 1NT redoubled is declared by MaqAonghusa and he duly makes his book and a bonus trick.
This adds up to +760 for the lad for a swing of 12 imps to his team.

So enter Brian Lawlor the Tournament Director. He rolled his dice and came up with a 2 so
result stands. The deeper explanation is he went to Law 12 of his faithful RED book and it told him

The objective of score adjustment is to redress damage to a non-offending side and to take away any advantage gained by an offending side through its infraction. Damage exists when, because of an infraction, an innocent side obtains a table result less favourable than would have been the expectation had the infraction not occurred – but see C1(b).

Now in my world no advantage was gained here through the infraction.

O'Gorman was told this is to play so he is happy and expressed his view of same by passing. He probably suspects that the redouble is for rescue but that does not make any difference.
The bids are pushed through to the other side and Walsh Coyne see the passes and Walsh shrugs his shoulders probably and passes. If MacAongusa has balls of steel then I have the equipment we used to use for bull calves at home for sorting that out. So maybe they roll the dice.

If correct info was given both sides of the screen as redouble for rescue without MacAongusa knowing then the bidding might proceed the same way.. so I don't get where the damage happened.

So I agree with Brian Lawlor ..result stands

............................
For some reason 3 well educated gentlemen on the appeals committee managed to find damage and wiped out the 12 imps and took 6 more off him for the 3D contract he might have played going one
off. So 18 imps in total ..... thats alot of money when its 100 euro per imp.

I mean I am trying to become a good tournament director like Diarmuid Reddan but these appeals committees seem to have the upper hand everytime.

Its like the GAA ... Yer man Connolly from Dublin .. He got sent off 2 times in the last few years but he still turned up playing in the next more important match. on each occasion. The most recent time the TV replay confirms that Connolly punched his opponent. The GAA law says Connolly gets at least one game suspension but 15 hours before the match the red card is removed and the guy togs out and does the business against Mayo.
Now this lad is a fantastic footballer so Mayo should feel hard done by that he was allowed to play.

Now all the above is only my view and I might have the information somewhat incorrect but I believe its close enough to the story.

The Coyne Team of David Walsh Enda Glynn Ciaran Coyne and Donal MacAonghusa won the trials to represent Ireland in the Camrose Trophy 2016 in Dublin and Wales.
They might add another pair for each weekend or if not another pair from the Final Weekend will
be imposed on them. I won't be able to be their NPC as I will probably be looking after the vugraph
in City North on the first weekend. However I am available for the 2nd weekend...and the party afterwards.

That David Walsh chap is a fine player ... I saw him make a slam on Saturday I think.

Of course if they want a few spins in Galligans Bidding gym it only costs 4 guinness an hour for the pair. An hour of bidding practice is worth 9 10 board online matches as in the gym you get to bid
all the hands.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

PS Apologies to anyone who feels offended by any of the above. I only give my view. I am not an international bridge player even if I play better than some internationals. Ha Ha.

Ireland Camrose Trials on vugraph (today Friday), The Bridge World magazine..

Good morning folks

Today at 1230pm the Camrose Trials semi finals to qualify a team for Camrose Trophy 2016 will start. The Contract Bridge Association of Ireland are displaying same on vugraph for anyone to watch.

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

Above is the link to Bridgebase vugraph schedule. You will see 10 times 2 hour sessions.

Friday 12.30-2.40

Friday 3.20-5.30

Friday 5.50-8

Saturday 10-12.10

Saturday 12.50-3

Saturday 3.20-5.30

Saturday 5.50-8

Sunday 10-12.10

Sunday 12.30-2.40

Sunday 3.20-5.30

Ciaran Coyne, Enda Glynn, Donal MacAonghusa, David Walsh

Derek O'Gorman, Terry Walsh, Donal Garvey, Pat Quinn

Cian Holland, Dermot Cotter, Tom McCarthy, John Russell

Mark Moran, Rory Boland, John Carroll, Tommy Garvey, Tom Hanlon, Hugh McGann

In the semi finals its Coyne v Holland and O'Gorman v Moran

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For those who want to make a deeper understanding of bridge there has always been The Bridge World magazine. This is a serious magazine whixh drops thru my letterbox every month. I have learned when to expect it and have to rush out to rescue same before McDuff gets his teeth on it.
However the Bridge World is made of sterner stuff and would survive the dogs teeth or else McDuff
recognizes that it belongs to me and is not a bill or a one of the multiple flyers that get posted into his
space these days. McDuff has an issue with bulletin delivery dudes and the postman.
So far my Bridge World magazine has only got a few teeth marks ..

http://www.bridgeworld.com/

A fantastic magazine and good for a gift subscription for your bridge fanatic ..
One time I counted the hand content of one magazine and got 82 hands.
That's plenty of knowledge.

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

Jack is my program of choice these days for computer bridge
http://www.jackbridge.com/eindex.htm

..................
Last week I was Tournament Directing and was hurrying along the slowest table as is my normal mode of operation. The opponents knew the small elderly person was distracted and slow.
They both indicated that I should bid for her. So I made a few bids and she was very happy
with this development.
Her hand on this occasion was .. xx xx AQxxxx xxx ... so a 6 count with 6 card diamonds.
I responded 1NT to her partners 1H opening and passed the 3H advance.

