Many thanks to all the players who played in the fundraising daylong tournaments on both BBO and FunBridge last week, to raise funds to help send the three Irish teams (Open, Women, and Mixed) to the World Bridge Games in Argentina. The playing numbers did not quite meet our most optimistic projections, but they certainly exceeded our most pessimistic ones, and that, combined with a number of generous personal donations, means that we will be able to make meaningful additions to the grants already earmarked for our teams. They will nevertheless still meet a substantial portion of their costs themselves.
On behalf of the IBU Council, its International Committee, and most importantly, the players and non-playing captains themselves, many thanks to all who took the time to play the tournaments, or to contribute a donation. Thanks also to 52 Entertainment, the parent company of both BBO and FunBridge, for keeping its charges to a minimum. We have learned a few lessons from this process: firstly while we tried to give value for money by creating 20-board tournaments, quite a few participants gave us the feedback that 16 boards would have been more than enough! It also would, in hindsight, have been better to avoid the weekend of mixed championships, which probably dampened the participation rates on both Saturday and Sunday, but time was of the essence. A congratulatory bottle of wine is on the way to the daily winners Geoff Roberts, Karel De Raeymaeker, Pat Barry, BJ O’Brien, and Diarmuid Reddan (BBO) and Peter Goodman, Tom Craig, Dermot O’Brien, Sue Power, Keith Woodlock, and David O’Brien (FunBridge). Three of them won more than once, which keeps the prize costs low!
If you weren’t able to play in the tournaments, but would still like to make a contribution to support the teams, the IBU has set up a GoFundMe page (now closed). All donations will be gratefully received and will be passed on to the players on their return.
The World Bridge Games starts on Tuesday 23 October, and you will find all the details, and the ongoing results once the tournament starts, here. As mentioned above, Ireland will be represented by the following three teams:
- OPEN: Mark Moran, John Carroll, Tom Hanlon, Conor Boland, Adam Mesbur, Nick FitzGibbon, NPC Grainne Barton
- WOMEN: Joan Kenny, Jeannie Fitzgerald, Louise Mitchell, Lucy Phelan, Anne Fitzpatrick, Mary Kelly-Rogers, NPC Paul Porteous
- MIXED: Sandra Newell, Claudiu Dima, Michelle Moloney, Marcin Rudzinski, Mairead Haugh, Justin Corfield, NPC John Phelan
The decision was taken not to send a Senior team when it emerged that the majority of the team that represented us in that category in the European Championships in Herning during the summer were unable to travel for various reasons. We’re sure you will join us in wishing all three of our teams the best of luck in Argentina. The standard will be high with lots of top-notch teams in all categories.