Round 5 of Turkey Draw

Well, there all over, our 5 Xmas Turkey Draws. I do hope you enjoyed them. Before I tell you your weekly Xmas Turkey Tale, let me dazzle you with some statistics.

• 171 Members played in at least one Xmas Turkey Game
• 196 pairs were randomly formed over the 5 games
• 24 was the most tables that we had in any one game on 9th December (hosted by Foxbay/St Anthony’s)
• 56 members won BBO$ prizes.
• We paid out BBO$1,300 in prize money.

And just in case you want to know the full list of prize winners, well here they are:

Let’s do the Xmas Turkey Tale.

We were able to add a 4th prize for this draw and 2 additional spot prizes because we were so nasty and did not give Norman his 2nd turkey last week. I got to play in my 1st Turkey Draw with Mary Smith, Dick’s sister and the bringer of cakes to Kitty’s morning games in Clontarf Cricket Club. I had hoped that Dick might look favourably upon us, but he is a man of high principles and left us to our own devices, but more of that later.

Rita Canavan was another 1st time Turkey Drawer. Before the game I got a call from Rita’s wingman, consigliere and IT consultant Sean to tell me that she was all fired up and ready to go with her partner Gladys Greene and that he planned to retire to watch football in peace and quiet on the telly. And boy were they fired up! They went straight to Table 1 after round 1. There before them were the very strong pairing of Kay McDonald and Maria Callinan. Rita and Gladys were the only pair to bid and make 4 spades on board 7 and that put paid to Kay and Maria’s chances of a turkey. Next up were Helen Scannell and Marie Fleury. A consistent performance on all 4 boards by Rita and Gladys ensured they stayed at the top table where were joined by Brid ui Dhonnchu (another 1st time Turkey Drawer) and Frances Gill (who had already won a turkey and was looking at the possibility of replacing Norman as the Turkey King) for Round 4. This time it was the turn of Brid and Frances to have a consistent performance thereby taking over 1st place and sending Rita and Gladys spiralling down to Table 3. At this stage it really looked like their goose was cooked!

In Round 5, Frances and Brid were joined by Eileen Smyth and Jackie Furey at Table 1 where Frances and Brid continued their consistent performance getting a positive score in all 4 boards bringing them to a total of 49 IMPS with only round 6 to go. This time they were joined by Nigel Hillis and Oliver Hynes who had been having a nice consistent game up to now. They were on a respectable 31 IMPS, a full 18 IMPs behind Brid and Frances. Meanwhile Rita and Gladys were not giving up the goose (I know I am mixing up my Turkeys and Geese, but you know what I mean). They had a very good round 5 against Pat Fitzpatrick and Liam Walls. In particular on board 17 where they made 3NT + 3. Now just to go back to myself and Mary. We had been having an up and down game and at board 17 we were a bit down, so I decided to go for a bit of a “Hail Mary” (This is not a religious connotation, nor is it me hailing Mary from the comfort of my couch, but an American Football expression where you have one shot at winning a game and you go for the “Hail Mary” throw more in hope than expectation of scoring a touchdown – isn’t that all very interesting now!). The bridge version of a “Hail Mary” throw was me bidding 6NT on board 17. Unfortunately, we were playing against Ria Malone and Snipe the Setter’s best friend Juno’s mother Lorraine Maxwell who took no pity whatsoever on us and defeated the contract by 4. There is no justice in the world!

Anyhow back to Rita and Gladys, they had now moved into 3rd place on 27 IMPS, a whole 22 IMPS behind Frances and Brid. Their opponents were Marie O’Keeffe and Angela McKeon. They would need their own “Hail Mary”, if they were to win the turkey (not the goose!). At this stage I imagine that Rita’s consigliere, Sean, had stopped chanting at the football at the television and even switched it off and was standing behind Rita, shouting and clapping “Riitaaa, clap clap, clap”,  “Riitaaa, Ra, Ra, Ra”, which can actually can be quite off putting when you are trying to play bridge. But it must have worked. The 1st “Hail Mary” arrived on board 22, where with 28 points they got to double a vulnerable 1NT, which they defended perfectly and brought down by 3 – 9.5 IMPS thank you. And then came the 2nd “Hail Mary” on the very last board in true American Football fashion. A 4 Diamond bid by Rita with 3 points and 7 diamonds opposite Gladys’s 19 points and a double by Angela McKeon and she with 17 HCP’s and A, J, other Diamond. Rita makes. Another 10.5 IMPS. Sean is really excited now. He is jumping up and down and singing “You will never walk alone”.

On Table 1, the 3rd “Hail Mary” happens. Nigel and Oliver, take 4 IMPS off of Frances and Brid, not enough for them to move to 1st place, but sufficient to let Rita and Gladys with the Turkey, Brid and Frances with the Ham (like Norman, Frances had to give the Ham up for the greater good), and Nigel and Oliver with the Pudding. Due to the generosity of Norman, we also had a box of chocolates (10BBO$’s) to give away, which went to Mary Hynes and Mairin MacDevitt.

The leading 15 pairs were:

We also paid out 12 spot prizes of 10BBO$’s to each of the following players:

• Frankie Lappin
• John Treanor
• Gladys Greene
• Rita Canavan
• Angela McKeon
• Marie O'Keeffe
• Pat Fitzpatrick
• Liam Walls
• Grainne Smith
• Helen Donoghue
• Rona Booth
• Maureen Deane

Thank you to Dick for doing TD even if you didn’t do me any favours. (Mind you he did manage to wangle a spot prize for Frankie Lappin and John Treanor, who he happens to play bridge with the odd time). Thanks also to Orla for managing the web site and to all the TD’s who contacted players before the game to let them know who they were playing with. And finally, thanks to all 171 of you who took part in at least one of our Xmas Turkey Draw games. I hope you have got know each other a little better, and who knows, we may even see you playing together in the future. Have a great Xmas and New Year and remember we have bridge on CAVBC/Foxbay from Monday to Friday over the Xmas and New Year period.

PS Sean give up the aul football, bridge is much more exciting.

PPS I checked with my St Anthony’s correspondent Marian Flood to see if Oliver Hynes (3rd place) and Mary Hynes (4th place) are an item. They are not, so they won’t be sharing their puddings and chocolates with each other.