Later on in the night her partner collared me and said .."I would have made 10 tricks in Hearts
only for you ...blah blah blah...

Later that night at home I checked the score .. +140 and 3H made ....

A few days later I asked him about it ...and he said "Several tables make 10 and 11 tricks in
Hearts so if you raised me to 4H I would have make 10 or 11 like the others ..

Never mentioned the 4 quick tricks available to for the defenders to cash.

Sometimes one cannot win ...even a helpful Tournament Director.
.............

Camrose Preliminary Trials 2015 and the cheating sago

Last weekend the preliminary trials for the Ireland Camrose team took place in Templeogue.

Results can be found on www.fob.ie

The favourites MacAonghusa Walsh Coyne and Glynn romped home winning all their
matches in comfort.
2nd place Derek O'Gorman revovered from a round 6 trimming on Sunday morning from
the Cian Holland team to demolish the struggling Elvin team who were outclassed all weekend.
3rd place Cian Holland after a slow start and a Martin Brady hiccup finished well in the last 3 matches including dispatching the hapless BJ'OBrien team.

One would have expected the Chenoi bound O'Briain brothers to power their team into one of the
top 3 places but it was not to be.

So the weekend after next we have 4 teams doing battle for 1 Camrose place.
I think the winners of Prelim Camrose trials have choice of opponents so I don't see MacAongusa
picking Moran as opps. I have just spotted it is Coyne versus Holland and O'Gorman versus Moran in the semi finals.

...........
As indicated indirectly above an Irish Senior team has been granted a place in the D'Orsi Bowl.
This is the Seniors Bermuda Bowl.
Adam Mesbur Nick Fitzgibbon Michael O'Briain Padraig O'Briain Pat Barry and Rex Anderson are
the team members. I have offered free bidding practice sessions to the latter 4. Adam and Nick have been doing their own partnership bidding for years.

..............
Having studied the recent articles on www.bridgewinners.com and www.bridgecheaters.com there
seems some evidence that two top international bridge players have made some strange moves prior
to making some fine defensive and offensive plays in some recent high profile bridge events.
Any one who wishes to examine this saga for themselves can go to

www.bridgecheaters.com

www.bridgewinners.com

One thing that gnaws at my mind is ..., Are the two accused so stupid that when video appeared in BALI in 2013 (and the doctors with the sore throats were apparently caught) that they continued using the same methods knowing everything was on video and audio. The evidence on Bridgewinners is damning but it just seems absurd to continue on despite being on video. The evidence has been analysed by non video experts (albeit bridge experts) and seems damning.

My understanding is that there is a much higher level of video/audio expert who can perform analysis on these videos and these two players had to know this so they are either STUPID , ARROGANT or
NOT GUILTY.

Could Bridgecheaters.com be wrong

Currently most of the online players in the world know something about the recent "news" on

Bridgecheaters

Bridgewinners

There is indication that two top international players are "at it "
However I remain to be convinced. I have gathered lots of hands from the pairs recent successful events and less than successful events. When I say lots of hands I mean I am taking all the hands from the matches/events  referenced by Bridgecheaters.

In the local den of iniqity close to where I live I have sourced a large number of cardplayers.
They all play a game called DON which is a follow suit game like bridge. The difference is that in DON the scoring cards are ...

Trump 9 .. Big DON is 18 points
Trump 5 .. Little DON is 10 points
Other 9 and 5 cards score as face value
AKQJ of trumps score as 4,3,2,1 points

One night about 2 months ago while playing DON with these lads I noticed the CLUB 9
had a nick in it. However it seems to have been marked on a previous night by some player.
I figured being a bridge player this information is worth far more to me then anyone else so
I said nothing. We play for 1 euro a corner and it takes most of 30 minutes to win that euro or lose it.
So after 2 hours I had 3 euro in my pocket. I threw the deck of cards in the bin.

In DON they term anything non kosher as BILLYING..and they don't have signals like we have in bridge. Anyway 2 nights later I mentioned the nicked card and my partner knew there was a marked card but did not know or recall which one it was.

Now I learned this DON game 2.5 years ago from scratch. Some of the other players have
been playing for 40 years. Its a kind of working mans bridge played by painters and decorators.
It apparently was very popular in the Dublin Airport canteen.

I showed some of them BRIDGE and told them it is 100 times more complex than DON.
They laughed at me. One guy came to the bridge club one night I was directing and was intrigued.
He saw an 85 year old man playing his bridge and sucking on a can of guinness.

Declan the Donplayer said to me .."Eamon thats me in 20 years time .. Can of guinness and a hand of cards and a big smile"... You have given me a new sense of life..

So Declan learned bridge and came back to me and told me if he was allowed to cheat himself and another DON player would destroy me at bridge. Now I can play a bit at bridge. I won an 8 board match once against Boye Erik Simon and Espen. 14-6 VPs .. a few over tricks and a partscore.
The VPs are painful in England.
......................
So back to business... I looked at hand 1 of Holland v Israel in Euro 2014...
So the lad after lots of thought cashed an ACE against 6D ... What was the "much thought" about.
Is it different if he cashed an ace nonchalantly.

