CAVBC will run a weekly "Draw for Partner Game" from the 13^th January onwards.

 The format of these Draw for Partner games is as follows:

• A player must pre enter for the game through the CAVBC Bridgeweb Site up to 19.00 on the day before the game
• A random draw for partners is made on the morning of the game where we match experienced players with less experience players
• Players are informed of their partners by text on the afternoon of the game.
• We set up a unique Include List for the game, so that only pre entered players can take part and we check to see that they all register correctly before the start of the game.
• We do not allow Kibitzers for these games.
• There may be times when the BBO and CAVBC results are different. There is a very good reason for this. The scoring in BBO and CAVBC (Bridgewebs) treat average scores differently. The CAVBC score is recognised to be the most accurate and thus the placings on CAVBC are deemed to be the correct ones.
• We will “pay” BBO$ into the winners’ BBO account within 2 days of the end of the game. The prizes will be based upon the number of tables in each game as in the tables set out below:

We had the first of our monthly Draw for Partner games on Monday. 63 players had signed up to take part and with our sub, Paula Oliver, that made 64. Paula was drawn with Maria Callinan and they were never out of the top 2 from start to finish. They were just pipped for 1st place by Derry Peacock and Kay McDonald, who got the better of them over the last two rounds. Emer Burke and Ria Malone had moved into 3rd place after round 6 and very nearly displaced Paula and Maria after they had a good result against Ronnie O’Neill and Michael O’Keeffe in Round 7. The other prize winners were Kathryn Leen and Frances Gill, Anne Cody and Owen Treanor, Gladys Greene and Eileen Glackin.

The top 15 pairs were:

The following pairs also won Spot Prizes of 10BBO$’s:

• Ann Keegan and Gerry McHugh
• Joan Hynes and John McEvoy

Thank you to Rona our TD, who had a quiet night by all accounts which was just as well as her daughter was returning to Australia early on Tuesday morning.

Our next monthly Draw for Partner game will be on Tuesday 22nd February and will be hosted by Raheny Bridge Club.

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure for all "Draw for Partner Games"

Congratulations to the winners!

1st NS  John McEvoy / Catherine Leehane 10 BB$ each (and also the winners of the spot prize another 10BB$ each !!!)

1st EW Joanne Lyons / Dick Kiernan   10 BB$ each

2nd NS Grainne Courtney / Tim Devane  5 BB$ each

2nd EW Mary Courtney / Christine Watters   5 BB$ each

In the words of Yoda “Peeved am I”. On Monday evening “set was I” to play with Eileen Glackin as the Start of Game Subs. There were 19 pairs registered. In all the previous Draw for Partner games, all the registered pairs successfully managed to start the game. But woe is me, because of the vagaries of rural broadband, didn’t Owen (The Brother) Treanor and Kathleen Broaders somehow manage not to get into the game, meaning there was no requirement for subs. Now not alone were myself and Eileen upset, but all the other participants were also upset as the prize fund dropped from 120BBO$’s to 60BBO$’s when we only had 9 tables rather than 10 tables.

Rant over. So, what happened in the Draw for Partner game. Well after 27 boards, John McEvoy and Catherine Leehane just pipped Grainne Courtney and Tim Devane in the North/South side of the competition to take home 10BBO$’s each. And when I say pipped, it was just by 1 pip. They had a very good result in the last round when they averaged 73% over the three boards that they played against the East/West winners, Joanne Lyons and Dick Kiernan. Mary Courtney and Christine Watters gave Joanne and Dick a good run for their money and even though they had a strong finish, it just wasn’t quite enough to catch them.

When I asked all the winners for a photo for CAVBC, they were all somewhat bashful. But after a bit of arm twisting, they all came good. I think Dick may have run off to a professional photographer to pose for his very dignified image. I am not suggesting that his photo has been touched up, but…….

 I told John that I wanted a photo that would have the ladies of CAVBC swooning and he duly delivered. He is showing a nice piece of leg in his photo and if you look closely, you can see the shadow of the other Catherine in his life, who took the photo.

Now I don’t know whether you know it or not, but Catherine (the one who played bridge with John on Monday) is a superb artist and is a horse racing expert. So, I suggested that she send me a photo of one of her paintings in the event that she didn’t send me a photo of herself. She did both. When I saw this magnificent painting, I thought she had painted Rachel Blackmore winning the Aintree Grand National as the horse was wearing J.P. McManus’s colours, but Catherine quickly corrected me. It’s Barry Geraghty on Buveur d’Air (which is French for “Drinker of Air”) and Jack Kennedy on Samcro in Newcastle in December 2018. She also told me that, unfortunately, the next time Buveur d’Air ran in Newcastle in November 2019 he got a piece of wood from the 2nd last hurdle stuck in his foot and only came 2nd. He went on sick leave after that and only came back to racing recently. Isn’t it great what you can learn in a bridge write up.

