The weekend saw several major bridge events. In Altrincham, just outside Manchester, the English teams, as predicted, proved too hard to beat, winning both the Junior Camrose (Under-26) and Peggy Bayer (Under-20) home international titles. The Irish teams finished fourth and third respectively.
In Cork, CBAI President Pat O’Mahony hosted the Novice & Intermediate Congress. The prizewinners were:
- Mixed Pairs (Jim Fitzgerald Trophy) – Tony Fitzgerald & Noreen O’Connell (photo 1 below)
- Intermediate A Pairs (New Ireland Trophy) – Carmel Murphy & Jane Ross (photo 2 below)
- Intermediate B Pairs (Kervick Trophy) – Joanna Gill & Theresa Murphy (photo 3 below)
- Novice Pairs (Waterford Crystal Trophy) – Sandra Garvey & Mary Murphy (photo 4 below)
- Gala Pairs – Catherine Neary & Gay Conroy (photo 5 below)
- Intermediate Teams (JJ Kiely Trophy) – Declan Harte, Margaret McCarthy, John & Mary P Bourke (photo 6 below)
Our thanks to all who attended, and to our Tournament Directors John Phelan and Huey Daly.
Finally, we also had the Bankers Masters Congress in Dublin, a welcome (and perhaps permanent!) return of an old favourite congress to the calendar, with John Royds making sure everything ran smoothly. The winners were:
- Mixed Pairs – Mamie & Thomas MacCormac
- Congress Pairs – Rory Egan & Jason Doyle
- Congress Teams – Paul Delaney, Tomás Roche, David Dunne, Martin Brady