There was a LOT of bridge over the weekend, so we have plenty to report.
Firstly, many congratulations to the North Munster Committee, particularly Willie Corby, Tom Hardiman, and of course CBAI President Gordon Lessells, on running an excellent, and well-attended, Novice & Intermediate Congress in Ballykisteen, Co Tipperary. This is an important event in our calendar, in that it marks the first time “playing out” for many of the participants, so it was great to see the numbers increase substantially from last season – hopefully another significant step in the national recovery from the covid hiatus. Thanks also to TD Eamon Galligan for ensuring the event went smoothly. The prizewinners in the various categories were:
- Mixed Pairs (Jim Fitzgerald Trophy): Mary Madigan & Mossy Stack
- Intermediate A Pairs (New Ireland Trophy): 1st Melissa Brady & Anna Shalvey; 2nd Mary Bourke & John Bourke; 3rd Margaret Hogg & Dympna Ryan
- Intermediate B Pairs (Kervick Trophy): 1st Kevin O’Dwyer & Sean Houston; 2nd Pauline Duggan & Monica Ahern; 3rd Sheila Harvey & Ann Lynn
- Novice Pairs (Waterford Crystal Trophy): 1st Louise McKenna & Fionnuala Burke; 2nd Maeve Ryan & Mairead Daly; 3rd Frances O’Brien & Breda McCormack
- Intermediate & Novice Teams (JJ Kiely Trophy): 1st Margaret McCarthy, Maureen Culloty, John Bourke, Mary Bourke; 2nd Niamh Feeney, Joanne Macken, Nicola O’Dowd, Ena Souhan; 3rd Mary Power, Anne Darmody, Deirdre Ormond, Ann O’Reilly; Best B Team Fionnuala Burke, Joan Butler, Louise McKenna, Caroline Mahon
- Gala Pairs: Margaret Hogg & Dympna Ryan
- Full Results (all competitions)
Novice & Intermediate Congress 2024
New Ireland Trophy Winners 2024
Kervick Trophy Winners 2024
JJ Kiely Trophy Winners 2024
Waterford Crystal Trophy Winners 2024
Secondly, our juniors did us proud in the home international championships, without quite managing to win the main prize. Our Under-26 team (Luca Crone, Matthew O’Farrell, Denise Walsh, Leah Finnegan, Sheila Walsh, NPC John Phelan) won seven of the their ten matches, including inflicting one of only two defeats on the victorious English team, and finished comfortably in second place in the Junior Camrose. A special word for Matthew O’Farrell and Luca Crone who came second in a Butler rankings otherwise dominated by English players. Our Peggy Bayer team (Under-21s, Klara Flanagan, Eve Connell, Isabel Burke, Tom Gorey, David Hoyne, Ben Orocz, NPC Margaret Murphy) went one better, winning eight of their ten matches (no less than five of them by a 20-0 margin), but couldn’t keep pace with a dominant England team that won all their matches. Once again Ireland finished comfortably in second place, and the best individual performer was debutant Ben Orocz, who ranked fifth in the Butlers. The majority of the juniors will remain eligible for the next few seasons, so they will have further chances to bring home the trophy, but they can be very proud of their performances over the weekend. You’ll find the full results here.
Peggy Bayer Team 2024
Very well done to the WBF Women’s Committee, spearheaded by our own Mary Kelly-Rogers, and the RealBridge team, for running the inaugural WBF Online Women’s Teams Championships, which attracted a full entry of 64 teams from all over the world, including four from Ireland. The winners were Team Seabass from the USA (Sylvia Shi, Jill Meyers, Kerri Sanborn, Susan Zhang), while the leading Irish team, in nineteenth place, was Joan Kenny, Jeannie Fitzgerald, Teresa Rigney, Siobhan Part, Louise Mitchell, Lucy Phelan, Hilary Dowling-Long, Gilda Pender – all these players, in various combinations, will shortly be representing us in either the Lady Milne Trophy (being hosted by Ireland over the weekend of 20/21 April) and/or the European Championships in Denmark over the summer.
Finally, the four teams that qualified from the first weekend of the IBU MIxed Trials, and will compete in the second round-robin phase over the weekend of 9-10 March to determine Ireland’s representatives for the Mixed Teams at the European Championships and the World Bridge Games were: NOONAN (John Noonan, Carol-Ann Cummins, Zrinka Kokot, Pat McDaid), HAUGH (Mairead Haugh, Justin Corfield, Maureen Pattinson, Bob Pattinson), RUDZINSKI (Marcin Rudzinski, Michelle Moloney, Sandra Newell, Claudiu Dima, Anna Onishuk, Karel De Raeymaeker), and WALSH (Terry Walsh, Brid Kemple, Aoife MacHale, Peter Stewart). Thanks to Brian Lawlor for directing, and good luck to all four teams in the final phase. Weekend 1 Results