Round 4 of Xmas Turkey Draw

Well, it’s official. Norman Ludgate is the Turkey King. WhatsApp was down for a while last night under the weight of congratulatory messages from all over the world. OK there was one from Australia from Ann Carroll who moved there on the strength of her win with Norman when he won the first of his turkeys. I don’t know whether you remember or not, but in last year’s Xmas Turkey Draws, Michael O’Keeffe and John Treanor were vying to be the Turkey King, with Michael scraping in just ahead of John (and he has never let him forget it!). The ladies and gents of CAVBC were even offering me brown paper envelopes to see if I could arrange to have them play with Michael or John such was their prowess in hunting down turkeys (I can assure you I did not succumb to such bribery and corruption unlike you know who!). But how fickle are the Bridge Gods. Nobody has been asking me to pair them with Michael or John this year. The King is dead, long live the King. King Norman, that is, who won his 2nd Turkey Draw on Thursday when he was partnered this time by Helen Donoghue. Now Helen has some form in these Turkey Draws as well. In our 1st game in November, when she was partnered by Maria Callinan, they owned Table 1 and were unfortunate to drop to 5th place after the last round. This time, Helen was having none of it and stayed on to win her 1st turkey.

Like all our other Xmas Turkey Draw games, it was somewhat chaotic at first at the first table for a few rounds, with no pair managing to establish themselves at the head of the pack. First up after round 1 were Martha Furlong and Maria Callanan in pole position with Mary Hynes and Anne McCann, close on their heels. While Martha and Maria did enough to stay at table 1, they were overtaken by Snipe the Setter’s best friend Juno the Retriever’s mother Lorraine Maxwell and her partner Ruby Byrne. You should have seen the excitement in the O’Mahony household. The wolfpack gathered around me on the armchair shouting and cheering for Juno2112 (Lorraine’s BBO User Name), thinking they might get a bit of the Turkey if she won. But it was not to be. Lorraine and Ruby stayed in or around the top 3 tables until they were eventually put to the sword by Frances Ryan (another super sub on the day) and Gladys Greene in the last round. The wolf pack were inconsolable.

After round 3 we had a whole new pairing on Table 1 with Helen Scannell and John Keenan facing off against Frankie Lappin and Mary Connell and while Frankie and Mary came out on top, they did not do enough to stave off the next occupants of Table 1. Both these pairs had really good round 4’s which catapulted them to the top table. The pairs were none other than Deirdre Diamond and Eileen Clandillon, who eventually ended up with the ham and our turkey winners Helen and Norman. Eileen hails from Ballydehob and like the excitement around my armchair, it was difficult to contain the excitement in West Cork, with the local newspaper The Southern Star (incorporating the Skibbereen Eagle) tweeting “It is keeping its eye on Eileen”. And it was rewarded for keeping its eye on Eileen, as herself and Deirdre mastered Helen and Norman in this the first of their two encounters. This copper fastened Deirdre and Eileen’s position on table 1, while Helen and Norman dropped to table 4. At this stage Frankie and Mary had returned to table 1. Now the excitement started to mount in the Connell household on the Stiles Road (I know where you live) as not only was Mary at table 1, but husband Mick and his partner Mary Kilbane had arrived at table 2 and thoughts of turkeys, hams and puddings abounded. But Deirdre and Eileen shattered the happiness of the Connell household and sent Frankie and Mary down to table 4. Meanwhile Helen and Norman benefited from the kindness of Ronnie O’Neill and Dick Kiernan and shot back to the top table for their 2nd encounter with Deirdre and Eileen in round 7. This time the tables were well and truly turned with Deirdre and Eileen dropping out of the prizes.

So entering the final round, we had Helen and Norman in 1st place with 46 IMPS and in 2nd place out of nowhere came Clare Woodley and Patricia Quigley on 34 IMPS (actually, they came from table 7 where Phyllis Nolan and David Holland were full of Xmas cheer. On board 19 they played in 5 Diamonds (Vulnerable) Doubled down 3 – 10 IMPS to Clare and Patricia. And then they said, “Ah sure you’ll have another one won’t you, ah go on, go on” and on board 20 off they went into another Vulnerable 5 Diamonds doubled - 3 – 13 IMPS to Clare and Patricia). In 3rd place we had Brid Carter and Louise Byrne on 33 IMPS who were also responsible for denting the excitement in Styles Road, when they took the pudding from Mick and partner Mary Kilbane in round 6. And finally in 4th position we had Deirdre and Eileen on 32 IMPS, still licking their wounds after the beating they took from Helen and Norman. Clare and Patricia were unable to make any inroads in Helen and Norman’s score thus ensuring them of 1st place and the turkey. Deirdre and Eileen bounced back however, overtaking Clare and Patricia, to claim the hams and leaving Clare and Patricia with the puddings. This was a bit of a consolation for Patricia, who had missed out on the pudding by a fingernail in week 2.

The leading 15 pairs were:

We also paid out 6 spot prizes of 10BBO$’s to each of the following players:

• Mick Connell
• Mary Kilbane
• Jean O’Toole
• Ann Kehoe
• Catherine Gilhooly
• Treasa MacManus

Thank you to everybody for taking part and to Kay McDonald and all the CAVBC elves who helped with setting up and running the game. The last of our Xmas Turkey games is on Friday 17th December at 19.30. Registration is open on the CAVBC Website until Thursday 16th December at 18.00. We hope to see you all there.

PS Clare and Patricia are planning to invite David and Phyllis to share their puddings with them!

PPS For the final draw, I will review any brown paper envelopes that I receive containing a begging letter asking to be partnered with Norman!!

Round 3 of Xmas Turkey Draw

When I awoke on the morning of Thurs 2nd Dec, the fog slowly began to clear from my brain. Yes, all my body parts are working, the wolf pack and Brenda the wife are all present and correct and draped across the bed. A wave of relief washes over me, it’s another normal morning just like the day before.

But the day before was not a normal day. Before I left the bed, I had completed the draw for the Xmas Turkey Bridge Game. Unfortunately, my wifi got bamboozled between the bedroom and the modem, so I was forced to leave the bed and wrap myself around the modem so that I could email Orla with the Draw so that she could publish it on CAVBC. Then after my scrumptious unhealthy breakfast, I set up the game on BBO with Aidan and arranged for the CAVBC elves to contact all the pairs and give them each other’s contact details. Then off I went to the park to listen to the birds and chase squirrels until the wolf pack dragged me home. And then the usual calls started coming in to let me know that some people could not play, or that others weren’t sure how to contact their partner. Thanks to Barbara Bunworth, Jerry MacDonogh and Hilary Bates, we were able to seamlessly fill the voids in the draw. So far so normal for a Xmas Turkey Draw Day.

