A very happy new year to from all at the CBAI. We hope that 2025 for all our members will be safe, healthy, and full of lots of enjoyable bridge. A reminder that our office will re-open at 09:30 on Monday 6 January. Entries for the Teltscher (Senior Camrose) trials will continue to be accepted by email until midnight on Friday 3 January.
There is plenty of bridge to start the new year. We have Waterford Congress (3/5 January in the Tower Hotel), while the Regent Bridge Club will host its annual Wigoder Open Teams on New Year’s Day, and the Cairnduff Open Intermediate Pairs on Sunday 5 January (both over two sessions, with a 13:30 start – all welcome, with pre-entry required, for non-members by email).
The first weekend of the new year also sees our first international engagement of 2025, with our team of Mark Moran, John Carroll, Tom Hanlon, Conor Boland, Adam Mesbur, Nick FitzGibbon, and NPC Grainne Barton, doing battle for us in the first weekend of the Camrose Trophy (the open home international championship), hosted by the Scottish Bridge Union in Prestwick. You’ll find the ongoing results here, a brochure with the schedule and biographies of the participants here, and you will be able to watch the event, with expert commentaries wherever possible, on RealBridge, with a short security delay. Best of luck to the Irish team in trying to win the Camrose for the first time since 2017. The second and concluding weekend will be in Belfast in March (so Northern Ireland is represented by two teams in the competition, one representing Northern Ireland, the other the Northern Ireland Bridge Union).