We are very sorry to report the sudden death of Sam Hall, a member of the current Irish Senior team that competed in the European Championships in Herning this year in June.  Sam was a long standing active member and former chairperson of the NIBU.

Our deepest sympathy to his wife Liz and family.

A fuller memorial and funeral arrangements are found on the NIBU website.

We are deeply saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Jeff Millership, a former president of both the Irish Bridge Union and the Northern Ireland Bridge Union, and a great supporter and promoter of Bridge both North and South of the country.

We extend our heartfelt sympathy to Jeff's wife, Sandie.

Funeral Service will take place at Roselawn Crematorium, Belfast on Friday 8th March at 11.20 a.m.  A short tribute to Jeff, written by Philip Dufton, can be found at the NIBU website via this link.

Notices for the following international trials to select Irish Bridge Union teams for the European Open Teams Championships to be held in Herning, Denmark, from 24 June – July 4, 2024 have been published - you can find these via the menu options on the left hand side of this home page.  Qualification also applies to he World Games scheduled for late 2024.

• International Open Trials will be held in Templeogue on 19-21 January and 26-28 January 2024 – please note the closing date for entries is 1 December 2023, and for derogations from the stipulated entry requirements is 24 November 2023.
• International Women's Trials will be held in Templeogue on 19-21 January and 26-28 January 2024 – please note the closing date for entries is 1 December 2023, and for derogations from the stipulated entry requirements is 24 November 2023.
• International Mixed Trials will be held in Templeogue on 16-18 February and 9-10 March – please note the closing date for entries is 15 January 2024, and for derogations from the stipulated entry requirements is also 15 January 2024.
• International Senior Trials will be held in the La Mon Hotel, Belfast on 12-14 March – please note the closing date for entries is 31 January 2024, and for derogations from the stipulated entry requirements is also 24 January 2024.

Players contemplating entering more than one trial should read the notices regarding the relationship between the events carefully.

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  2023 Interprovincial Open Winners: Munster
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  2023 Interprovincial Area Master Winners: Leinster
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  2023 Interprovincial Intermediate Winners: Leinster

The annual IBU Interprovincial tournament was held on 18th-19th November 2023 at the Cavan Crystal hotel.  Three competitions were held at Open, Area Master and Intermediate levels.  In each competition, each province enters three teams (12 players), who play against the three teams from each of the other provinces - 9 matches in all - to determine the winning province by total VPs.

In the Open Competition, Munster led the field from the starting gun to the finish line - so congratulations on such a decisive result to their team of Gordon Lessells, Bob & Maureen Pattinson, Diarmuid Reddan (PC), Ranald Milne, Pat Quinn, Derek O'Gorman, Cian Holland, Tom McCarthy, Kelan O'Connor, John and Lucy Phelan.

The Area Master competition for the Fearghal O'Boyle trophy was more even, with Munster and Leinster tightly matched initially; however Leinster snatched a decisive lead late on Saturday which they never relinquished: well done to their team: Tony Ward, Bill O'Hanlon, Gerry Ryan, Elaine Fitzpatrick, Niamh Harty, Jimmy Byrne, Eamon Martin, Pam Harrington, Mary & Eoin Hodkinson, Rachel Connellan and Rosalind O Brien, pictured receiving the trophy from Fearghal O'Boyle.

The Intermediate competition was most closely fought with Leinster, Munster and Connacht exchanging the top spot throughout Saturday, ending up with Connacht holding a narrow overnight lead.  However, a strong performance on Sunday winning 8 of their 9 matches pulled Leinster through to top the field: great determination by the team of Kevin McKevitt, Angela O Neill, Helen Dredge, Anne Hogan, Kevin Kennedy, Willie Redmond, Pat Costello, Tom Reilly, Catherine Carabine, Deirdre Lonergan, Kerri Nolan and Aisling O'Grady. 