Then all hell broke loose. Brenda the wife dropped the dog’s dinner on Snipe the Setter’s back. Now this was no ordinary dog’s dinner. This was kibbles and tuna and tuna oil. The rest of the wolf pack thought all their Xmas Turkeys had come and jumped on Snipe the Setter trying to devour her and the dog’s dinner. I am not any good in a crisis situation of this nature and began to shake and hyperventilate and hide in the corner. Brenda the wife, however, comes into her own. She threw herself amongst the wolf pack, separating the dinner from the diners and generally restored order without much fuss. I am still shaking when I get a text from Juno’s mum. (For those of you who don’t know, Juno the Golden Retriever is Snipe the Setters best bud and has been since they were wee pups, and Juno’s mother is none other than the famed Turkey Hunter and my sometimes bridge partner, Lorraine Maxwell). I initially thought that Juno was contacting Snipe to sympathise about the dog’s dinner thing, but oh no. The texts went something like this:

Lorraine: “YOU left a number out of my BBO User Number. I can’ register. You’ve been playing bridge with me long enough to know it is the name of my dog, your dog’s best friend and her pin number which has 4 digits and not 3 digits”

Not alone am I shaking and hyperventilating, I have now also begun to hallucinate.

Me: “You left the number out when you registered. This is the hundredth time this has happened to me today. I can’t take anymore. I am lost. The dinner is in the dog and the dog is in the oven.”

Despite my state, I did manage to correct the Include List and Lorraine did manage to register with her partner Joanne Lyons, but they failed in their Turkey hunting. At this stage, I needed to do something about my delirious state, so I cracked open the Belgian beer which did reduce my shakes somewhat. But the worst was yet to come. I started getting phone calls telling me that there was a power cut in the Artane/Raheny area. I mean what could I do. Belgian beer is very strong and while I was no longer shaking, I couldn’t drive my car to go out and fix it. Disaster was averted when somebody else managed to fix the problem by 19.20 and as 19.30 approached the number of registered pairs slowly crept up to 43. There was still one missing. A frantic search ensues. It was Colm (who is known for taking his time at the bridge table) MCDonald and his partner Marie Towell. The game starts without them. Patricia Quigley, who is TD’ing, quickly puts in the robots and by 19.35 she has found Colm and Marie and seated them at their table.

I am a beaten man. I take the dog out of the oven, the dinner out of the dog, lash it on the plates, cover it with globulus sauce, gobble it down and collapse, comatose on the couch for the rest of the evening.

Luckily Patricia kept a record of the state of play after each round so I could actually report on what happened during the game. So here goes.

After Round 1, Una McSherry and Jimmy Given were in the lead on 16 IMPS with our eventual winners Shelanne Purcell and Frances Gill 1 IMP behind. They didn’t do each other any favours in round 2, although Shelanne and Frances did win the encounter by 3 IMP but dropped to table 2 with Una and Jimmy dropping to Table 5.

They were replaced on table 1 by Bernadette Lacey and Kay Kelly in 1st place and Jim Stokes and Kay McDonald in 2nd place. On board 9 Jim bid and made a 6 spade contract which kept them on table 1, but wasn’t enough to move them into 1st place as Finn Ryan and Grainne Smith had an even better round 3 which included defeating their opponent’s 6NT contract on board 9.

But in Round 4 Jim and Kay did enough to move into 1st place. However, they were to meet Finn and Grainne again in Round 7 and Round 8, where Finn and Grainne reversed the Round 4 result which meant they ended up in 3rd place with the pudding (20BBO$’s) leaving Jim and Kay to discuss “what if’s” in 4th place.

Back to round 5 though. Jim and Kay were on 46 IMPS and had only one negative score in the 12 boards that they had played thus far. This was all to change now. They were joined by Shelanne and Frances who had returned to Table 1 with a score 42 IMPS and who were to stay on Table 1 for the remainder of the game. Firstly, they saw off Jim and Kay, winning their encounter by 11 IMPS. Next up for shaving were Finn and Grainne who they defeated by 8 IMPS. This left Shelanne and Frances in 1st place on 62 IMPS going into Round 7 where they were joined by Anne Robinson and John Keenan who were on 50 IMPS. They played against each other in the last two rounds, but Anne and John couldn’t overturn the difference. And so, it ended with Shelanne and Frances winning the turkey (50BBO$’s) and Anne and John winning the ham (30BBO$’s).

The end

The leading 15 pairs were:

We also paid out 6 spot prizes of 10BBO$’s to:

• Catherine Leehane
• Liam Walls
• Tony Wall
• Gladys Greene
• Marguerita Cox
• Derry Peacock

Thank you again to everybody for taking part and to Patricia Quigley and all the CAVBC elves who helped with setting up and running the game. The 4th game of our Xmas Turkey Series is on Thursday 9th December at 19.30. Registration is open on here the CAVBC Website until Wednesday 8th December at 18.00. We hope to see you all there.

PS No dogs or squirrels were harmed in the making of this article, however, I can’t say the same for humans!

Round 2 of our Xmas Turkey Series

On 22nd August 1922 a seismic event occurred in Irish History. Michael Collins was shot and killed in Beal na mBlath in West Cork. The circumstances of his death are still shrouded in mystery as we approach the centenary of this event in 2022. I spent my childhood in Macroom, Co.Cork, which was only down the road from Beal na mBlath and the events of that day were still raw in local memory. We all knew someone who knew someone who knew the man who fired the gun that killed Michael Collins, but we never actually heard the name (although the father of my teacher in 5th class did have some inside knowledge apparently – I am not mentioning names!) We used to re enact the civil war in our school yard when the descendants of those who supported Dev lined up against the descendants of those who supported Michael Collins and tore into each other until the bell would ring and we would return to our classrooms and all sit down together.

Why do I call this a seismic event? Well, if Michael Collins had not died on that day, the whole trajectory of Irish history could possibly have changed, and the circumstances of our conception may never have happened and the 64 people who sat down to take part in our Xmas Turkey Draw on Tuesday might never have been born.

“Alright” says you, “but why are you talking seismic events at all”

Well last night before our Xmas Turkey Game, we had a seismic event. It reached nowhere on the Richter Scale that the death of Michael Collins did, but it did impact upon who got the turkey. At 17.00 there was a minor tremor, when Dick Kiernan contacted me to say that Ria Malone, who had been drawn to play with Ann Carroll, was unable to play. Luckily enough our monitoring systems on the previous evening, had identified that Norman Ludgate would love to play in our game but had forgotten to register in time. This (minor) seismic event led to the formation of the Carroll/Ludgate pairing who then went on to win our turkey.