Joanne followed John’s example and sent me a photo from her holidays to remind us that there are sunnier times ahead for us all, when hopefully we can soon travel to our favourite places.

Congratulations to all our winners and thank you to Aidan for again setting up the game and to Orla for managing all the entries through our CAVBC site and to Michael O’Keeffe and John Treanor for TD’ing the game and giving up on their chance to take part. Oh and thank you to the peeved subs as well.

Our next Draw for Partner game is open to all grades and is on Thursday morning the 22nd April. Pre entry is now open on CAVBC.

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure for all "Draw for Partner Games"

Our Draw for Partner game this week again made the headlines in the National Enquirer – “Ladies of CAVBC queue up to be Peadar’s Partner” after Peadar’s 3^rd win in a row in our Inter B Draw for Partner game, each time with a different lady. The lucky lady this time was Brid Carter. It was nip and tuck between Peadar and Brid and the Cork/Kerry pairing of Eily Clandillon and Shelanne Purcell up to Round 9. (Eily is from Ballydehob and Shelanne is from Killarney). Shelanne told me that Peadar played the two hands brilliantly and gave the Cork/Kerry pair a thrashing. They might have still managed to win, but Shelanne’s sister Kathryn Leen and her partner Anne Cody, did not show any sisterly love whatsoever as they handed down two more bottoms to the Cork/Kerry duo. These two bad rounds allowed Sheila Thompson and Emer Burke take 2^nd place after two excellent tops in the last round. They were also our Spot Prize winners, so it was a great night for them. The overall result was:

1st Peadar Buckley and Brid Carter            15BBO$’s each

2nd  Sheila Thompson and Emer Burke      10BBO$’s each

3rd Eily Clandillon and Shelanne Purcell   5BBO$’s each

Peadar also harvested more BBO$’s last week in the Individual game, and as a Spot Prize winner. This prompted Peadar to suggest that he shouldn’t get a spot prize, but this would cause us all sorts of problems if we were to try and implement such a scheme. But thank you Peadar for your thoughtful suggestion.

Mary Connell and Marian Flood were our designated subs for the game, but as we had an uneven number of entries and all our pleas for one more Inter B to join the game fell on deaf ears, we had to promote Marian from the subs bench to play with Frankie Lappin, leaving Mary to play with her favourite robot if she was needed. As it turned out she wasn’t. But thank you anyway. The robot was somewhat upset and went off to play with another robot somewhere else around the world.

By the way Marian was another multiple BBO$ winner last week, winning three Spot Prizes with three different partners. We were all convinced that Marian was going to win the Euro Millions, so we insisted that she purchase a ticket for Friday’s draw. She had promised to split the €200 million with all the TD’s and purchase a year’s supply of BBO$’s for all CAVBC/Foxbay members. I got to dream for a while, but it was not to be. Marian did not win the Euro Millions, but well done for being such fun!

Thanks to Bernadette Lacey for TD’ing the game and to Aidan and Orla for managing the game set up.

Our next Draw for Partner game is on Monday 12^th April and is for Inter A’s/Masters only. The next Inter B Draw for Partner game will be in May.

And here are our winners Peadar and Brid.

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure for all "Draw for Partner Games"

The headline in the National Enquirer today was “Murnane ditches Wall”. It goes on to question whether there is a major rift in the Dynamic Duo after seeing that Orla has taken on a new partner Rosaleen Kane, with whom she won North/South on Wednesday and soared to top of the Novice Player of the Month standings. When friends were questioned about the details of their breakup, they expressed surprise and felt there was nothing in it and that they would be back together again for the final Novice game in March. However, some opponents were very happy to see trouble in paradise as it actually meant that they might have a chance in the Novice Player of the Month competition.