Now its written in my bridge bible that if one cashes an ace against a slam one has hopes of another trick. So many years ago ...maybe in Galway when I was ramping up my game..BJ O'Brien layed down an Ace against my slam ...(I was 10% of the player I am today back in 1996 but I was moving)
I had read in a book that when an ace is cashed and you need to find the trump queen look in the hand that cashed the ace. So slam makes.. BJ asked why did you play that way..
I said .."Its written in the book I have at home " .. So whats the difference about finding a JACK..

I continued onto Hand 2 ...I see Holland defending 2 doubled contracts and losing 14 imps ..
How can one persuade 4 world class players into 2 contracts by being "AT IT"

I continued on and looked at the next 6 hands ...

Now I have to make marmalade on brown toast

Video Link to Holland Israel hand 1

Link to BBO record

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Dublin Summer Congress

Folks

Dublin Summer Congress will be taking place this weekend coming at CityWest.

http://cbai.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Dublin-Summer-Congress-Poster-July2015.pdf

All details should be found at the link above

Unfortunately former tournament director Paul O'Reilly passed away yesterday.
Details on CBAI website or www.rip.ie

European Open Bridge championships are taking place for next 2 weeks in Tromso Norway
Click on link below to find some information
European Open Bridge championships

Live coverage can be found on Bridge Base Online with running scores on
above website in Results section.

If there are any bridge partnerships out there who reckon they are the finished article Eamon Galligan would be happy to put them through the bidding gym for a small fee.
I have put several trials and Irish international pairs into the bidding gym and nobody has complained yet but every pair has found plenty of agreements to discuss.
Bidding is the most important part of bridge as you bid on every hand. I have plenty of sets of good hands used on the best players in the country and can make hands to practice any type of bidding.
A steady pair would bid 40 hands in an hour. A fast pair would bid up to 70 hands in an hour.

eamongalligan@eircom.net or 087 9032505 if any interest.

Bridge Now

Bridge Now is a useful site for practising ones bridge. The only problem is outwitting the robots.
One robot is your partner and 2 robots are your opponents.
You are given a percentage score after every board you play. So one can play 0 boards or 200 boards a week. I am not exactly sure how the scoring works as I only played 44 boards this week and went up enormously compared to when I played more boards.

Here we can see some Malahide and others who use this site. The incredible BJ O'Brien is not here
this week as he was probably busy with Oldies Bridge. He probably spent the week studying his
bidding system. Brendan Conlon the famous Dundalk star also features from time to time but he finds the robots tough going. They don't understand his bidding at all or his signals.

www.bridge-now.com is the website to use ..

Another good program is Wbridge5 ... Its free to download

Senior Camrose 2015 15-17 May ..CityNorth Hotel

This weekend in CityNorth in Gormanstown we have the Teltcher Trophy.
This is Home Internationals for over 60s. All are welcome to spectate either in vugraph commentary room and at the tables .. There will be 6 tables in play.

I don't know how many tables we will be showing on vugraph as we are somewhat short of operators.
Each table on vugraph needs a person sitting at a laptop to type in the bids and cards.

http://www.bridgegreatbritain.org/

The above link has details of the teams and bidding systems and some other information.

You can see the two Irish teams down the bottom including the incredible BJ O'Brien. Incredible as its unbelievable how often he lands on his feet despite shaping his bidding system to suit the hand he holds. Former Ireland NPC David Jackson will play. David guided the Irish Open Team to the Silver medal in the European championships in 2006 and later into the Bermuda Bowl.
World Senior Pairs champion Pat McDevitt will play on the Ireland Team.

England will field the world famous and unassuming Tony Forrester. I have seen this guy make small slams without drawing a trump. Forrester was part of the England team which won the 1991 European championships.

An experienced but out of condition Northern Ireland team will turn up for battle but they are unlikely to see any medals.

Scotland bring Irving Gordon who can play a little.

Wales bring Patrick Jourdain and a host of other regular Camrose players including the very capable Tedd and Salisbury who played in the recent Camrose Trophy 2015 where a slow starting Moran Team galloped past the slow finishing Welsh team. I don't know how it happened but someone or some rotation decided to sit out the rampaging Tedd Salisbuty partnership just after they posted a 3.14 imps per board segment. The same partnership had also chinned Hanlon McGann on Friday night. Patrick Jourdain has probably been playing for Wales for over 100 years if you add up all the different levels of international play. I heard that  back in the day juniors used to be for under 35s but maybe thats just a rumour.

Of course if there are any bridge players near Gormanston this weekend who might be willing to do a session or 2 of vugraph operating ...its not hard and one can learn quickly. One just moves the mouse and clicks on bids or cards as they see the player bid and play.

Any availability ring Paul Porteus 087 699 6686 ... or email paul@cbai.ie

Eamon Galligan will be onsite and will help any new operators to get going.