Now I know all you really want to hear about is – how did they actually win!

After round 1, Liz Sherlock and Therese Duff were on Table 1 and were being challenged by Liz’s long time partner Colm McDonald and his new found partner, Rose Burke. Now Liz knew all Colm’s secrets and Colm knew all Liz’s secrets and as a result they neutralised each other with both pairs falling down to Table 3 where they had to fight it out again in Round 3. In the meantime, Ann and Norman took advantage of this internecine rivalry (I am not saying that Colm and Liz are related, but I just wanted to use the word “internecine”) and moved into 1st place where they faced off against David Holland and Frances Gill. Unfortunately for David and Frances, our winners had perfect scores on each of the boards they played against them, getting into the correct contracts and playing them absolutely perfectly. This left Ann and Norman in a very commanding position on 45 IMPS. Meanwhile Colm and Rose also got their contracts right when playing against Liz and Therese and they returned to Table 1 in Round 4 and Round 5. Ann and Norman got the better of them over the 8 boards leaving Ann and Norman still in 1st place on 47 IMPs going into the last round with Colm and Rose dropping down to Table with 31 IMPS.

Mary Kilbane and Pauline O’Murchu were in 27th position after round 1 but they staged a remarkable recovery over the next 4 rounds to find themselves at the top table at round 6 and facing the might of Ann and Norman.

Etta Daly (one of our Turkey winners from last week) and Jackie Furey made a similar recovery from round 1. In fact, because of a minor seismic event (Jackie’s Internet was down), they didn’t get to play in the 1st round as Fintan had to put in Robots. Now normally you would expect the Robots to fare well, but they came up against the might of Rona Booth and Bernie McGee, who were having none of the Robot’s guff leaving them on -2 IMPS. But fair play to Etta and Jackie, they clawed their way back to find themselves in 3rd place on Table 2 going into the last round.

So, in the last round on Table 1, we had Ann and Norman (47 IMPS) against Mary and Pauline (36 IMPS). One good board could be enough for Mary and Pauline to knock Ann and Norman off their perch. On Table 2 it was a bit tighter with Etta and Jackie (35 IMPS) playing Colm and Rose (31 IMPS). It was all to play for. The Turkey, Ham and Pudding were all in the mix – yeuch!!

On Table 1 Ann and Norman continued their winning ways and took home the turkeys (50BBO$’s), defeating Mary and Pauline by 6 IMPS. As a result, they dropped to 3rd place and had to settle for the consolation prize of a pudding (20BBO$’s). Colm and Rose took advantage of this slip up and won the hams (30BBO$’s), when defeating Etta and Jackie and leaving them languishing in 5th place with Patricia Quigley and Derry Peacock moving from 7th to 4th after winning their last round by 16 IMPS. In fact, if the “earth had moved” just a little bit more for them, they would have won the pudding, such was the tightness of the margin between 3rd and 4th place. Their seismic event wasn’t just seismic enough.

The leading 15 pairs were:

We also paid out 6 spot prizes of 10BBO$’s to each of the following players:

• Marie Fleury
• Sheila Thompson
• Tony Wall
• Maria Callinan
• Kay McDonald
• Ann O’Driscoll

Thank you to everybody for taking part and to Fintan Keegan and all the CAVBC elves who helped with setting up and running the game. The 3rd game of our Xmas Turkey Series is on Wednesday 1st December at 19.30. Registration is open on the CAVBC Website until Tuesday 30th November at 18.00. We hope to see you all there.

PS

For those of you who are interested in local history, Michael Collins was reputed to have dined in Furry Park House (Just beside the petrol station on Howth Road) in the week before he headed down to West Cork. His hostess on the evening was Moya Llewelyn Davies Moya Llewelyn Davies - Wikipedia and for those of you who want to have a look at Michael Collins check out The Ballad of Michael Collins - Bing video

PPS

And if you really want to see even more of Michael Collins and Dev, check out the National Concert Hall where a performance of a play called The Treaty is on in the Kevin Barry room where the treaty was debated by the Irish government. It ends on Saturday 27th. Fishamble’s THE TREATY by Colin Murphy, directed by Conall Morrison | NCH | Live Music & Events

PPPS

I wonder has Moya Collins anything to tell us!!

It’s great to be back in the commentary box for this the 1st of our Xmas Turkey Draw series. (That was said in a Cork accent, so I sound like Michael Corcoran, the rugby commentator on RTE Radio, when introducing us to the Rugby Autumn Series). Now I am not comparing Bridge to Rugby, but it is a much more dangerous contact sport (That’s why a lot of us are still playing online and not in 3D). We have rucks as we move from table to table and sometimes we even have to shimmy and show a soft shoulder to get to our seats. Then there are the complex passing movements where boards are moved from table to table and require deft handling skills. And what about our complicated calling systems which are way beyond what any rugby player uses in a line out! Sorry I do go on. It’s bridge we are talking about and not rugby. But in truth, did we think this time last year that we would be heading into our 2nd Xmas Turkey series in 2021. (You can check out the commentary on last year’s games on the Turkey Draw Tab on CAVBC if you are feeling nostalgic)

Anyhow let me describe how our game unfolded on Monday.

Joan Hynes and Louise Byrne sprinted into the lead in round 1 and built further on their lead in round 2 ending up with a margin of 28 IMPS (equivalent to 4 converted tries). In round 3 Helen Donoghue and Maria Callanan joined them on Table 1, a full 11 IMPS behind them. But Helen and Maria put their heads down and won all 3 boards and moved into 1st place. In fact, they were to end up playing at Table 1 for the remainder of the game. What pressure!! First up to challenge them were the front row pairing of Ray Wall and Dick Kiernan. But the brawny pair were no match for brainy pair, and they ended up being put to the back row. Next up were the flighty wingers Edel Coughlin and Larry Breheny. In fact, Edel was a last minute replacement for one of the first team who had to drop out earlier in the day. Edel and Larry didn’t fare any better than Ray and Dick and were substituted by Etta Daly and Eileen Courtney at the top table after round 5. They had been having a very steady game winning all five match ups so far. At this point Helen and Maria were in 1st place with a 40 IMP differential and Etta and Eileen were on a 33 IMP differential. However, it was all to change on Board 16, when Etta and Eileen made a 4 Heart contract, that a lot of other pairs did not make even though they should have. This was very unfortunate for Helen and Maria as it resulted in a 20 IMP swing. They were left winded on the pitch and never really recovered. They played against Etta and Eileen for the last two rounds and while they made a slight recovery in Round 7, Etta and Eileen put the boot in in round 8 to ensure that they maintained 1st place and took home the turkey (50BBO$’s each) and left Helen and Maria in 5th without even the smell of a Xmas pudding.