Alright none of the above is true and is just another one of my flights of fancy, except Orla and Rosaleen (A St Anthony’s and Clontarf partnership) did win North/South in the Novice Draw for Partner game and Orla is now leading the Novice Player of the Month competition. Orla very nearly didn’t get to play, as up to midday on Wednesday we only had 25 entries and Orla had volunteered to step out of the game if we didn’t get a 26th person. Luckily, Derry Peacock answered the call and ended up playing with Eilish Keegan (another St Anthony’s and Clontarf Partnership) and they went on to win East/West. This was Eilish’s 2nd Draw for Partner win, so they will be queueing up to play with her next time out. When I spoke with Derry, he told me he had planned to take a break on Wednesday, but luckily for him he didn’t. Derry learned bridge when he was knee high to a grasshopper from his mother and then gave it up altogether for 45 years to concentrate on chess and backgammon. Eilish told me that after Wednesday’s game, they hope to play together again, which may mean that she will have to give Mick Connell (a major influence on her bridge career – God help us!) the old heave ho and I am not sure if Fintan will ever get a look in again.

Thanks to all the Novices who took part, and we hope that more of you will join the next Draw for Partner Game. Thanks also to Grainne Courtney for TD’ing the game and to Myra Birmingham and Alan Gordan our start of game subs who did get a game. (In fact, it was Myra’s 2nd time being our start of game sub). And thank you again to Aidan and to Orla for managing the game set up. The winning pairs, who have had their BBO$’s put into their BBO accounts were:

1st North/South – Orla Murnane and Rosaleen Kane / 10BBO$ each

2nd North/South – Una McSherry and Ann Marron  / 5BBO$ each

1st East/West – Eilish Keegan and Derry Peacock   / 10BBO$ each

2nd East/West –Bernadette Garry and Gerry Creighton 5BBO$ each

And so that you will know them when you see them, here are these winning St Anthony’s/Clontarf partnerships.

Our next Draw for Partner game is on Tuesday 30th and is for Inter B’s only.

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure for all "Draw for Partner Games"

There I was sitting on a stony beach on the shores of Roaring Water Bay, bathed in sunshine and the gentle waves lapping over my feet, when my reverie was disturbed by the ringing of my mobile. Now I found this very strange as I really did not have any place to hide a phone on myself. I dragged my eyes open to find myself lying on my bed in Killester, with Scout the Setter licking my toes rather than the gentle lapping of waves. On answering my phone, I found myself listening to the dulcet tones of Rodney O’Hara wondering how to contact Triona Murphy. I checked the bed and the beach but luckily there was no sign of Triona, but I did have her mobile, so I gave it to Rodney and this seemed to satisfy him. Next thing Brenda, the wife, tells me that Lorraine Maxwell is very upset with me as I gave her the wrong weather forecast the previous day when I told her it was going to be wet and windy during Thursday morning’s game. As the weather was now fine, Lorraine was upset that she could not take the “mouses” who had come to live in her “Friendly” Mouse Box the night before, for a walk with her in St Anne’s, where she hoped to leave them to be savaged by rampaging wolf packs. I assured Lorraine that she would have a wonderful game with Jimmy Given, who was really just a big pussy cat and had nothing against mouses!! And then finally I get a call to tell me that John Treanor’s partner Mary O’Carroll, can’t get in contact with him. I wonder why I’m being asked this, so I check the bed and the beach, but there isn’t any sign of John either and then I remember that John had put Michael O’Keeffe into a 4 Diamond contract in the last round of the game the previous night, which was doubled and went down 4 and John and Michael plummeted from 1st to 11th, so I assumed that John couldn’t face the morning. So I suggested that Mary let John have his beauty sleep and to contact him at 10.30. Now all these disturbances had totally upset my own beauty sleep, so I wasn’t in any condition to play bridge when I joined my unfortunate partner Una McDonald at 11.00. Una normally plays her bridge in the Teachers’ Club and took up bridge in 2010, when she retired. Una spent 20 years of her career teaching in Zimbabwe, returning to Ireland in 2002. She was able to tell me “I had a farm in Africa”, so Meryl Streep eat your heart out. Anyhow because of my disturbed sleep, Una and I ended up vying for last place with Rodney and Triona, who we met twice, but we were pipped in the last round with Rodney and Triona finishing 24th and myself and Una finishing 25th. I thought we had a really good chance of finishing last as Tom Monaghan and Gladys Greene hammered us in the last round taking 14 IMPs, but it just wasn’t enough. We lost out on last place by less than half an IMP. (Tom was originally drawn with Mary Kavanagh, his regular partner. On seeing this Tom contacted me and hence he and Gladys ended up playing together. Thank you, Tom.)   

