Ireland has advanced to the knock-out stages of the open championship at the World Bridge Games in Buenos Aires. Mark Moran, John Carroll, Nick FitzGibbon, Adam Mesbur, Tom Hanlon and Conor Boland, captained by Gráinne Barton, rounded off a successful qualifying series with a convincing win over the US to finish fifth in their group, with the leading eight going through to knock-out matches.
Hovering around the qualifying mark from the start, they had earlier virtually ensured a place in the latter stages with emphatic wins against fellow qualifiers Romania and Netherlands. Sweden headed Ireland’s group; China topped group B; Poland led the women’s and mixed tournaments; the US led the senior qualifiers. Ireland drew Poland in the round of 16.
Neither the Irish women’s nor mixed teams got through to the later stages of their respective competitions. The mixed side had four consecutive wins on Friday, including defeats of England and France but the momentum did not continue. The World Bridge Organisation demonstrated its determination to eliminate any possibility of cheating when it expelled three teams from the championships for breaches of regulations governing use of mobile phones in the playing area.
Board-a-match, transnational teams and open, women’s, senior and mixed pairs championships are being contested this week. The championships will end on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the unexpected death has occurred of Sam Hall, one of Northern Ireland’s leading players. A frequent winner of northern championships, he also won events in the South as well as All-Ireland tournaments and played for Northern Ireland in home-international championships.
In June this year he represented Ireland in the European senior championships in Denmark and was to have taken part in the World Bridge Games now in progress in Argentina, but the team withdrew. A former chairman of the NIBU, he is survived by his wife Elizabeth, a son and two daughters.
Elsewhere, Donegal congress will take place at the Abbey and Central hotels from Friday to Sunday next. The main pairs’ competitions will begin on Friday evening and continue on Saturday afternoon while the team tournaments will be contested on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. The full programme may be found on fob.ie. Entries may be made via cbai.ie.
The Irish Bridge Union’s simultaneous pairs’ competitions will take place next week, November 4th to 8th, when competitors will play the same set of computer-generated deals in clubs throughout the country each evening.