Meanwhile back in the pack when all this drama was unfolding on Table 1, Ann Kehoe and Owen (the brother) Treanor had been making steady progress through the field ending up on Table 2 for the last 3 rounds with the smell of a ham or a pudding in sight. They were joined by Derry Peacock and Joyce Hammond for the last two rounds and after a closely fought six boards, Ann and Owen came out on top by 3 IMPS, allowing them to take advantage of the demise of Helen and Maria and move into 2nd place where they got to take home the bacon (30BBO$’s each). And to top off a great evening, they also pocketed one of the Spot Prizes making it a really big ham!!

As everybody was looking at each other at the top 3 tables, Frances Johnston and Rona Booth who were lying in 14th place after round 7, leapfrogged (another rugby term) all the other pairs above them by winning their last round by 14 IMPS, to end up in 3rd place as they dived over the try line with a pudding under their arms (20BBO$’s each).

The leading 15 pairs were:

We also paid out 6 spot prizes of 10BBO$’s to each of the following players:

• Catherine Leehane
• Christine Foran
• Ria Malone
• Anne Robinson
• Anne Kehoe
• Owen Treanor

Thank you to everybody for taking part and to all the CAVBC elves who helped with setting up the game. The 2nd game of our Xmas Turkey Series is on Tuesday 23rd at 19.30. Registration is open on the CAVBC Website until Monday 22^nd at 19.00. We hope to see you all there.

Winner alright, winner alright

The pairs that made the winners enclosure after our final race of the Xmas season are set out below.

Read below the full race report detailing the progress of the runners and riders 
 

1st and €50 Voucher each
Rose Burke and Mary McElhinney (known in the full race report as Treasure (short for Treasurer)

2nd and €30 Voucher each
Jimmy Given and Rodney O’Hara (known in full race report as Last President (Rodney was our last DNR president)

Winner of the Novice/B Hurdle and €30 voucher each
Liam Dillon and Brenda Drury

Winners of the Tote Special Lucky Dip prizes
13th place and €25 voucher each Bernadette Lacey and Joanne Lyons.

(There was a steward’s inquiry after the race and it was found that Bernadette had also won a Lucky Dip prize on the previous week, so she had to forego this one)

27th place and winner of the hams (€30 voucher) that were returned to the pot from previous races
Phyllis Nolan and Owen Treanor

34th place and €25 voucher each
Helen Scannell and Tony Wall

Thank you to our Race Steward Mary Connell who ensured that all pairs raced with in the rules and to the Clerk of the Course – Aidan Synnott for setting up the race course and also a special
thanks to our PRO, Orla Murnane for all the publicity surrounding the event. Finally a big thanks to Dan O'Mahony, chief Elf, who did all the hard work behind the scenes!

Welcome to this the last race of our Xmas Card – the CAVBC/Foxbay One Mile Hurdle (No Kilometres for us) where we have 42 pairs going to post. The pre race favourite is the pairing of Mary Courtney/Fergus Synnott (hereafter known as “Sweetie”) with Mary having a wonderful record of 012 over the previous races. 2^nd favourite is the pairing of John Treanor and Anne Keegan (hereafter known as “Monaghan Man”). While John’s record is 200, he has been there or thereabouts coming into the final furlong over the last two races and his loyal supporters hope that he will show more staying power on this occasion. There was some doubt at the start of the day as to whether Michael O’Keeffe would take part when he was given the handicap of being paired with Dick Kiernan. Michael (hereafter known as “Micko”) had the best record of 421 so far coming into this race, decided not to disappoint his followers and take part despite the handicap. This pairing was 3^rd favourite with the bookies.

I am sitting here in the grandstand (actually it is my favourite armchair that I have managed to purloin from the wolf pack, laptop on one arm where the race unfolds, whiskey glass on the other arm and the “The Valhalla Murders”, a Nordic noire drama based in Iceland on the TV, which gives me the shivers and hence the need for the whiskey in the glass!) ready to describe the race for you.

And they’re off running down to the first hurdle with nothing between them. All clear at the first hurdle, the pairing of Rita Canavan/Rose Ball (hereafter known as “”Bridge Teacher”) sprints into the lead followed a good distance back by Helen Scannell/Tony Wall (hereafter known as “Lucky Ducks”) with Rose Burke/Mary McElhinney a close third (Treasure). All these pairs are from the Raheny stable. Are there tactics going on here? Could “Bridge Teacher” be a stalking horse for her stable companions?

Over the 2^nd hurdle and “Bridge Teacher” shows her experience by totally blindsiding “Lucky Ducks” and consigning them to the pack behind. Meanwhile “Treasure” has kept pace with “Bridge Teacher” and moved into 2^nd place, with 2^nd favourite “Monaghan Man” in 3^rd.

They are all clear over the 3^rd, but “Treasure” takes up the running and is just a short head in front of stable companion “Bridge Teacher” and the outsider Maureen Deane/Frances Gill (hereafter known as “MCOWAP” – you will have to ask Frances about this) in 3^rd and ominously the favourite “Sweetie” has moved into 4^th place. “Monaghan Man” hits the hurdle hard and falls off the pace. On they go down the back straight to the 4^th hurdle, all clear again, but “Bridge Teacher” can’t keep up with the pace and has fallen back into the pack. “Treasure” is still in front, but “Monaghan Man” has recovered from the previous mistake and has moved into 2^nd and these two are now well clear of favourite “Sweetie” in 3^rd. They are coming to the 5^th hurdle at the end of the back straight and “Treasure” has extended her lead over “Monaghan Man” and “Sweetie” has recovered some ground and is a length behind in 3^rd with “Last President” in 4^th (that’s Jimmy Given and Rodney O’Hara for those of you who are not paying attention).