Congratulations to all who had the honour of being selected to represent their province.  Our thanks as always go to the fantastic TD team of Fearghal O'Boyle, Mairead Basquille and Brian Lawlor for a seamlessly run tournament.  A special thanks to Aileen Timoney for her tireless work with the hotel and with local clubs to ensure the success of the event.  Full results can be found >here<.

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  Conor Boland and Tom Hanlon
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  John Carroll and Mark Moran
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  Adam Mesbur and Tommy Garvey
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  2023 EBL Irish Champions team

Congratulations to the Irish Champions team competing in Dubrovnik in the European Champions Cup from 9th - 11th November 2023, finishing 5^th overall in this prestigious event.  Alongside NPC Grainne Barton, we were represented by Tom Hanlon, Conor Boland, John Carroll, Mark Moran, Adam Mesbur and Tommy Garvey.

Competing in the second group for 5th-8th place, our team first beat Croatia to reach the finals, where they played the Polish champions.   Our Irish champions had built a hugely impressive 93-13 lead after 16 of 32 boards, at which point the Polish team conceded defeat.

A fantastic performance and great result from the team.  You can find more details at this link.

Congratulations to Luca Crone & Matthew O’Farrell, who were victorious in the BGB (Bridge Great Britain) Junior Online Pairs, held on RealBridge on Saturday 23 September. Their score of 57.21% was just enough to pip Rufus Behr & Jamie Day (Scotland) for the Paul Porteous Trophy (for the Under-26 category). Well done also to Sheila Walsh & Isabel Burke who finished fourth and were the best ladies' pair.

The winners of the Liz McGowan Trophy (for the Under-21 category) were Harriet Cork & Raffy Sinclair (England). Our thanks to Fearghal O’Boyle for very kindly donating his time to TD the competition, and to Shireen Mohandes and the RealBridge team for their support in promoting the event.  Full results here.

An experienced and well-regarded squad represented Ireland at the World Championships (for the “Bermuda Bowl”), held in Marrakech, Morocco, from 20 August to 2 September 2023.  Mark Moran, Adam Mesbur, John Carroll, Tommy Garvey, coach Nick FitzGibbon, Hugh McGann, Tom Hanlon (L-R) pictured with NPC Gráinne Barton had been preparing diligently for this event for some time. The competition was extremely tough, with several teams made up entirely of full-time bridge professionals, and the schedule is intense – an eight-day round-robin of three matches per day to qualify as one of the top eight teams for a knockout phase … and all in sweltering conditions of 40 degree heat!  Matches took place daily at 10:00, 13:15, and 15:50 (Morocco is in the same time-zone as Ireland). 

As the round-robin phase of the championships ended, Ireland won both their final matches to finish in thirteenth place with a record of ten wins, one draw, and twelve defeats. It was always a big challenge to make the playoffs, in a field crowded with teams of full-time bridge professionals, and mid-table is a very respectable finish for the Irish team.  We congratulate the team on qualifying for the Bermuda Bowl (for only the second time in our history) and thank them for the hard work they put in, and the interest and excitement that they have provided for us over the eight days of the tournament.

At the Annual Meeting of the Irish Bridge Union held on Monday, 14th August in CityNorth Hotel, Gormanstown, County Meath, Council welcomed President Peter O'Meara (left), being congratulated by outgoing President Harold Curran.

We wish best of fortune to President Peter and offer our thanks and best wishes to Harold for his effort and commitment throughout his term.

All Irish eyes have recently been focused on our women’s soccer team playing in their first world cup finals, but another Irish team will shortly be representing us on the world stage too.

The Irish Bridge Team qualified from last year’s European Championships for a place in the upcoming World Championships (for the “Bermuda Bowl”) to be held in Marrakech, Morocco, from 20 August to 2 September 2023. This is the second time that Ireland has qualified for the “world cup” of bridge.

Irish Bridge Union PRO Dermot O’Brien notes that: “We are sending a very experienced and well-regarded team to Morocco, and hopes are high for a good performance. Five of the six-person playing squad have previously won European silver medals, and all have a great track record of achievement at the highest level.”