Anyhow enough about me, let’s get to the really interesting part of the game – The Winners. The leaders of the pack were Frankie Lappin and Anne Delaney. Frankie normally plays in Howth and Anne is another member of the Teachers’ Club. They had never met or played with each other before, so this was a fabulous result for them. They copper fastened 1st place with a very good result over Jim Stokes and Catherine Leehane over the last two rounds, dropping them to 7th place. Catherine will still receive 5BBO$ and will have the opportunity to invest it in Cheltenham next week and watch her money grow! The lady with the friendly mouse box, Lorraine and the big pussy cat Jimmy Given were 2nd after a very good last round when they knocked Marie O’Gorman and Mary Connell out of the money. This was probably helped by the fact, that the wet and windy weather had finally arrived in Clontarf and Lorraine could concentrate on her bridge and not worry about releasing “mouses” into the wild.

Con Ward and Kay McDonald finished in 3rd place after overwhelming Sheila Thompson and Dick Kiernan in the last round. You may remember from our last Open Draw that Con spends a lot of time in the Cow House down in Mayo. Well Con is married to our winner Anne Delaney who plays from the warmth of their house, but now with their huge winnings they are hoping to upgrade the Cow House to make it more comfortable for Con. 

The full set of prize winners are:

1st        Frankie Lappin  &  Anne Delaney       15BBOS’s each
2nd       Lorraine Maxwell  &  Jimmy Given    10BBO$’s each
3rd       Con Ward  &  Kay McDonald               10BBO$’s each
4th         Ann Meany  &  Shelanne Purcell         10BBO$’s each
5th        Marian Flood  &  Michael Dillon           5BBO$’s each
6th        Kathryn Leen  &  Anne Walshe             5BBO$’s each
7th        Jim Stokes  &  Catherine Leehane        5BBO$’s each

Comhghairdeas le gach duine (Seeing as its Seachtain na Gaeilge and there are so many teachers playing!!)

Thank you to Aidan for again setting up the game and to Orla for managing all the entries through our CAVBC site and also thanks to our subs on the day, Aileen Corboy and Mary Harrington, who unfortunately did not get a game.

We don’t have a Draw for Partner Game this week. The next such game is on Wednesday 24th March at 19.00 and is for Novices only. Pre entry will be open on CAVBC from the 18th March.

P.S. Thursday’s game was the 1 year anniversary of the last Face to Face bridge game that I played in. This was in Kitty’s Thursday morning game in Clontarf Rugby Club. Kitty had brought along plastic gloves for us to use when handling cards, so we knew there was something in the air. The headline in the Irish Times that morning was “Public asked to Limit Social Interactions”. Our phones started beeping at 11.00 as news of restrictions were announced. Little did I and Dick know, as we put away the bridge tables at 13.00, it would be the last time we would be doing so for a long time. That afternoon RTE were reporting traffic jams in Clontarf as panic buying started. We were all going to run out of toilet paper!!

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure for all "Draw for Partner Games"

When the Draw for Partner game ended on Monday evening, I totally upset the wolf pack when I ran laps of honour around the bridge table screaming for joy after finishing 2^nd East/West with my wonderful partner Breda Dolan. Unlike Archimedes who ran naked through the streets of Athens when he discovered his principle (which has nothing to do with bridge by the way), I did keep my clothes on as it is much safer to do so with a wolf pack howling at your heels. Who knows though what will happen if I ever come 1^st!!

We started very slowly and were taught bridge lessons by 3 of the top 4 North/South partnerships, Tim Devane & Mary McIlhenny, Tony Byrne & John Treanor who shared joint 3^rd position and the North/South winners, Con McCrossan & Angela McKeown, who hammered us altogether. Con told me that this was his first time entering into the murky waters of our online Draw for Partner games, but he had a lovely game with Angela and will be back. Now you may not know it, but Con normally plays with his wife Angela. This meant that Con could continue to use all his normal chat up lines such as wpa (Well played Angela), gla (Good Angela) and hla (Hard Luck Angela). Angela also found this wonderful as she was more used to just being referred to as “partner” when receiving chat up lines such as wpp, glp, or hlp. Although by all accounts they had no need to use hla.

Tony Wall and Eileen Glackin, our February Open Player of the Month were 2^nd North/South. If you read the note on the Player of the Month (see Player of the Month tab on menubar), you may remember that there were bars of “Come on Eileen” sung in celebration of Eileen’s win and that the people of Limerick burst into song wanting Kathleen Briody our Novice/B Player of the Month to come home to Limerick. Well, I am sorry to disappoint Kathleen, it looks like they don’t want you home, it’s Eileen who is being celebrated in Limerick. When I was listening to a news report yesterday about the students from UL who partied on Tuesday, there they were singing “Come on Eileen” and not “I’ll take you home again Kathleen”.