They are on the last bend now after the back straight and over the 6^th hurdle. “Treasure” is still in front, but “Last President” has moved into 2^nd and is mounting a serious challenge. “Monaghan Man” appears to be fading and has been relegated to 3^rd. It looks like “Sweetie’s” race is run as she has fallen out of the top 6. On to the last but one hurdle from home and “Monaghan Man” has regained his composure and moved into the lead, “Treasure” 2^nd and “Last President” 3^rd with the Novice Pairing of Liam Dillon and Brenda Drury now in 4^th.

And over the last and up the hill. On Board 22, “Treasure” makes 4 Spades + 2 and claws back half a length on “Monaghan Man”. Board 23 is the turning point. One Heart from Rose, Pass, 2NT from Mary, when most other Wests were bidding 2 Spades with their 4 card spade suit. Rose with her singleton diamond shies away from NT and bids 3 hearts followed by 4 hearts from Mary. A club lead from John and there is nothing to stop Rose making her 4 hearts. The majority of other pairs are in 4 spades or 3NT and going down, a swing of 11 IMPs to Rose and Mary and they romp home. Meanwhile Jimmy and Rodney are seeing off the challenge of Liam and Brenda and move to 2^nd.  However, Liam and Brenda have the consolation of winning the Novice/B prize.  Barbara Chawke and the other “Monaghan Man” Nigel Hillis, sprint up the hill to finish 3^rd with “MCOWAP” in 4^th, just ahead of “Monaghan Man”. “Bridge Teacher” after her early exertions finished well down the field as did “Lucky Duck” who finished in 34^th and won one of our draw prizes. “Micko”, exhausted from his exertions of the previous week,  couldn’t overcome his handicap and finished with the also rans.

I don’t know about you, but I am exhausted after all that. There have been at least 3 gruesome murders in Iceland. My whiskey glass has been replenished after each murder and the wolfpack are challenging me for the armchair!

But seriously, well done to all our winners over our four Xmas Turkey Draws. You should all have received your Nolan’s vouchers by now. To the rest of you, thank you all for taking part. I think these have been great fun and the good news is there are more in the new year. Check out the CAVBC Bridgewebs Site to see the schedule.

Happy Xmas and Happy New Year from the CAVBC and Foxbay TDs

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Congratulations to all the winners!

1st place:  Michael O'Keeffe and Jackie Furey

2nd place:  Mary Courtney and John Keenan

Best Novice/B:  Derry Peacock and Ann Marron

€25 Voucher Draw:  Eileen Meany and Bernadette Lacey

Even more Xmas Turkey Carnage

The excitement and anticipation was palpable amongst all the Clontarf and Foxbay bridge players this week, wondering who would get to partner the “providers par excellence” Michael O’Keeffe and John Treanor. Could either of them upgrade their hams to a turkey? Or horror of horrors if they were drawn together, then we could all kiss goodbye to our chances of surprising our loved ones with a big juicy turkey. Well you all know the answer by this stage with Michael triumphing with his new partner Jackie Furey to take home the turkeys but not after another titanic struggle with Mary “the bringer of sweets” Courtney and her partner John Keenan who ended up with the hams. Mary has now joined the elite “providers par excellence” group and I know there will be a queue of players waiting to partner Mary in the final draw. The good news is that Mary has already entered, so don’t be tardy in making your own entry. Now unfortunately for both Michael and Mary who both have a turkey and ham to their name, there is only one prize per person over the four Xmas Turkey Draws, so fortunately for us all their hams go back into the pot and there will be an extra draw for two €30 vouchers this week. The other people who get to keep their hams this week are the Novice/B winners Derry Peacock and Ann Marron and the winners of our two €25 vouchers for finishing in lucky 25^th position – Eileen Meany and Bernadette Lacey. (There is still not going to be a public inquiry as Bernadette was not present at the TD meeting that chose lucky 25 – she was too busy minding the new addition to her family – a puppy!). This week Aidan and myself got to be the start of game substitutes. We had a wonderful half an hour before the start of the game as we discussed bidding systems (whatever floats your boat I hear you say!) and we were on tender hooks as the clock wound down to the start of the game. There were 41 pairs registered, but would they all get in? They did and so did we and we and a lovely game, but more of that later in the full match report below. A huge thank you to Rona Booth for TDing the game with grace and good humour as she had to run from table to table putting in and taking out robots. On the last table she nearly had to replace Dick Kiernan after he had to log out and in numerous times as he balanced a litre of wine on his head. I am not sure how Rona could see this, but that is what she told me!

How do they do it?

Now before I give you the full match report, I am aware that many of you have been unable to sleep at night wondering HOW DO THEY DO IT? HOW DO THEY DO THE XMAS TURKEY DRAW? Well I will tell you and it may even help put you to sleep. It could not be done without all the work of the CAVBC elves and their neighbours from across the road – the Foxbay elves. It all starts when Orla elf posts a note to the CAVBC bridgeweb site inviting you all to participate. Then all you nice bridge players out there send in your details.  Orla then has to check whether you have been naughty or nice to see if you have correctly entered your details. Then the elves craft a special letter that they send out to you telling you how happy they are that you are taking part. Eventually on the eve of the game when you are all wrapped up in bed dreaming of Turkeys and Hams sitting around a bridge table playing a 7 No Trump game and missing an Ace, the elves work through the night painstakingly cutting up your names and sorting them into four large drums. For those of you who might remember the Sweepstakes, picture ladies in nurse’s uniforms standing on a pedestal and dipping their hands into the drums to select the winning names – well it is the same for us, except we are wearing our elf uniforms! Alright enough of the nightmare stuff. We use technology. On the morning of the game, Orla elf sends me the list of entries. These are put into 4 spread sheets depending upon the players’ grade, assigned a random number, sorted in ascending order and then matched together to get the final pairing. (I think I prefer the elf working through the night version but I did have a little red and white setter helper!). Orla elf then publishes the draw on CAVBC. Aidan elf sets up the game on BBO with a special include list that only has the names of those who have entered. Then the contact tracing elves take over and contact each pair to give them contact details for each other. (We don’t publish phone or email contacts on CAVBC because of GDPR). Before the game, we check to see that you have all entered and we contact you if you haven’t to see if we can iron out whatever problem you have. Then at 19.30, the TD elf takes over and makes sure that you all have an enjoyable game and the turkeys and hams go to a suitable home! Then all the elves go to sleep and start all over again the following day for the next Xmas Turkey Draw. When all the draws are over the elves go out to catch the turkeys and the hams, put them on the sleigh and the Santa elves deliver them to the winners of the draws. But enough of this rubbish, you say, what about the full match report?