There is the schedule for the weekend ... 3 matches and 6 tables running each segment.
If we show it all we need 60 operators ...less if some people do 2 segments or more.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Muldoon Cup and stories

This weekend I am heading down to Dun Laoghaire on Sunday to direct the Muldoon Cup. I played in the competition once in the early 2000s with Dario Filjar who was a Croatian visiting worker in Ireland.

Muldoon Cup 2 session event down in Dun Laoghaire Sunday April 26th at 1330 and probably 700pm in evening time ... 2 sessions

Dun Laoghaire Bridge club is in Clarinda Park
http://cbai.ie/event/muldoon-open-cup/?instance_id=194

...............................
There are some new grandmasters in the CBAI ..

I see a picture of the elegant Tommy Garvey receiving his award ..There is also Karel and Anna ..
There is also Father Glynn ...

However the process is somewhat flawed ... and different than in the past .. 40 B points a year for about 25 years gets one over the line ... This amoint of B points is available to any players who attend National events and place in the top 10 regularly ..

However Masterpoints might not make you a better bridge player. There is a chap in Malahide playing bridge since 1973 and he comes out of CBAI as a novice .. Himself and his partner been playing together for 40 years but not affiliated until now ..

They found out that the CBAI might be right ...Same matchpoints as they had before they played the 3 boards

I think a chaps masterpoints should decay after about 20 years rather than be an attendance record and roll call of how many National events you played at. 

Next thing Gordon Lessells :):) will be a grandmaster ... and then maybe some of our Lady Milne team will be on the podium ... Grandmothers of bridge  all.

Now Tommy Garvey made it to grandmaster despite living in London. I do recall he won some English Paits championship with Hugh McGann many years ago so he is probably a good player.

I think he got a silver medal in a European championship too but Hugh McGann helped him there as well. Thomas Hanlon is also a grandmaster and he is nearly as good a player as Tommy Garvey but Hugh McGann helped him win loads of stuff as well.

Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon recently won the European Senior Pairs as well as the Silver medal in European Teams and a good collection of Camrose Trophys. 

Mind you Karel and Anna gained most of the masterpoints in the last 10 years I reckon and are fairly good players but always liable to drop the odd 1100 or 1700 from time to time. Being pairs specialists and supreme bunny bashers ..the odd 1100 or 1700 is the same as dropping an overtrick. 

So there are many different types of grandmasters .. 

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

Then there is a man who lives on Southside Dublin and he has the best bathroom collection of bridge books ever. I keep 2-3 books in the bathroom for perusal... I was shocked when in this mans loo to see ZERO bridge books until after washing my hands I spotted 3 shelves full up high.

I had to laugh to myself ..

I would have happily spent the whole day in that loo except I had to go back to the kitchen. 

The lad even had a teapot with a tea cosy ..

.....

Strangely enough this experienced gentleman does partnership bidding on BBO on his MacBook.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were not even glints in their parents eyes when this chap entered the world 

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

.

Lady Milne and other happenings

Last week while directing in one of my regular clubs I was called to a table and it was pointed out to me that the play was at trick 10 but the dummy had not gone down.
The "dummy" kind of forgot to put down her hand and nobody noticed or said anything.
I left them finish the hand as they were with the dummy still in the ladies hand.

..............
The weekend before last in Malahide Father Glynn and Gay Keavney won the Moylan Cup.
Some Lady Milne players for this year had won 3rd place and a session prize..and it was indicated that there was hope for a good performance in the Lady Milne..

............
So Friday night at the Lady Milne Ireland started well with a 15-5  approx victory over Wales
So all appeared well as Wales had a reasonable team out...
Saturday morning our heroes were crushed by an NIBU team with 2 juniors at the forefront.

Who would have believed what these two hungry looking babies turned out to be some years later.
They have been doing some eating since. They look very innocent as well. The little feckers.

Unfortunately it looks from analyzing the results that the two featured above ended their Lady Milne about 3/4 way  thru the 3rd match after posting a Butler leading X-imps until then.

Sunday morning dawned and the saddened and weakened NIBU team got 2 heavy beatings and Wales climbed from the wooden spoon position on Sunday morning into 1st place on the strength of two wins against NIBU and Scotland.

Our Ireland team went backwards after the good start on Friday against the eventual winners.
I don't know what would have happened if NIBU stayed at full strength but one had to fancy their chances of holding on or to say it another way continuing their strong of match victories.
I did not see much of the Lady Milne as I had the privilige of attending the Irish Open Team training session.

http://www.ebu.co.uk/lady-milne-2015

All results of Lady Milne can be viewed above

....................
Last weekend the Irish Open team held a training session in the Regent Bridge Club. We played 96 boards which I sourced from past events. All the hands this weekend featured Bobby Levin and Steve Weinstein. They were hands from Vanderbilt 2009 and Bermuda Bowl 2011 where moderate impage was transferred ..won or lost.

During the dealing process due to vulnerability and dealer we played lots of the boards with different dealer and different vulnerability. However as imps were lost/won by top ranking pairs there was still plenty of  action over our weekend.

The lads played the boards in 16 board segments most taking under 2 hours but we had one table go as far as 2 hours 27 minutes for one set which is too long... It must have been Hugh McGann.

