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Railway Union Bridge Club Newsletter Spring 2024           

Our Bridge year is in full swing with more exciting events planned over the next few months as listed on the Club Calendar.

 

Spring Bridge 

We continue to play regular Club Pairs Bridge on Mondays at 7:30pm during the Spring. Please be seated by 7:15.

We will continue with 2 sections provided there are sufficient numbers. Experienced members are encouraged to play in the Relaxed Section occasionally so that we can help new members integrate. 

 

Bar Opening

The Railway Union Bar will be open after major competitions. Dates to be confirmed.

 

Thursday Bridge

Thursday Morning Bridge is played in the main hall. This is a more relaxed bridge session with tea and coffee provided, bring your own cup. Check in by 9.45 and pay by credit card. Guests are welcome.

 

Need to find a partner?

Use the 'RUBC Social' WhatsApp group or ask any committee member for suggestions.

 

The calendar section has details of competitions until June 2024.

Any questions: Email railwayunionbridge@gmail.com or ask any committee member on Mondays or Thursdays

 

 

Results
Thursday morning 14th March
Charity Night
Thursday Sims
CBAI Sims
Calendar
14th Mar 2024
Thursday Morning Pairs
Register by 9.45 and pay by credit card
18th Mar 2024
Public Holiday - No Bridge
Register by 19:15 and pay by credit card.
21st Mar 2024
Thursday Morning Pairs
Register by 9.45 and pay by credit card
News 2015/2016
Banker's Bridge Congress
Banker's Bridge Congress

The Annual Banker's Congress is taking place this week and started with Intermediate A and B Pairs and Intermediate Teams on the first weekend.

Derick Mulvey had a great weekend where he retained  the Intermediate B Pairs title playing with Marie James(Regent Academy) and then the following day, again playing with Marie and accompanied by Colette Stokes and Sue Power winning the Intermediate B Teams, with a 3rd place finish in the overall Inter Teams Competition! Congratulations Derick and girls, doing us proud!!

The girls were back in action on Tuesday night playing in the Ladies pairs and Colette and Sue had another great performance winning the Intermediate prize and finishing 10th overall amongst a very strong field of Master and Intermediate players, they are certainly having a very sucessful few weeks of bridge competitions!!

Well done to all those who participated and although they were not as successful this time, it is great experience! Good luck to everyone playing in the Banker's Congress later in the week in Mixed Pairs, Beginner's/Novice Pairs and Congress Pairs/Teams next weekend! There is a competition for everyone and it is good to support this local congress.

Kay Downe's Trophy

A big congratulations to Bob Nielson and his partner Kerri Nolan (Regent Academy) who won the Kay Downes Trophy last weekend. This is the Dublin South Novice Pairs Championship!

Novice and Intermediate Congress
Novice and Intermediate Congress

Huge congratulations to Sue and Colette who won the Intermediate B Pairs this weekend at the Novice and Intermediate Congress which took place in Killiney.

They won the Kervick Trophy with a great score of 66.12% in a big field of 40 pairs! 

Well done to everyone who participated in the Inter B Pairs, Inter A Pairs and Intermediate Teams over the weekend! All the competitions were very tough so it was satisfying to see some winners from Railway! Well done girls!

Burke and O'Connor Trophy Competitions

Best of luck to Niamh Harty, Colette Stokes and Sue Power this weekend as they compete in the O Connor trophy, an IBU Inter-County Intermediate Teams competition, they qualified from Dublin South in September by finishing 3rd in the Paul O' Reilly Cup!

Dermot O'Brien is also playing this weekend in the Burke Trophy , the IBU inter county Master's Team Competition, his team having won the Seamus Dowling Trophy earlier in the year to qualify!

Both competitions are taking place in Citywest over 3 sessions on Sat 13th and Sunday 14th, hope it goes well!

Congratulations Kieran
Congratulations Kieran

Novice to Master bridge player in 5 years!

Congratulations to Kieran Crowley on his recent promotion to Area Master grade by the CBAI.

Kieran started bridge lessons here in Railway Union in January 2010, in the first set of beginners lessons run by Dermot O Brien and continued to play in the club when it was established in 2011. He competed very successfully at Novice, Inter B and Inter A level in Congresses, Regional and National competitions. Also representing Leinster (and winning) at Interprovincials last year, through all these competitions Kieran gained 10 National Masterpoints which upgrades him to the grade of area master. This is an achievement to be proud of and we are delighted that Kieran continues to be a member of Railway Union Bridge Club and plays regularly in the club!