Full match report

So where do I start? Well the first thing to say is that after round 1, Michael and Jackie were in 39th position after losing by 10 IMP’s to Tim Devane and Kathleen Broaders and were even behind myself and Aidan, who were in 36th position after being hammered by Mary O’Carroll and Brid Ui Dhonnchu. Meanwhile Mary and John were 5th and were ready for their first match against the all Monaghan pairing of John Treanor and Nigel Hillis who were in 6th. Mary and John won their match by 11 IMPs and moved to the top of the leader board and stayed there until the 5th round when for the first time, they met Michael and Jackie, who had climbed all the way up from 39th position. A win by 7 IMPs meant that they reversed positions, with Michael and Jackie now in first place, which they never relinquished. In the their 2nd match, Michael and Jackie were again victorious by 3 IMPs resulting in Mary and John dropping down to Table 2 where John and Nigel were ready and waiting for a rematch. At the top table Michael and Jackie got to an IMP margin of 53 after a big win against Gladys Greene and Barbara Bunworth. At Table 2 Mary looked John (T) in the eyes and John (K) looked Nigel in the eyes and Mary said “I have got this, there are no turkeys for ye, I am going to take on the mantle of “Provider par excellence”. On the first board Mary and John defeated a contract that could have been made and on the 2nd board, they made a contract that could have been defeated and in the 3rd board John Keenan opened 1NT with 11 points and ended up in 2 Diamonds going down 3, but kept John and Nigel out of a 4 spades game. Result – Mary and John were back at table 1 with an IMP margin of 50 for their 3rd and final game against Michael and Jackie who were only 3 IMPs ahead of them. Maura Dempsey and Rodney O’Hara were very close behind in 3rd place with an IMP margin of 49, only 4 IMPs behind Michael and Jackie, after a huge win by 31 IMPs over Joe Keating and Mairin MacDevitt. And you will never guess who were 4th. Well it was myself and Aidan, but we were well behind with an IMP margin of 31. When Rona told us that it was all to play for, I got very excited, but at that stage she meant between the top 3 and not the top 4. Anyhow on to the last round. You may remember that last week Mary and Catherine Leehane were 9 IMPS behind Michael and Catherine Murphy, but managed to overhaul them in the last round with 3 very good boards. Well Michael and Jackie were having none of it this time. On board 22, they snook into 4 Spades and were only one of two pairs to make the contract + 1 – a swing 6 IMPs and more importantly getting to 15 IMPs ahead of Mary and John. Mary and John got the better of Michael and Jackie in the last two boards, but it wasn’t enough to claw back the 15 IMPs leaving Michael and Jackie with the turkeys, while Mary and John had to settle for the hams. Meanwhile on Table 2, myself and Aidan got the better of Maura and Rodney, so they never got to threaten Michael and John, however Maura and Aidan did enough to hold on to 3rd place.

Congratulation to all our winners and thank you all again for taking part. I hope you enjoyed it. I know I thoroughly did. Our next Xmas Turkey Draw is on 16th December at 19.30, hosted by Clontarf with more turkeys and hams there for the taking. Pre entry is already open and closes on Tuesday 15^th at 19.00. If you’re not in, you can’t win!!

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Well done to all the winners and the draw winners 🤩👏

1st:  Mary Courtney and Catherine Leehane 
2nd:  Michael O’Keeffe and Catherine Murphy
Best Novice/B:   Dympna Craig and Moira Lonergan (10th place)

Draw winners:  Joe Keating and Dick Kiernan

Well two turkeys are winging their way to the wonderful winners of our 2^nd Xmas Turkey Draw, Mary (bringer of sweets) Courtney and Catherine (the artist) Leehane, who overtook Michael O’Keeffe and Catherine Murphy in the last round relegating them to 2^nd place and a ham each. For Michael it was some consolation to him for losing out on the ham to John Treanor last week.  Rumour has it that they are considering moving in together for Xmas so that they can upgrade their hams to an extra large turkey and sure they might as well – they spend so much time together playing bridge. In fact their reputation as providers par excelence has resulted in other members of the bridge club expressing their desire to be partnered with them in future draws. (I can assure you the draw is random, but I may be open to bribes!!). Two hams are also finding their way to the best Novice/B pair Dympna Craig and Moira Lonergan who finished in 10^th place. They started very strongly and were in 1^st place after round 1 and had a very solid game after that. The winners of the draw for a €25 voucher each were Joe Keating and Dick Kiernan. Now some of you may be shouting “collusion”, “insider trading”, “public inquiry” or even a “tribunal”, but I can assure that this is all above board as Dick was not even at the TD meeting last Saturday that decided that the pair that finished 44^th should get the vouchers. We were all in very safe hands during the game with Orla Murnane and Edel Coughlin doing the TDing and we were also very lucky to have bridge players from the Teacher’s Club to provide substitute cover for the game. Thank you to Mary Carey, Chris Fowler, Mary Harrington and Patricia Dolan. In fact Patricia jumped into the breach for the last three rounds, but more of that below in the full match report.

Full Match Report

Well we could say the game was over at round 3 as at that point Mary and Catherine were 1^st, Michael and Catherine were 2^nd and Grainne Smith and Bairbre Higgins were in 3^rd and that is exactly how it was at the end of the game. But if we did say that then we would miss all the drama that unfolded between then and round 8. Michael and Catherine showed huge staying power as they got to play at the top table for the last 5 rounds. In round 4 they vanquished Mary and Catherine to 5^th place after beating them by 13 IMPs and then over the next 3 rounds it was like Lanigan’s Ball with Michael and Catherine stepping it in and stepping it out again with Owen (The brother) Treanor and Mary Hynes as they swapped 1^st and 2^nd place until round 7, when they in turn were vanquished by Michael and Catherine eventually ending up in 8^th place. Meanwhile, as Lanigan’s Ball was going, Mary and Catherine with an IMP margin of 42 made their way back to the top table for the final show down with Michael and Catherine who were sitting there looking down on everybody else with an IMP margin of 55. But more of that later.