As far as I could see the lads all enjoyed themselves and got plenty of discussion/agreements out of most of the 96 boards. Some boards were deemed mamma pappa but the fact remains that Levin Weinstein either gained or lost significant imps on every board.
...........................

I think all Irish teams heading out to international competition need to be doing weekends like this.
I think this is the 4th weekend I attended since this Irish Open team formed itself. Its free learning for me. 96 boards of free learning. There is no reason why Lady Milne and Senior Camrose Teams cannot do a weekend against each other using "awkward hands" ...
I heard one of the Irish Open team at the weekend use the term "awkward hands"
Hands that are awkward for experts test the lesser systems of most Irish pairs.

.............
Last night while playing in my local club I was defending a 4H contract and with about 7 tricks
to go it was clear declarer had all the tricks on top and we had none.
However she kept on playing intently. Eventually I put my cards in the pocket and she looked at me
in shock. This is player who heads out to play in National competitions.
I said " You have all the tricks so why are you still playing on .."
She said " I like playing bridge and I like playing out the whole hand"
It was not enough that we were conceding the rest of the tricks .. She wanted me to get my cards out again so she could finish the hand.........
Next hand she started bidding slowly on purpose it seemed as she was miffed..
Anyway eventually we got on to the next table ...

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Greystones Open tomorrow Sunday March 29th.

As can be seen above Greystones Open Cup tomorrow Sunday if anyone wants to go play

...........
I went to Malahide Regional Bridge Club last night to play with Maurice Quinn. It seems Maurice has retired from drinking guinness. Pint of water he had halfway thru the night. However Maurice did buy a can of guinness he planned to quaff at home later but then I forgot to take it out of my computer bag so its still in the car.
We had a nice game but overbidding underplaying wrong leads failing to ruff bad switches all took their toll on our score so we ended with a reasonable score of 57.5% but 2 others gathered in more matchpoints so we finished 3rd of 9 ..
.........
I figured out how to fast forward the new calendar on CBAI website .. there is a go forward arrow.
.........
I noticed two international lady players getting drilled in a match last night. 67-0 over 12.
I am going to download the boards and play same direction and see how much I can beat them by.
Hope my Jack program is in good form.
......
I am developing a talent for the cardgame DON. Due to the fact that bridge techniques apply to this game also I am appearing so good I must be cheating. DON is a card game played in DUBLIN among tradesmen and unlike bridge it is kind of ok to "cheat" or billy as they call it.
If I ever mention the opponent taking his time playing a singleton they just say I was thinking about the whole game as opposed to just this trick. COUNTERBOY is my DON nickname. Some of these guys have been playing DON for over 30 years and find it hard to accept a beginner can brush them aside. DON is a bridge like game but I doubt one could find a DON book anywhere. However some of the players I meet are excellent card-players within their peers. However as DON is mainly about winning tricks containing 9s and 5s some bridge like squeezes occur and this causes panic.
Unlike bridge where one is squeezed out of 1 or 2 cards/suits ..a DON player can get caught in many suits as every 5 and 9 can cause mini squeezes.
Hugh McGann is apparently a sound DON player according to himself. I believe David Walsh is also capable of a game. There is also a DON playing area around Turners Cross area in Cork.
..........
I have taught two DON playets the game of bridge in about 15 minutes. One lad went down to the beginner classes in the local community centre and found he was somewhat ahead of them.
Declan the Donplayer. Several other lads are pondering taking up the game but reckon it is beyond them as they would only be playing when having a few beers.
.........
Last night I heard about the DA haircut of the 50s. I was showing a 72 year old lady www.youtube.com and after about 10 minutes she said .. I won't be buying anything else on Itunes. I saw Billy Haley and Little Richard and their contempories. Elvis got a spin too..
...........
Here is a link to a video from the Galway Poker Bridge festival a few years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6JQZU9H0k0

If you get to the end of the video you will see Thomas "Horse"  Hanlon or maybe it is a mule.

Having been in Galway at the bridge I now know what some of the top Irish poker players look like so can see lots of them in the video watching Gus and Thomas.

Senior Congress at La Mon Hotel March 17-19

Good morning folks

IBU Seniors Congress takes place at La Mon Hotel near Belfast next Tues to Thurs.
The La Mon hotel was the venue for last weekends Camrose Trophy where Ireland grabbed the Camrose Trophy in a blanket finish from a fading Wales.

The La Mon Hotel is an interesting place as Belfast hotels go. Situated in the middle of rolling countryside as opposed to city centre hotels where parking is an issue. The La Mon seems to be the current venue for major NIBU bridge events and is a fine place.

Brochure is below

La Mon Hotel IBU Senior Pairs brochure

Anne Hassan and Liz Scott are two of the people who make these events happen.
These 2 were also on the team that made the Camrose Trophy roll along last weekend.

Liz Scott dealt the 960 boards used in Camrose Trophy
Liz and Ann together were the match managers. Brian McDowell did the technical end of
the match management.

