As always, the 2024 Interprovincial Championships were keenly fought and played in excellent spirit.  After a demanding weekend, the honours across the three tournaments were shared by three provinces!

Our congratulations go to all the winning teams and, indeed, to all the players for making the competition the enjoyable festival of bridge that it has always provided.

Our champions in each class are shown below, and the full results can be found here.

Open Champions: Leinster Standing: Peter Pigot, Matthew O'Farrell, Conor Boland, Gordon Lessells (IBU), Padhraig O'Briain, Micheal O'Briain, Siobhan Part, Terry Walsh. Seated: BJ O'Brien, Peter Goodman, Moya Murphy (President, Dublin South Region), Teresa Rigney, David Dunne, Paul Delaney.

Regional/Area Master Champions and winners of the Fearghal O'Boyle Trophy: Munster Standing: Geoff Roberts, Brian Madden, Joe Carroll, Gordon Lessells (IBU), Gerry McCague, Sean Mulvaney and Neil Breheny. Seated: Margaret Cunningham, Verna Brownlow, Margaret Holmes, Eugene Gath, Ronnie O'Shaughnessy and Rosaleen Glasheen.

Intermediate Champions: Ulster Standing: Geraldine McNamee, John Forsythe, George Harper, Lesley Ager, Liz Thomas, Gordon Lessells (IBU), Melissa Brady, Mary Maguire, Michael Coffey (NPC) Seated: Judy Young, Mary Flynn, Michael McNamee, Anna Shalvey, Kathleen McCabe.

It has been an exciting ten days for the Irish teams at the World Bridge Games!  Representing us were:

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

Congratulations in particular to our Open team, which has made it through the knock-out phase (concluding with a strong win over the leading US team in their group!).  In a nail-biting finish against a tough Polish team, their late charge was not quite enough to pull ahead and they were pipped 83-80 IMPs.

Thanks to all who watched and supported the teams throughout the tournament and those who contributed to the fund-raising activity - and in particular to the many players who sent messages of support throughout the Games.

>>> Link to Results <<<

At the IBU Annual Meeting in CityNorth Hotel, Gormanstown, Co. Meath on Monday, 19th August 2024, Heather Hill of NIBU was installed as IBU President.

Heather is pictured here after receiving the chain of office from the outgoing President, Peter O'Meara.

Everyone at IBU wishes President Heather every good fortune for the year, and we thank Peter O'Meara for his dedication and commitment over the last year.

The European Championships in Herning, Denmark, have now concluded, and unfortunately none of our four teams featured in their competitions. Best placed was the Open Team, which recovered from a sluggish start to end up mid-table. It was a tough week (or week-plus in the case of the Open Team) of competition, with a very high standard in all four events, and requiring the highest levels of concentration. We had several debutants and players inexperienced at this level, who will all have benefitted from the championship. Full results here.

The best of luck to the four teams representing Ireland at the 56th European Championships, in Herning, Denmark. The Open competition starts on Monday 24 June, and the Women’s, Seniors’, and Mixed competitions on Friday 28 June. Our teams are:

• Open: John Carroll, Mark Moran, Tom Hanlon, Conor Boland, Adam Mesbur, Nick FitzGibbon, NPC Gráinne Barton
• Women: Joan Kenny, Jeannie Fitzgerald, Louise Mitchell, Lucy Phelan, Teresa Rigney, Siobhan Part, NPC Paul Porteous
• Senior: Hastings Campbell, Sam Hall, Ian Lindsay, Ian Hamilton, Terry Walsh, BJ O’Brien, NPC Harold Curran
• Mixed: Sandra Newell, Claudiu Dima, Michelle Moloney, Marcin Rudzinski, Anna Onishuk, Karel De Raeymaeker, NPC Diarmuid Reddan

You’ll be able to keep track of the results here, and we would expect all teams to feature on the Vugraph facility at some stage during the championships. Please give all our teams your full support for what will be a very demanding week of top-level bridge (eleven days for the Open team).  Further updates may appear on the CBAI website during the tournament.

While our attention will shortly shift to the European Championships in Herning, Denmark, the final event of the IBU calendar - the Egan Trophy (national invitational club teams) - was contested at La Mon Hotel on 25th/26th May.

With a strong field of 10 teams and a round-robin format, a good contest was expected; and our congratulations go to the worthy winners - John Carroll, Conor Boland, Adam Mesbur and Nick Fitzgibbon.  No photos on this occasion, but readers will not have to spend long looking through the IBU website to find images of these four players!

Thanks to IBU Secretary Harold Curran and IBU Treasurer Anne Fitzpatrick for organising the event and to Alan Hill as the ever-efficient director.  Full results can be found on fob >here<.

Well done to the committed pairs who played in the IBU Club Pairs on Saturday, 11th May 2024 - forgoing a beautiful sunny day for two challenging sessions at the bridge table!  As always, competition was strong with leader-boards changing constantly throughout the day: so the champions can feel truly proud of their achievements.

Congratulations to the winners of the Master Pairs, pictured with Martin Brady, CBAI Vice-President and IBU Council member.