Catherine Murphy and Christine Watters were our East/West winners. Like Con and Angela (not the wife), they had not played together. However, when talking on the phone Christine recognised Catherine from her voice (probably from singing) as they had met many times on bridge holidays. This again shows the charm of our Draw for Partner games where people are able to connect and chat with each other. Dick Kiernan and Mary Courtney were again in the winner’s enclosure finishing 3^rd East/West. All the winners have received their BBO$’s.

1st North/South – Con McCrossan and Angela McKeown / 1st East/West – Catherine Murphy and Christine Watters - 15 BB$ each

2nd North/South – Tony Wall and Eileen Glackin / 2nd East/West – Dan O’Mahony and Breda Dolan - 10 BB$ each

3rd North/South – Tim Devane and Mary McIlhenny / Tony Byrne and John Treanor / 3rd East/West – Dick Kiernan and Mary Courtney - 5 BB$ each

Thank you to Aidan for again setting up the game and to Orla for managing all the entries through our CAVBC site. An especial thanks to Mary Connell who seems to always be TD’ing our Draw for Partner games.

Our next Draw for Partner game is open to all grades and is on Thursday morning the 11^th March. Pre entry is now open on CAVBC.

Here is a picture of our 1st place winners - well done all 

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure

I am sorry it took me so long to do the write up of the Inter B Draw for Partner game on Tuesday, but I was really worried that so few B’s signed up, so I decided to do some research on the Internet to see where all the B’s had gone. And I found out the following:

• Firstly there is a problem with neonicotinoids (This may be something to do with B’s who smoke!), which have been found to short-circuit Bs’ memory and navigation. This may mean that B’s forgot to register or were unable to navigate their way through the CAVBC Home Page
• Secondly there is the threat from the varroa mite which sucks out Bs’ “blood” while also transmitting a virus. Now I am not sure if NPHET are aware of this threat, but I have reported it to the CBAI in the hope that they can lobby the government to make sure that our B’s are protected from this virus. 
• Thirdly Bs’ diets are not exactly health foods, but often consist of junk food in the form of sugar or corn syrup, which do not contain pollen that stimulates resistance to disease. So, look here, all you B’s out there, this is not good enough, you need to get more alcohol in your diet.
• And finally, there has been a reduction in the variety of flowers on which B’s feed because of monocultural farming and suburban development. I haven’t got a clue how this is impacting on entries for bridge games, but it sounds really serious.

Anyhow whatever the reason, only 20 B’s signed up for the game, which was a huge decrease from the 34 B’s that signed up for the previous game and hence my worry!!!

However, by all accounts the 20 B’s had a howl of a game. I am sorry that is a bad joke. But Mary Connell, our TD did run a 5 Table Howell where each pair got to meet each other pair. We did not need our substitutes, Emer Burke and Norman Ludgate, but thank you for “your service”.  After 18 boards the results were as follows:

1st Peadar Buckley and Mary Hynes  / 15 BBO$ each

2nd Bernadette Lacey and Brenda Drury / 10 BBO$ each

3rd Anne Cody and Gladys Greene / 5 BBO$ each

This is a very strong showing from the St Anthony’s contingent again. Peadar was a winner in the last Draw for Partner game and he told me that he hadn’t played since then. So if there is anybody out there who would like to play with Peadar, please give him a shout. He has loads of BBO$’s. He may even pay for you! I inveigled Peadar and Mary to let me have their photo, so that you will recognise them the next time you play against them on BBO. I will let you figure out which is which.

Congrats to all the other winners and I am glad to see Bernadette is there keeping the TD flag flying. All the winners have got BBO$’s lodged to their BBO accounts.

Thank you to Aidan for again setting up the game and to Orla for managing all the entries through our CAVBC site.

Our next Draw for Partner game is on Monday 1st and is for Inter A’s and Area/Regional Masters only and the next Inter B Draw for Partner game will be in March. Keep an eye on the CAVBC site for details.

Oh and here is one more very bad joke:  What goes ZUBBBBB – A B flying backwards!!