Pictured above is President of the club Marianne Gorman congratulating Kieran who is showing off his new CBAI card!!

Railway Teams Competition

Our annual Railway Union Teams Competition concluded on Monday 18th January and the leaders from the first session managed to hang on to their lead to successfully retain the trophy that they had won the previous year! There was a fabulous entry of 14 teams and very positive feedback indicates that it was enjoyed by all. John Royds did a great job running both sessions.

The winning team was Caroline Crowley, Cassandra Byrne, Fiona O' Gorman and Ruth Maher. Caroline has now been on the winning team 3 years in a row, so tip for next year is to make sure you're on the same team as Caroline!!

In 2nd place was the team of Niamh Harty, Kevin O'Toole, Maeve Flanagan and Mary Seaver, while 3rd place was won by Mary Burke, Mary Lynn, Marianne Gorman/Kieran Crowley and Julie Rowan/Pat Hickey. A separate prize was also awarded to the Best Inter B team - Colette Stokes, Sue Power, Derick Mulvey and Bob Neilson.

Congratulations to all! 

 

1st Place Fiona Caro Cass Ruth
2nd Place Niamh Kevin Maeve Mary
3rd Marianne Kieran MaryB Pat MaryL
Best B Derick Bob Sue Colette
Move "mouse" over thumbnail to change

Move Mouse over thumbnail to change picture
4 Fun Teams Qualifier

The last of the Dublin South 4 Fun Teams qualifiers took place in the Regent Bridge Club and again there was a good turn out of Railway Bridge Club with members playing on six of the ten teams participating!

Congratulations to Derick Mulvey who was on the winning team and Gareth Simpson, Ruth Maher and Niamh Harty who were all on the team coming 2nd! Also congratulations to Colette Stokes who qualified from the Miltown qualifier.

They have all qualified for the National 4 Fun Teams, which takes place in May, best of luck!

Dublin South Regional Teams

♠️♥️♣️♦️

Dublin South Regional teams competitions took place on Sat Jan 9th and some of the Railway members were successful in the BJ O' Brien Cup which is the team competition for Intermediate A players.

Niamh Harty, Maeve Flanagan, Mary Seaver and their team-mate Peter Caplan (Bankers) were 2nd in Intermediate A Teams and are hopeful that they have secured qualification to National Teams in Athlone in April. Well done girls (and Peter, of course!)

Christmas Party
  • Avril
  • Avril Martin Annette
  • Avril norma
  • Caro
  • Cass
  • Cathie
  • Dermot
  • Elaine
  • Eoin2
  • Eoin
  • FionaJass
  • FionaPM
  • MartinQwinners
  • MaryBurke
  • Maryjulie
  • MaryS
  • MeaveOK
  • Niamh
  • Noreen Fiona
  • Orla ide sharon
  • Rita
  • Sue
  • Troupe
  • Una
  • Unapauline

Christmas Party Night* 

 

We hope everyone enjoyed the Christmas Party especially all the beginners from the bridge classes who joined us for the night! Lovely mince pies and mulled wine were provided by our social committee (Gillian, Rachel, Sharon and Nicola) and Sue did some great bridge themed decorations and photo frame. A big thank you to Jass for being photographer on the night and taking some fantastic pics! And of course Massive thanks to Owen, Una, Pauline and Avril accompanied by Louise for such wonderful entertainment, we are all still laughing! It was a night to remember...

Turkey Competition

 Congratulations to the winner of the Turkey Competition Roisin Quigley, very well done!

This year's Turkey competition was an individual competition where everyone played with 24 different partners in the one night. This was our first individual competition in the club and it was great fun and very sociable!

Quite a challenge to organise but very well run, as usual, by John Royds. Thank you John.

Congress News

Dublin Summer Congress took place in Citywest Hotel over the August Bank Holiday weekend and there were a few Railway Union participants. Congratulations to Anna Murphy who with her partner from Regent Academy were 3rd in the Intermediate Pairs .Also Congrats to Colette Stokes and Sue Power along with their Regent Academy team-mates were 2 nd in the Intermediate B Teams.

More recently the Bray Congress took place last weekend and again Congratulations to Colette Stokes, Sue Power and Niamh Harty( with team mate Seamus Bradley) who won the best Intermediate A2 prize in the Intermediate Teams Competition! Well done to all who participated over the weekend, lots of practice for the new bridge season!!