The squad is John Carroll, Tommy Garvey, Tom Hanlon, Hugh McGann, Adam Mesbur, and Mark Moran, accompanied by Non-Playing Captain Gráinne Barton, and Coach Nick FitzGibbon, and all Irish bridge players will be cheering them on in Marrakech.

Team captain Gráinne Barton (pictured opposite) says: “The team has been practicing hard for these World Championships ever since qualification last summer, and we are going into the tournament in good form. It’ll be a huge challenge, of course, with all the top teams in the world present, several of them made up of full-time bridge professionals. And the Championships will be a test of endurance as well as skill, with thirteen days of multiple matches requiring the highest level of concentration at all times. Thanks very much to all the Irish bridge players for their support for the team. We’ll be doing our very best to make you proud of us.”

For further details, please contact Irish Bridge Union PRO Dermot O’Brien on (087) 9075663 or at dermot@cbai.ie.

Congratulations to two of our Junior team, Luca Crone & Matthew O’Farrell, who finished sixth in the President’s Cup at the recent European Transnational Youth Championships in Veldhoven, the Netherlands.  Good wishes also to the Irish Under-21 team taking part in the 18th World Youth Teams Championships at the same venue currently. We received a late invitation to enter a team, and the squad (Aileen Armstrong, Eve Connell, Klara Flanagan, David Hoyne, Phedra Kingston, with NCP John Phelan) is young (five of them are 17, and still in school), and inexperienced, and it’s fair to say that they are finding the competition tough thus far. But Phedra, who has just turned 17, made her presence felt with an excellent piece of declarer play to bring home a tricky slam contract, which was duly recorded by her captain in the Daily Championship Bulletin (page 14).

Pictured below are Isabel Burke & Luca Crone and Phedra Kingston & David Hoyne in action in the preliminary mixed pairs.

The WBF has been invited to participate in the Olympic Esports Week in Singapore later this month. This will provide an opportunity for bridge to showcase its activities and development in the arena of electronic sports, with tens of thousands of visitors expected.

What has this to do with me, you may ask. Well, the answer is that as part of this process, the WBF has arranged for special tournaments on both BBO and FunBridge, with the prize for the eventual winner being an invitation (including travel and accommodation) to the Transnational Week (28 August to 2 September) during the upcoming World Championships in Marrakech; there are also other prizes in BBO$ and FunBridge diamonds. The qualifying events will be run next week on BBO and FunBridge, as follows:

• Qualifying Phase: Monday 19, Tuesday 20, Wednesday 21 June – multiple 6-board tournaments available every day on both platforms (charge BB$0.5 on BBO, 25 diamonds on FunBridge) – best five tournaments to count, with a minimum average of 55%
• Finals Phase: Friday 23, Saturday 24, Sunday 25 June – multiple 8-board tournaments available every day on both platforms (free of charge) – final ranking on the average of the best five tournaments

Players should register directly on the platform(s), stating that they are members of the Irish Bridge Union. You can play on one or both platforms.

You can find full details re BBO here and for FunBridge here

Incidentally, while mentioning Marrakech, we wish our Open Team (Mark Moran, John Carroll, Tom Hanlon, Hugh McGann, Tommy Garvey, and Adam Mesbur, with NPC Grainne Barton and coach Nick FitzGibbon) the very best of luck in the Bermuda Bowl. We had been harbouring hopes that our Women’s Team, which was first reserve, might be allocated a spot in the Venice Cup, but unfortunately that hope has now been dashed. Very hard luck on all concerned to miss out so narrowly.

The Egan Trophy is contested annually between 10 invited teams from CBAI and NIBU, and was played at La Mon House on 27th and 28th May.

Our congratulations to the pictured winning team of Nick Fitzgibbon, John Carroll, Tommy Garvey, Adam Mesbur, and Mark Moran (missing from picture).  Paul Delaney and Tomas Roche, Martin Brady and David Dunne came in second place with Lucy Phelan & Louise Mitchell along with Ann O'Connell & Valarie Burke-Moran finishing third.

NIBU hosted the event and our special thanks go to Anne Fitzpatrick, our organiser, and to Alan Hill for acting as TD.