Make sure you know where you are going or use your Maps app to get there.
My phone brought me on an interesting route last weekend .. but I could see I was approaching the correct area but Knockbracken Road and Saintfield Road and eventually Glensha Road got me there.
Alternatively straight down Castlereagh Road would work out of Belfast and left onto Glensha Road.
Take it from a lad who got lost a couple of years ago .. Phone Sat Nav makes one an expert navigator.

Entries to: Anne Hassan 0044-28-90862179 - Email: hassan.anne@gmail.com Paul Porteous 01-4929666 - Email: paul@cbai.ie

You don't even have to be over 60 as there are Open Pairs for the younger generation.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

Ireland win Camrose 2015 in dramatic finish

The Ireland Team of Mark Moran Rory Boland Tommy Garvey John Carroll Hugh McGann and Thomas Hanlon won an unlikely Camrose Trophy yesterday (March 08 2015)

After suffering an unexpected heavy defeat by first weekend leaders Wales on Friday night Ireland now trailed leaders Wales by 18 VPs with only a maximum of 80 VPs to play for.  A short pitstop in the bar followed. A Welshman passed by on his way to bed and was congratulated by all. The man stayed a little too long and one could feel a steely determination spread among the Irish players.
The drinks were lowered and all bar the NPC retired to bed.

The first act on Saturday morning was to defeat the star studded English team. Robson Forrester Bakhshi Gold McIntosh Allfrey are well known names in bridge. A tight match saw Ireland win by 5 imps to put a further 2 VPs between Ireland and England.

Meanwhile Wales demolished Northern Ireland to extend their lead to 25 VPs over Ireland.
Looking very grim with only 60 VPs to play for ..

In round 3 England and Ireland both scored 17.01 .... Englands coming against Wales so that was
14 VPs back but Wales remained 11 VPs in front of the two star studded chasing teams.

Sunday morning dawned and it was all matches between the top 3 versus bottom 3 ..
Ireland routed the Scots only to find that Wales had performed even better against the NIBUs
For some reason the improving Coffey and Lavery were sat out in the 2nd half and their
replacements shipped 3 Butler Imps a board.

Sunday afternoon and match 5 looms with Wales needing about 8 VPs to guarantee.
However a strange thing happened. The pair who had fired 3.14 imps per board past NIBU
were sat out. Scotland jumped into an early lead as Wales were helped into 6D. 11-0. Wales struck back with 16 imps when Scotland failed to drop offside singleton K of trumps in 7C.
Meanwhile Irelands front 4 were unloading everything at Northern Ireland and building a 49 imp lead. However Northern Ireland recovered somewhat and adding a few imps to a lodgement made by Plunkett on the first board played .. Board 15..
Robert Plunkett picked up a 54 major hand of 17 hcp and was faced by 1H P 2C  so unlike the away
from the table Robert he remained quiet thru 5 rounds of bidding as Hanlon McGann landed in
4H. Now Robert unleashed the double card and collected 800 when an opening lead of a spade left him in control. However later in the set .. Hanlon McGann got Plunkett in their grippers and surgical defence gathered in 5 vulnerable undertricks.
Meanwhile Scotland were still sticking it to Wales and Ireland/England were creeping closer but it
still remained Wales Camrose to lose.
The final 16 boards started and the imp chase was on .. Ireland rolled along with little action thru the first 10 boards. A couple of double parts score swings and finally a missed game and another double part score. added up to 39-10. Board 30 the last board in the Open Room saw Hanlon bid 3NT after asking about a Diamond Stop. McGann could take no more and installed his NPC as the dummy and left the room emerging at my side where I was watching on my laptop. Quickly he ascertained 3NT was safe and relaxed.
A few minutes later Ireland scored up outside the hotel back door and indicated happiness with the days proceedings regardless of the result. of the event which was beyond their control.
Wales were a few boards behind in the play and still playing.
Thomas Hanlon had examined the situation and the remaining boards and he figured Ireland might win but mentioned a fat person who was yet to sing. Meanwhile in the Closed Room we had the very experiened Tedd and Salisbury struggling to hold the youthful talent of the 19 year old Nakamura Pinder allied to the slightly older Phil Morrison. The young Scots had roared into 7NT on a combined 33 count only to find it was hopeless and went 3 down earlier losing 16 imps to the timid but successful 3NT of the Welsh.
Finally the fat lady cleared her throat on board 31  and the round of applause for a brilliant 4S bid by Morrison died into silence as Nakamura-Pinder placed 6C on the screen. Luckily enough 4H down 1 was in the closed room and no double meant only 3 imps. The extra 7 imps available was not enough anyway. A flat board 32 sealed the deal and Ireland had pulled the Camrose out of the furnace.

The Polish lad Marcin who happily came to work for his nightshift  found he was in demand
thru the night. However he accepted his extra duties happily and delivered refreshments as required.
I suspect a refreshed Hugh McGann was greeted at 0515 as he emerged for his taxi by the still partying remnants of his team . McGann went to bed about 1030pm as he had flight and work commitments on Monday.