Summer Party 2016
  • Caroline Ide & Maeve
  • Dermot Owen
  • Gillian Mary Nicola Rachel
  • Jass & Elaine
  • Julie & Colette
  • Martin & Pat
  • MaryB Fiona Kevin MaryS
  • Nick
  • Patsy catriona
  • Rita Orla Caroline

Summer Party Nights! smiley

A fantastic night was had on Friday 17th June at our Annual Summer Party!

There was near full house attendance on the night, where a little bit of bridge was played, followed by a drinks reception, and then a beautiful buffet meal where plenty more wine was consumed! The traditional prizegiving then took place, where the winners of the major competition nights during the year - from the Burke Trophy and Presidents Prize Winners, to Teams Winners - all get a big shout out!  Unfortunately our President, Marianne, could not attend on the night - so all the awards were presented by our incoming President, Fiona O'Gorman, assisted by Colette, who did a very good job indeed.

A HUGE THANK YOU you goes to our Social Committee - Rachel, Gillian and Nicola - who organised the whole evening, the food and wine reception, and had everything well under control. Another huge thank you to Nick Frewin for his adorable little knitted shell creatures - and one for everybody in the audience! We look forward to seeing what Nick produces next. And thanks to Fiona who acted as Tournament Director and spare partner on the night, ensuring eveybody else got to play bridge.

We look forward to the next season of Bridge - and our next Bridge party!

Enjoy the Summer smiley

 

Player of the Year

Congratulations to Mary Seaver who won Player of the year for 2016.Mary was was presented with the player of the year Salver at the Summer Party and paid tribute to our bridge teacher Dermot O' Brien in her acceptance speech! The trophy is awarded to the player in the club who wins the most Masterpoints in the club competitions during the bridge season and Mary won a whopping 1091, Well done Mary!

other prizes presented on the night were:

Best Intermediate B Player:- Collette Stokes

Novice Player of the year:- Bob Nielson

Most Improved Player:- Sue Power

Most Slams Bid and made:- Fiona O' Gorman

Most dedicated Club member:- Ailis Kennedy

It was a very enjoyable night with fabulous food provided by caterer Cathy Addis, knitted sea creatures provided by Nick Frewin and all organised by our great social committee, Gillian, Rachael and Nicola!

 

4Fun Teams

Best of luck to all our members playing in the 4 Fun teams competition this Saturday. They are Colette Stokes, Niamh Harty, Derick Mulvey, Rachel Connellan, Anne Kelly and Sue Power! They are all playing on different teams so hopefully one of them will be successful!

I'm delighted to report that Derick Mulvey was on the team coming 2nd, a great result in a competition of 53 teams representing almost every county in Ireland!

Irish Bridge Union Club Pairs Final
Irish Bridge Union Club Pairs Final

Congratulations to Marianne Gorman and Mary Burke who represented Railway Union at the IBU Club Pairs in Templegoue last Saturday and won the Best Inter B2 prize - and placed 4th Overall! 

Well Done ladies!

Some other members were also playing, having qualified from the Regent Academy and we congratulate them also! Colette stokes and Sue Power had a great 2nd session and finished in 2nd place overall and Derick Mulvey and his partner won the 1st session prize, so a very successful day for our Intermediate B players!

Over in the Master/ Inter A pairs competition Railway Union were represented by Fiona O' Gorman & Caroline Crowley and Mary Seaver & Maeve Flanagan. Niamh Harty also played representing the Regent Academy. They played 3 very tough sessions and weren't amongst the prize winners this time but gained valuable experience in their first year playing as Intermediate A players!

Presidents Prize
Presidents Prize

There was a good turn out of 23 pairs for the President's Prize night and it was a very enjoyable night's bridge with John Royds at the helm as tournament director. A big thank you to our President Marianne Gorman for lots of lovely prizes!

Congratulations to the winners Joyce Walsh and Margaret Sheridan who won with 66.59%, well done ladies! 

Other prize winners were;

2nd Walter Mc Nicholas and Kevin O'Toole

3rd Rita Lequerica and Patricia Harrington

4th Colette Stokes and Sue Power

5th Mary Seaver and Maeve Flanagan

6th Mary Aird and Niamh Harty

 

 

Fanagan League Grand Finale

Sunday May 8 th was Fanagan League Grand Finale night and no less than 5 Railway teams headed to Templelogue in grand style by luxury coach, thanks to Caroline for organising, we certainly know how to make an entrance!! 

Unfortunatly none of the teams were in contention for the top spot in their respective divisions but our Inter B team captained by Ide Gavin and consisting of Ide, Orla, Colette and Sue managed to finish in joint 2 nd place in their division, well done girls!