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure

Our 2^nd Novice Draw for Partners game was on Wed 17th Feb. We were down 6 people from last the last game giving us 15 pairs and with our subs Eilish Keegan and Myra Birmingham (who were in the winner’s enclosure in the last game) we ended up with 16 pairs. Our TD’s were again Bernadette Lacey and Mary Connell and they decided to use a Mitchell movement with 8 rounds of 3 boards. After the 24 boards the winning pairs were

1^st North/South – Mary Kilbane and Siobhan Treacy

2^nd North/South – Anne Robinson and Marian Sampson

1^st East/West – Eilish Keegan and Myra Birmingham

2^nd East/West –Liam Dillon and Gerry Gallagher

I had hoped to publish the photographs of all the winning pairs, so that they would actually know each other when they get to see each other face to face after we get our vaccinations, but unfortunately it didn’t work out, so there aren’t any photos in this report! As I said above Myra and Eilish were winners last week and Marian Sampson also added her name to that list. When I talked with Eilish, she told me that she was very happy to beat her husband Fintan. When she heard me gasp and wince on the phone, she reassured me that she was talking about beating Fintan at Bridge as himself and Owen Wilson were 3^rd East/West. Siobhan Treacy, a member of St Anthony’s, also got to gloat over the breakfast table this morning as husband Al was propping up the North/South section. Siobhan played with Vernon’s Mary Kilbane. Mary told me that although they had never played together, they both played the same system and had a good understanding during the game, and she was thrilled to be a winner.

Each of the players who came first, will get a payment into their BBO accounts of 10BBO$, while those in 2^nd will get a payment of 5BBO$.

Thank you to Aidan for again setting up the game and to Orla (who came 4^th with Gerry Creighton) for managing all the entries through our CAVBC site.

Our next Draw for Partner game is on Tuesday 23rd and is for Inter B’s only and the next Novice Draw for Partner game will be in March.

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure for all "Draw for Partner Games"

Today was not a “Groundhog Day”. Today I was going to play bridge with Con Ward, who I have never met. But such are the joys of online bridge, I was able to sit in the “Dog House” in cold and windy Killester, while Con was able to escape from the “Cow House” in an equally cold and windy Mayo and we were able to meet over a game of bridge. But more of that later. Let me tell you about today’s game.

Today we had the most entries yet for one of our weekly Draw for Partner games, with 52 of you coming in from the cold. A number of things were different about this game. Firstly, as you know, this game replaced our normal Thursday morning game. Secondly, we had to do the draw yesterday and let you know who you were partnered with last evening so that you could sleep easily last night. And finally, as we try to keep the number of boards on a Thursday morning as close as possible to 18, on advice from Aidan, Patricia Quigley, our TD for the game, set up a Swiss Movement with 5 rounds of 4 boards, so that we were all finished in time “to go out to lunch”, have our afternoon nap, walk the dogs, whatever!

When the dust settled, Teresa Nevin and Rose Burke were our winners. In the last round, they had a 9 IMP victory over Mary O’Carroll and Aileen Corboy, relegating them from 3^rd to 6^th place and overtaking Joan Hynes and Tom Monaghan who were 1^st coming into round 5 and Triona Murphy and Catherine Leehane who were 2^nd. They nullified each other in round 5 and they both stayed on the same IMP differential as they had at the end of round 4.

Because we had 26 pairs, we had a prize fund of 120BBO$ to give out as follows:

Congratulations to all our winners, you should see a massive increase in your BBO account sometime today. Spend it wisely. Thanks also to our start of game subs, Maureen O’Brien and Chris Fowler, who unfortunately did not get a game as you were all correctly logged on when the game started.

Now I know you are all dying to know how I got on in the “dog house” and Con got on in the “cow house”. Well firstly let me tell you that I had to do the draw twice as on the first occasion I came out of the hat (Alright I do not use a hat to make the draw) with Lorraine Maxwell. For those of you who don’t know, myself and Lorraine have been known to play together as we are nearly family as our sons live together. So, on the basis that there could have been a major scandal on CAVBC, if myself and Lorraine played together, I got out another hat and started the draw all over again and that is how myself and Con got to play together.

To be fair, we didn’t set the world alight. We did help Joan and Tom have a great start. But we did have fun game. In round 4 we met Lorraine and her partner Marie O’Gorman and the conversation went like this:

Dan: That walk along the seafront must have given you a very clear head. Well played Lorraine (Lorraine had just made 3NT+2 on board 13 for a joint top)
Con: Lost connection for a while
Dan: Senan (the son) has just arrived, dogs gone wild, savaged as I played bridge!!
Maire: Were u in the cow house again Con ??
Lorraine: Thank you both. The walk didnt clear my head enough
Dan: I shall brave the beach later!!
Maire: Nxt time include me by the sea!!
Con: Got inside today Maire for a change
Maire: Mayo for the cups!!
Con: Dun na NGall abu
Dan: Mayo for crying into their cups!!
Maire: Donegal does that!
Dan: You could lend them one of your cups

Now I can show you all this in pictures!!