1. Deirdre Tuckey and Seamus Costello
2. Anne Keating and Frances Kelly
3. Kevin O'Dea and Liam Maher

and to the Intermediate Pairs winners:

1. Emer O'Flaherty and Russell Down
2. Joan Peppard and Tom Roche
3. Paul Clinch and John Coulter

We are, as always, grateful to Fearghal O'Boyle and Mairead Basquille for an immaculately-run tournament, and to the Templeogue Bridge Centre for accommodating the competition at a particularly busy time of year.

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  2024SC Pairs 1st Session
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  2024SC Pairs 2nd
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  2024SC Pairs 2nd Session
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  2024SC Pairs 3rd
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  2024SC Pairs 4th
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  2024SC Pairs Best Inter
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  2024SC Teams 2nd
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  2024SC Teams 3rd
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  2024SC Wednesday evening open pairs

Many thanks for all who joined us at the annual IBU Senior Congress in the Cavan Crystal Hotel from Tuesday to Thursday 16th-18th April.  With the busy playing room packed to capacity on Wednesday evening, it was fantastic to see the enthusiasm of the players and the good spirit in which all the competitions were played!  Special thanks to those who travelled distances to join us, including a group playing at a congress for the first time - and hopefully the first of many!

We have new names among the winners of the main events this year - though none are strangers to the winners circle in the wider world.  Some of our prizewinners are pictured above; special congratulations go to our main competition winners, pictured below with IBU President Peter O'Meara: 

• Gala Pairs winners - Phil Geoghegan and James Newman
• Congress Pairs winners (Pat McDevitt Trophy) - Kevin O'Dea and Liam Maher
• Congress Teams winners - Dolores Gilliland, Peter Stewart, Kevin O'Dea and Liam Maher

It was a particular pleasure to have Pat McDevitt with us to present the trophy to the Congress Pairs winners, and well done to Kevin and Liam on their double triumph.

Our thanks as always to Fearghal, Mairead and Peter for a fabulously organised tournament and also to Aileen Timoney for her hard work on the ground ensuring everything was perfect at the venue.  Full results can be found here.

The Moylan Cup (All-Ireland National Pairs Championship was held over the weekend in the Malahide Bridge Centre, with a full contingent of 40 pairs competing. The prize winners, pictured with IBU Vice-President Heather Hill, were:

• 1. Thomas MacCormac & Jade Barrett
• 2. Tom Hanlon & John Carroll
• 3. Anna Onishuk & Karel De Raeymaeker

• 4. Siobhan Part & Teresa Rigney
• Session 1 Liam Gaynor & David Redmond
• Session 2 Terry Walsh & Peter Goodman
• Session 3 Bill O’Hanlon & Tony Ward

Well done to all concerned, thanks to Malahide for hosting, and to Eamon Galligan for directing. Board-by-board results can be viewed on the CBAI website.. 

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  2024 Burke Winners
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  2024 Burke 2nd place
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  2024 Burke 3rd place
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  2024 OConnor Winners
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  2024 OConnor 2nd place
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  2024 OConnor 3rd place

Well done to all of the 30 teams that participated in the Intercounty teams championships this weekend at the Cavan Crystal Hotel.  Both contests, which were run on a round-robin basis, were keenly contested throughout and the results remained in doubt until the final round was complete.  

Congratulations to the winners of the Burke Intercounty Open Teams from Dublin of David Dunne, Martin Brady, Paul Delaney and Tomas Roche.  A second Dublin team of Matthew O'Farrell, Luca Crone, Teresa Rigney and BJ O'Brien squeaked home in second ahead of the Donegal team of Denis Ellis, Connell McLoone and Sandra and John McGinley.

The O'Connor Intercounty Intermediate Teams was also a tight affair with the top two teams exchanging the lead regularly.  Ultimately victory went to the Meath team of Dara Voyles, Nicola O'Dowd, Sandra Peden and Linda Walsh from the Dublin squad of Vicky Pigot, Paul Clinch, Mia Delaney and Jeremy James.  All those present were also delighted to see a home team from Cavan in the prizes, with Kathleen Gibbons, Mary Mulvey, Frances Daly and Simon John Ridley coming in third place.

Our thanks as always goes to our directors, Fearghal O'Boyle and Huey Daly, for an efficient and smoothly-run tournament; to Aileen Timoney for all her work organising the event and the bridge clubs in Cavan for their support throughout.  We look forward to our next visit for the Seniors Congress from 16th-18th April.

This European Bridge League online training program gives female players the option to step up their game, increase their Bridge self-confidence and allow them to participate in higher level competitions in Ireland and in the international Bridge arena. It's free of charge.

The first session of 2024 will take place on Wednesday, 13th of March. In this session we will have the pleasure of hosting Giorgia Botta, an Italian professional Bridge player and teacher.  More information on this seminar and on Women's Bridge can be found here: http://womenbridge.org. Please note that the registration to the training program is done via Women's Coordinator Joan Kenny, who can be contacted using This Link.