All of the teams represented our club very well and we look forward to participating in this very enjoyable league again next year, hopefully with more successes!

National Teams Final

The National Teams Finals took place on April 23rd and 24th in Athlone and Railway Union members Niamh Harty, Mary Seaver and Maeve Flanagan competed in the Inter A Teams Final and Colette Stokes and Sue Power competed in the Inter B Teams finals having qualified from the Dublin South Region. Derick Mulvey also played on a team from the Eastern Region. Competition was very tough and they all battled it out over 3 sessions with Colette and Sue's team finishing in 6 th position in the Inter B Final, a good performance!!

John Burke Cup
John Burke Cup

Congratulations to Orla Staunton and Roisin Quigley on winning the John Burke Cup 2016. Orla and Roisin are pictured receiving the cup from Mary Burke, who presented the cup to the club in memory of her father.This is the fourth year this competition has been held and this year was very popular with 21 pairs competing. It is always a draw for partners and Orla and Roisin proved a winning partnership. The other prize winners were ; 

2nd Fiona O'Gorman and Bernie O'Donnell

3rd Ide Gavin and Walter Mc Nicholas

4th Nick Frewin and Bob Nielson

5th Ailis Kennedy and Mary Kane

6th Sue Power and Ruth Maher

As always,John Royds did a great job as tournament director!

National Pairs

 

Well done to our members who represented Dublin South in the National Pairs Final in Athlone on March 19th/20th.

Kieran Crowley competed in the Laird Cup, the National Intermediate A Final with his partner Kate Daultry(Banker's) and they did very well winning the 1st session prize and finished in 11th place.

Colette Stokes and Sue Power were competing in the Civil Service Cup, the National Intermediate B Final and also did very well finishing in 12th position.

Well done, all of you, it's great to see some of our club members competing in National Finals!

Easter Egg Competition 2016
Easter Egg Competition 2016

Congratulations to this year's winner of the Easter Egg Competition Anne Kelly who held her nerve through 20 different partners to emerge on top, quite a feat!

As usual John Royds did a fabulous job of keeping us on the straight and narrow, being unflappable despite lap top malfunctions that I'm sure you were all unaware of such is his expertise, Thank you John!

Adding to our Easter Festive theme this year were the cute Easter chicks knitted by one of our newest members Nick Frewin, so talented and generous with his time and a very welcome addition to our club. Thank you Nick for bringing a smile to everyone's face🐣

Regional Pairs

Congratulations to Kieran Crowley and his partner Kate Daultry (Bankers) on coming 3rd in the recent Dublin South Regional Inter A pairs. They have qualified for the National Inter A Pairs, Laird Cup, which takes place in Athlone in March 2016, best of luck to them both!

Also well done to Caroline Crowley and Fiona O'Gorman who were 6th in the same competition and won the best A2 prize.

4 Fun Teams Qualifier

A great number of our members were playing in the 4 Fun Teams qualifier on Monday 23rd in Milltown, with each team made up of a novice playing with a master and an inter A playing with an Inter B.

There were Railway members on 9 of the 18 teams playing and it was a very enjoyable night. It was played as 3 separate sections with 1 team qualifying from each section.

Congratulations to Colette Stokes who was on one of the winning teams and has  qualified  for National 4 Fun teams in May 2016.

Mary Seaver, Anne Kelly and Derick Mulvey were on teams who came 2nd.

Maura Mc Kenna, Freda Mc Grath, Ruth Maher, Fiona O Gorman, Dermot O Brien and Grainne Flannelly were all on teams coming 3rd.

I'd highly reccomend this fun competition and there is another qualifier coming up on Jan 15th in the Regent Bridge Club just let Dermot know if you'd like to play.

Congress Winners
Congress Winners

Congratulations to Colette Stokes and Sue Power on winning the recent Intermediate B Pairs Championshionship in Dundalk at the East Of Ireland Congress. They won a beautiful Cup called the PJ Carroll Cup. Well deserved!!

Also at the same congress some of our newest members saw sucess, with Derick Mulvey and his partner Marie James (Regent Academy) coming 2nd in the Inter B Pairs and Bob Neilson and Gareth Simpson coming 2nd in the Novice pairs. Well done guys! 

They repeated this feat in Kilkenny congress also, with Derick Mulvey and Marie James (Regent Academy) coming 2nd in the B pairs and Bob Neilson and Gareth Simpson finishing 2nd in the Novice pairs, Well done again!