I could go on, but I think it’s time to stop.

Thank you to Aidan for again setting up the game and to Orla for managing all the entries through our CAVBC site.

Our next Draw for Partner game is on Wednesday 17^th February at 19.00 and is for Novices only. Pre entry is now open on CAVBC.

Last night it was the turn of the A’s and Area Masters to have a go at the Draw for Partner game. This time we managed to get 38 pre entries, giving us 19 pairs and with the addition of our subs Brenda Freeman and Agnes Graham, we ended up with 10 tables and played a Mitchell movement with 9 rounds of 3 boards. Because we had 10 tables, we were able to give prizes for the 1^st three pairs in both N/S and E/W. Aidan Synnott set up the game for us as usual and was meant to be our TD, but Mary Connell told Aidan to take a well deserved rest and she took over the TD duties. I saw her pleading with us on a number of occasions to finish on time, but it seemed to be falling on deaf ears, and I am ashamed to say that myself and my partner John Keenan were culprits on one occasion. Having said that, there were some really interesting hands last night, which did merit some elongated contemplation. And to top it all off for Mary, there seemed to be a BBO glitch on the very last board where we all lost our connectivity. Mary did try valiantly to get back in and increase the time on the last board, but to know avail, so we all received an Average Score for it.  On looking at how close some of the top four pairs in both N/S and E/W were to each other, the result on the last board could have had an impact on the placings, but “ho hum” we will never know. The prizes were again spread amongst all the clubs and the winners, who received BBO$ in their accounts today, were:     

1st North/South – Gaye Donnelly and Nigel Hillis

2nd North/South – Mary McElhinney and Patricia Quigley

3rd North/South – Teriona Rogan and Frances Gill

1st East/West – Jimmy Given and Kay McDonald

2nd East/West – Joe Keating and Anne Kennelly

3rd East/West – Marie Dale and Owen Treanor

I don’t know about the rest of you, but it has been a very long time since I have been on a roller coaster (maybe Disneyland in California over 15 years ago!). Anyhow I got that roller coaster feeling last evening when playing with John. We had 100% tops where we screamed with delight and then plummeted to the depths of 0% bottoms. One such bottom was on Board 14 against the North/South winners Gaye Donnelly and Nigel Hillis, where I had a balanced 14 point hand with 4 clubs and 4 spades and I foolishly opened 1 club instead of 1 no trump. As a result, John was the only West to play the board in No Trump and when Gaye led a diamond, the contract was doomed to go down 1, while all the Easts made their contracts +3. On the very next board Nigel had the audacity to open 1 spade and he vulnerable and with only 10 points. We ended up playing in 3 diamonds making +1, while most other pairs were making No Trump contracts. It would have been a total bottom, but for Frances Gill, who must have gone to Nigel’s school, and she also opened 1 spade resulting in our subs, Brenda and Agnes having to make do with a 3 Diamond contract as well. Nigel gleefully let me know that we had missed another No Trump contract. I told him he had “taken the wind out of may sails” and then we got to discussing the lakes of Monaghan and I offered to hum Red Sails in the Sunset, but for some unknown reason, he could not hear me. It was that kind of night. Oh the Gods of Bridge can be so cruel!

Thank you to Aidan for again setting up the game and to Orla for managing all the entries through our CAVBC site.

We do not have a Draw for Partner game next week, because of the SIM Pairs, but we will have another Draw for Partner Game on the 2^nd week of February.

Addendum

For those of you who are really pernickety, you will have noticed that when you compare the results on BBO with CAVBC, 2^nd and 3^rd place North/South are reversed. There is a very good reason for this. The scoring in BBO and CAVBC (Bridgewebs) treat average scores differently. The CAVBC score is recognised to be the most accurate and thus the placings on CAVBC are deemed to be the correct ones.

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure for all "Draw for Partner Games"

We had our 2^nd weekly CAVBC Draw for Partner game last night. This was for Inter B’s only. We had 17 pairs pre entered and they all managed to be in situ for the start of our game, so our TD’s Vanessa Timon and Eithne Cullinan had to call upon our Start of Game Subs Brid Carter and Mary Byrne, and a lucky call it was as they finished 2^nd E/W and each received the large sum of 5BBO$ in their BBO accounts this morning. So with our 18 pairs, Vanessa and Eithne used a Mitchell movement with 8 rounds of 3 boards. After the 24 boards, the top 2 in North/South and in East/West were:

                                   1st North/South – Liam Walls (Vernon and St Anthony’s) and Norman Ludgate (Raheny)