Let me tell you about myself and my partner Kay Kelly. After round one we were in the rarefied stratosphere of table 2. But after that, it was like snakes and ladders with us falling down and climbing up and falling down and never getting within a smell of a turkey. But we had fun and some great chats during the game. In round 7 we met Mick Connell and Kathleen Broaders. Mick was also bemoaning the fact that he wasn’t within a smell of a Turkey, but he assured us that himself and Mary (the winner of a turkey last week) had now taken to St Anne’s Golf Course where they were firing golf balls at the Brent Geese and that they had high hopes of a goose for their New Year’s table. In round 8, we met Denis Gill and Patricia Nolan who had answered Edel’s call when Veronica Donohoe had fallen fowl of the WiFi gremlins. I gave them an out-and-out top and 7 IMPS in the last board when I doubled Patricia’s 4 clubs and she made it + 1 to help them finish in 6^th position as we continued to slide down the slippery snakes!

But back to the top table with Michael and Catherine holding a lead of 13 IMPs over Mary and Catherine. Could Mary and Catherine gain revenge for their thrashing by Michael and Mary in round 4? Were Michael and Catherine exhausted from all the dancing with Owen and Mary? In board 22, Mary opens weak 1NT, an aggressive 2 diamond overcall by Catherine (you know which one I’m talking about), pass, pass, and the then Mary throws all caution to the wind and bids 3 clubs. Pass all round and Mary makes 3 clubs +1 for a swing of 4 IMPs. We are now down to a margin of 8 IMPs. Board 23, Mary again opens another weak 1NT, another aggressive 2 clubs overcall from Catherine, 2NT from Catherine “eile”, pass, pass, pass and Mary gets to play in 2NT making +1 with all her finesses working and another swing of 4 IMPs. As Jack Charlton (or it may have been Mick McCarthy) would say it was now “squeaky bum” time, with only 5 IMPs between the two pairs going into the final board. Mary and Catherine get to 3NT. Catherine plays it impeccably to make the 3NT and a 6 IMP swing to pip Michael and Catherine by 1 IMP leaving them with the hams while Mary and Catherine got to take home the Turkeys.

Congratulation to all our winners and thank you all for taking part. I hope you enjoyed it. Our next Xmas Turkey Draw is on 11th December at 19.30, hosted by St Gabriels with more turkeys and hams there for the taking. Pre entry will open on Saturday 5th.

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Well its all over, the first of our Xmas Turkey Draws hosted by Raheny Bridge Club and it was great to see that two Raheny members, Mary Connell, our President from last year, and Grainne Smith took home the turkeys with a victory margin of 50 IMPs, with John Treanor and Emer Burke taking home the hams in 2^nd with a margin of 47 IMPs. In fact, John and Emer played in the top two tables from Round 2 to Round 8. What stress!! But more of that later. Pauline Kelly and Eileen Meany had a very consistent game and were the leading novice pair throughout eventually finishing in 16^th place with a margin of 14 IMPs, and also getting to take home a ham. On Saturday, the TD’s decided that the pair that finished in 14^th place would each receive a €25 voucher from Nolan’s, enough to buy a bottle of whiskey maybe. The lucky winners were Irene O’Driscoll and Carmel Cullen. Owen Wilson, (The bridge star, not the film star), ran a very efficient game, quickly replacing people who dropped out with robots. As a result, there were few boards that did not complete in time, except for the very last board of the very last round – no names mentioned, but we know where you live!!!! Now as you all know this was a random draw, where we paired novices together and A’s and  Area Masters with B’s (although we had more A/Area Master players than B’s, so we did have some A/Area Master pairings), but the draw threw up an all TD partnership of Dick Kiernan and Vanessa Timon, who volunteered to be our Start of Game Subs in the event of us having a half table. Unfortunately for them, we had 50 pairs and so they had to settle for watching the final of “The Great British Bake Off” instead!

Now if you are really bored and you want to read about how the game unfolded, the following is a riveting account of the Xmas Turkey Carnage.

John and Emer sprinted to 1^st place after round 1 and saw off Frances Gill and Mairin MacDevitt and Pat Fitzpatrick and Teresa Nevin in rounds 2 and 3 respectively. Their progress came to a halt in round 4, when Louise Byrne and Kathleen Broaders had a 6 IMP victory against them. Meanwhile Mary and Grainne, who had started steadily, leaped into 1^st place with a 23 IMP victory over Fergus Synnott and Brigid Holland. At this stage, the top 3 pairs could not have been any tighter with Mary and Grainne on 44 IMP’s, Louise and Kathleen on 43 IMP’s and John and Emer also on 43 IMP’s. Mary and Grainne played against Louise and Kathleen for the last 3 rounds, with Louise and Kathleen first getting a tiny advantage. Board 21 proved to be the turning point when Mary and Grainne defeated a 3NT contract by 2 resulting in a 10 IMP swing and as the saying goes “shin, shin do coursai sport” as Mary and Grainne sealed their 1^st place position. Meanwhile John and Emer, who were now on table 2, were joined on round 6 by John’s normal partner in crime Michael O’Keeffe who was playing with Barbara Bunworth. Michael and Barbara moved to 3^rd place after round 7, with John and Emer in 4^th place, setting up round 8 for the final showdown. Who would have the partnership bragging rights, John or Michael? Well it all came down to Board 24. Emer had a balanced 21 point hand and opened 2NT. No messing from John, he is sitting with a 5 point hand and jumps to 3NT. Now Michael is next to bid and he was not going to let Emer and John stay in 3NT. So, there he is sitting with 6 hearts headed by the KQ, a void in diamonds and 7 high card points and he bids 4 hearts. Pass, pass and the bidding comes round to John, he rubs his hands together, gives a gleeful Monaghan chuckle (I swear I was not in the room with him – this is fiction),  takes his mouse, hovers over the Double. Michael goes down 5, a swing of 12 IMP’s, thus ending John and Emer’s stressful evening with a well deserved 2^nd place.

Congratulation to all our winners and thank you all for taking part. I hope you enjoyed it.

Our next Xmas Turkey Draw is on Thursday 3^rd December at 19.30, hosted by Foxbay and St Anthony’s, so plenty of time for you to collect your turkeys and hams.   Pre entry will open on Thursday 26^th

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Response from John Treanor, Esq:

I must compliment Dan, the chief reporter of CAVBC, on his comprehensive reporting of the competition last night. It was akin to the reporting of the "Ulster Final" in our local paper, the Northern Standard. However I need to point out the crucial element where Emer and I prior to the game had discussed our systems. Emer was very decisive and stated "John, we are NOT going to show mercy to anybody!" In keeping with our agreed system and, contrary to my soft nature, on the last hand I reluctantly "Doubled" my regular playing partner Michael. This broke my heart and I will have to suffer the consequences. Well done to all for a great competition. John