Fergal O'Boyle Camrose Results

We were able to watch the entire event courtesy of Bridge Base Online and the 8 NIBU laptops and the 60 vugraph operator slots covered by various NIBU members.
Ann Hassan was on hospitality ...thats a large job..
Liz Scott was assistant hospitality and dealt all 960 of the boards used for the weekend.
Brian McDowell was Match manager
Eamon Galligan had the relatively handy job of vugraph setup.
Fergal O'Boyle and Mairead Basquille did scoring and directing
Alan Hill fresh from scoring A grade at European TD exam was Chairman of Appeals...he did not need any chairs.

http://www.bridgebase.com/

Thanks
Eamon Galligan

The Art of Declarer Play (Pat Kelly Bridgebase)

This morning the postman rang the bell and I guess correctly what he had .. Bills and books

Two copies of "The Art of Declarer Play" one for me and one for Grainne Barton.

Visualisation and Recognition see to be two well used words in this book.

I have to finish "The Rodwell Files " first before getting stuck into this one. However "The Art of Declarer Play " looks promising.

It reminds of a book I never read called "The Art of War" I suppose Declarer Play is really a form of War.

The more you sweat in training ..the less you bleed in battle ... hmmmm

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Declarer-Play-Bourke/dp/1494247259

........................
Meanwhile the sad news of the passing of "The Great Pat Kelly" on Monday evening.

As far as I can remember Pat was active in Portmarnock Tuesday Bridge club when I went there in the late 1980s as an inter B player. However I cannot be certain when I first encountered Pat.
I know in the 1990s he became active in Malahide Regional being a regular winner in most of the Monday and Thursday competitions partnering Dave Terry and John Murray. So to win stuff in Malahide one had to pass out "The Great Pat Kelly " and his supply of good partners.
I must have made some progress as I ended up winning a Kelbourne Cup with Pat Kelly Dave Terry and Paul Delaney. I recall we had to reel in a 25 VP deficit against a powerful team including Michael and Padraig O'Briain Peter Pigot and Thomas McCormac. They had a 5th member but I forget who. I know each O'Briain played a day each. We played well in the 3rd session but the breaker was when the Connollys and Masterson from Longford broke the O'Briain team.
We defended the following year but 3rd place was all we could get.

In later years when I was mainly a director  the tall Pat Kelly would arrive and put his arm around me and then list out some hand which had misfired for him and he would hope I would agree with him.

I recall Michael McDonagh telling me that Kelly and Terry were a top pair in the past. This was a few years ago while standing outside the Bridge place in Templogue.  I also vaguely recall Pat Kelly and probably Ramin Sai qualifying from some pairs event to represent Ireland maybe in the early 90s.

On Wed night after a minutes silence was held in Malahide Bridge Club where I was directing an up and coming player approached me and said " I did not know that chap who died"  ..I told him .."You have just entered Inter A .. Pat Kelly probably left Inter A in the 1980s so ye play in different levels.

I suspect I only saw the end of Pat Kellys bridge as I presume he was active in the Regent and Trials  when I was starting our in the late 1980s

I remember Dave Terry admonishing me for arguing with Pat Kelly over some bridge hand just after Pat suffered a bereavement. However I was only attempting to treat Pat as a normal bridge player so if we could not beat the opponents then we beat up partner. I meant to get Pat going on the computer bridge but we never got round to it and we won't now. I did not realise he was going to be gone so soon.

Out in Malahide I often heard it said " I am not playing in that competition as Pat Kelly always wins"
I always replied " Get better at bridge and beat him if it bothers you that he wins "
The reply often came back " Well he has better partners than I "
I always replied .." Get better at bridge and better partners will come your way"

Thats what I did and I ended up playing as a partner/teammate  with Pat Kelly from time to time.
Well there was no point in playing against him as he had better team mates ..

While I was waiting for the funeral to arrive at Balgriffin I met a man called Liam McDonald or Donnell who was wandering around the cemetery neat me.. There was a heavy shower of rain in progress and I had taken shelter under the large tree in the middle of Balgriffin cemetery.
He joined me and indicated he was waiting for the Pat Kelly funeral. Somehow he had mixed up the times ala 1130 and 1230 .. I had missed the mass and headed straight for the graveyard arriving about 1.5 hours too early. I went to 3 funerals that morning just in case I missed the correct one.

Liam told me about Big Tom Big John ..Joe and Pat who used to play golf and discuss bridge in some golf clubs where they played.
Tom Freeman John Murray and Joe English were the people this Liam was referring to and all play bridge in Malahide Regional. So I heard about another part of Pats life under a tree in the rain at Balgriffin cemetery.... Thats enough now ..

.......................
Last weekend I was working as a director at the Holmes Wilson. Unfortunately for some poor chap called James McLaughlin I ended up playing 60 boards. He ended up in Athlone hospital. I don't think it was life threatening so I expect he is back in Donegal now. I think I partnered John McClenaghan but it might have been Sean McNutt. Things did not go so well on Saturday night but by Sunday morning I was back in the zone and opponents were obeying my commands again.
On Sunday we won 4 and drew 1 and climbed the table from mid 40s to 14th place but no prize for 14th.

http://www.fob.ie/national    Results are there

.......................................
http://www.bridge-now.com/

Above is a useful place to play bridge if you have no partner ... it also gives one a rating ..