          2nd North/South – Anne Cody (Vernon) and Gladys Greene (St Anthony’s)

1st East/West – Peadar Buckley (St Anthony’s) and Mary Connell (Raheny and Clontarf)

2nd East/West – Brid Carter (Vernon and St Anthony’s) and Mary Byrne (St Anthony’s)

It is great to see how our Draw for Partner games are bringing so many people together from the different clubs. When I contacted the winners this morning, they were all delighted to hear that they were getting 10BBO$ each but were hugely disappointed when I told them they could not use the BBO$ to go shopping in Nolan’s.  Mary and Norman were out walking (separately I might add). Peadar told me it was only his 3^rd time playing on BBO, so hopefully we have whetted his appetite and we will see more of him on CAVBC. Liam and Norman were so happy with their win, they told me that they might have a 2^nd date in the DNR McLoughlin Cup competition on Saturday. For those of you who remember, there was a night club off Baggot Street called Zhivago’s back in the day and when you went to the “pictures” the add used to come up “Zhivago’s where love stories begin”. Anyhow, we can now change the headline on CAVBC to “CAVBC where bridge stories begin!!”

Now while all you B players were playing last night, the following momentous event happened – the 21^st second of the 21^st minute of the 21^st hour of the 21^st day of the 21^st year of the 21^st century. I sat around a table at home with the candles lighting, holding hands with Brenda while the wolf pack held paws. The spirits did not appear. They must be taking these COVID restrictions much too seriously. We had to revert to imbibing drinkable spirits!!.

Anyhow for those of you who want to remember where you were at this momentous moment, you were either playing board 17 or 18. In fact Brid and Mary were just starting board 18 and got a shared top when they lined up against Frankie Lappin and Clare Gartlan. There’s “Big Brother” for you.

Thank you to Aidan for again setting up the game and to Orla for managing all the entries through our CAVBC site.

Our next Draw for Partner game is on Thursday 28th and is for Inter A’s and Area/Regional Masters only and the next Inter B Draw for Partner game will be in February.

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure for all "Draw for Partner Games"

We had our 1^st weekly CAVBC Draw for Partner game last night.  This was for Novices only. As you know next week will be for Inter B’s only and we have an Inter A, Area Master and Regional Master game after that.

We had 18 pairs giving us 9 tables and our TD’s Bernadette Lacey and Mary Connell decided to use a Mitchell movement with 8 rounds of 3 boards. Bernadette Garry and Anne Robinson, who had pre entered for the game, volunteered to be our start of game subs. Unfortunately for them all the registered players were sitting in their seats and ready to go, so they were not needed.

After the 24 boards, the top 2 in North/South and in East/West were:

1st North/South – Anne Tynan and Myra Birmingham

2nd North/South – Eilish Keegan and Clare Smith

1st East/West – David Holland and Marian Sampson

2nd East/West – Kathleen Briody and Ray Wall

Before Xmas I described how the Santa Elves packed the sleigh with Turkeys and Hams and flew all over north Dublin delivering the goodies to all those nice bridge players who were successful in our Turkey Draws. But every elf has his day and new technology has led to a number of redundancies among the Santa Elves. We are now paying BBO$ to our Draw for Partner winners, so the sleigh and the elves have been put into cold storage at the North Pole.

Each of the players who came first got a payment into their BBO accounts today of 10BBO$, while those in 2^nd got a payment of 5BBO$. The pay outs to winners are determined by the number of tables that we have.  If four more people had registered, we would have had prizes for 12 people. So when our next Novice Draw for Partner game happens in February, see if you can get more of your friends to play.

This was Marian Sampson’s first BBO online game with a real person. She is probably the only player on CAVBC and Foxbay now with a 100% record. When I was speaking with Kathleen Briody, she told me that herself and Ray were getting tired when it came to round 8, and but for their tiredness, they might have won. I don’t believe her as Marian and David were way ahead. Myra Birmingham’s regular partner was bemoaning the fact that she won without him, so she agreed to pay for him the next time they played together. I think you should all queue up to be Myra’s partner.

Thank you to Aidan for again setting up the game and to Orla (who came 3^rd E/W with Dympna Craig) for managing all the entries through our CAVBC site.

Our next Draw for Partner game is on Thursday 21^st and is for Inter B’s only (Kathleen Briody take note – you cannot play up!!) and the next Novice Draw for Partner game will be in February.

See "Draw for Partner Game" tab on the menu bar for details of prize structure for all "Draw for Partner Games"