This is a totally different site than Bridge Base Online ..
Bridge Base Online is the leading place to play/watch  various forms of bridge and I don't see anything surpassing the Bridge Base Online production in the near future.

However some dude who works for Bridgebase Online took exception to my mentioning

http://www.bridge-now.com/ in a vugraph commentary I was doing.

They are totally different bridge sites and Bridgebase Online is by far the best bridge site and nobody working for Bridgebase needs to feel insecure. The person started by asking me to do him a favour.
I have been doing Bridgebase favours since about when it started so here is more favour

www.bridgebase.com

Go there and play watch bridge ...even partnership bidding is there .. and robots and lectures and all sorts of stuff ..... Being worried about some other site that has weaker robots and less stuff is hardly the way to go.
People will graduate from Bridge Now and use both sites ..

I am even going to Northern Ireland to organise the BridgeBase Vugraph show for the Camrose in a few weeks time .. Well Brian McDowell will organise it but I will keep the wheels turning..
Just another favour for Bridgebase Online..and happy to do it.

Camrose Weekend and DON playing

Tonight Friday we have the start of the Camrose Trophy. Teams from England Scotland Wales along with 3 teams from Ireland will contest the event.

http://www.bridgegreatbritain.org/

http://www.livebridge.net/bbo/wbf/team.php?event=1035&cat=OPEN&team=IRELAND


Information can be found at the above links .

On paper the two main contenders should be IRELAND (CBAI) and ENGLAND but the whole event is going to be measured by how the NORTHERN IRELAND teams shape up after their initial heads up tonight.

The IRELAND team is proven at European level and field professional bridge and poker player Thomas Hanlon among their roster. However in a recent 96 board training session held at the Regent Bridge Club in Dublin with Jason Hackett and Thomas Paske as the invited filler ins ...it was Rory Boland and Mark Moran who led the standings. Grainne Barton is the NPC and she sttempts to keep this gang in line.

The Northern Ireland teams seem to be a little disrupted as the original 2nd place trialists are missing due to illness, Thats Robert Plunkett and Paul Tranmer. I don't know all the details but the original reserve pairing also appear to be missing. Also the decent pairing of Murchan and Burns did not appear to enter the trials. However this information is just gleaned from reading the NIBU website as opposed to talking to anyone.
Northern Ireland is as ever backboned by the ironman pairing of David Greenwood and Rex Anderson who most people would deem to be the class pairing of NIBU bridge for many years.
They have other strong partnerships but these other pairs seldom operate beyond the Camrose and to the best of my knowledge don't put in the training time required to compete at the levels of ENGLAND and IRELAND teams. The problem for most Northern Ireland pairs is the Camrose is a step up in class from their normal levels of play so they are under pressure from the off.

One item sticks in my memory from a conversation with John Matherson after last years Camrose.
A Northern Ireland player showed him the AQ of clubs over his KJ in dummy during the play and this took the pressure off and allowed John a cold line to his game contract.
In the heel of the hunt it did not matter as the trump queen finesse was working and the contract always made. However sometimes it is not about that one sees but the big picture is different.
However John did not know he was cold at the time.

SCOTLAND AND WALES both field very experienced CAMROSE teams
Scotland with youth and experience and Sime
Wales look very experienced with multiple Camrose caps among their squad.

Stamina plays a large part in bridge these days so one wonders about match fitness when looking at the amount of grey hair on show in the Team pictures.

I will be attending the Final weekend in Northern Ireland to help out with vugraph.

So 1900 hours on BBO it all kicks off ..

.........................................
www.bridge-now.com is the place to play bridge these days. No sign of the magical BJ O'Brien entering the site yet. Declan the Don player continues to improve after posting a 52% session this week. Shane the poker player is playing less and remaining below the radar but he was looking over my shoulder last night and still maintains a strong interest in the game.

Myself and Declan the Don player played a few games of DON on Wednesday night against Jimmy the Donplayer and Declan the Trustee. DON is a similar game to bridge except 9s and 5s are the important cards. Trick taking and cardplay is the same as bridge.
However on one occasion spades were trumps and I knew Declan the Don player had some and he had no hearts. Declan the trustee who does not know any bridge made the error of leading out a Heart and with Eamon and Declan the Don player both off hearts ...Eamon was able to drop a 9 and Declan was able to scoop in the trick. Jimmy the Don player not knowing Declan the trustee had suicided him attempted to cross the small DON but Declan stemped on it with the BIG DON.

In bridge this would be termed a ruff and discard play.

Declan the Trustee prides himself as a top class card player and wins money most weeks in the local poker derbies. However he is outclassed in the world of DON by painters and decorators who spent their youth playing DON at lunch breaks and if they played badly they got the dirty jobs in the afternoon.

So myself and Declan the Don player won 2 euro each for the 2 games of DON

Last night Declan the Don player informed me that I missed out on the Xmas DON action as Stephens Day DON was 5 euro a corner. Apparently Declan the Trustee got thrashed again.

Thanks
Eamon Galligan