Full results can be found >here<.

The IBU Club Pairs was held online on BBO on Saturday 13 May at 11:00, with separate competitions for Master and Intermediate grades.   

Our Master winners in a tight contest were Thomas MacCormac playing with Geoffrey S. Jade Barrett, narrowly beating both Wayne Somerville & Luca Crone in second and Joan Kenny & Enda Glynn in third.  Full Masters results can be found >here<.

Congratulations to our Intermediate winners Paul Dunne and Mags Kelly of Castleknock.  In a tight contest for second, Anthony Coogan & Joan McDonald emerged just ahead of Olive Mulcahy & James McNamara.  The Intermediate results can be found >here<.

Our thanks to all who took part in the two competitions; with special thanks to our TD, Fearghal O'Boyle.

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  2023 Pat McDevitt Trophy Seniors Pairs
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  2023 Seniors Teams 1st
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  2023 Seniors Teams 2nd
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  2023 Seniors Teams 3rd

Following last year's revival of the Seniors Congress, it was very encouraging to see continued growth in the numbers returning to in-person play at the IBU Seniors Congress 2023 at the Cavan Crystal Hotel from 18th to 20th April.  Our thanks and congratulations to all who participated in a thoroughly enjoyable event.  Particular congratulations to winners!

Gala Open Pairs – Helen Hall and Michael McFaul (Belfast)

Novice Pairs – Susan Grogan and Kathleen Lavin (Cavan)

Congress Pairs – Gay Keaveney and Peter Goodman (Galway and Dublin) (session 1 boards)

Congress Teams  – Pat McDevitt, Gay Keaveney, Peter Goodman and Enda Glynn

Congratulations also to our Open Pairs winners:

Wednesday

1.30 p.m. Open Pairs – Melissa Brady and Paddy McDermott (Cavan)
7.00 p.m. Open Pairs – Paddy McDermott and Seamus Bennett (NS), Ann Gaffney and Pat Plunket (EW) (Cavan)

Thursday

11.00 a.m. Open Pairs – Helene McCambridge and Mary P. Flynn (Belfast)
3.00 p.m. Open Pairs – Paddy McDermott and Peter Byrne (Cavan and Drogheda)

Huge thanks as always to our excellent TDs, Fearghal O’Boyle and Peter Byrne, who made sure the entire event ran like clockwork.  We are particularly grateful to Aileen Timoney, who put in a lot of unseen work organising the event with the venue; and also to Cavan County Council who, along with the CBAI North Eastern region, sponsored the three day event.

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  Moylan 2023 1st
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  Moylan 2023 2nd
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  Moylan 2023 3rd

The IBU All-Ireland National Pairs Championship for the Moylan Cup took place in Malahide Regional Bridge Centre over the weekend of 15/16 April, with a full-house of 40 pairs competing.  Our thanks to all who accepted the invitation to take part, to Malahide for hosting, and to Tournament Director Eamon Galligan for ensuring everything went off smoothly.

The prizewinners were:

• 1st Joan Kenny & Jeannie Fitzgerald;
• 2nd Tom Hanlon & John Carroll;
• 3rd BJ O’Brien & Peter Goodman;
• 4th Pat Quinn & Donal Garvey.

Session Prizes:

1. Peter Pigot & Derek O’Gorman;
2. Carol-Ann Cummins & John Noonan;
3. Diarmuid Reddan & John Phelan.

CBAI President-Elect, Gordon Lessells, has penned the following brief history of the weekend’s competition, from the County Clare perspective. He notes that the Moylan Cup will be returning to the county, courtesy of Jeannie, who is from Ennis (her partner Joan is from County Galway). The cup was presented in 1943 by Dr. Peter Moylan, an Ennis doctor and one of the founders of the Ennis Bridge Club, who was President of the CBAI in the preceding year. Originally it was awarded to the winners of a trials competition. In 1956 the Irish Bridge Union, an all-Ireland confederation, was formed and since 1957 the Moylan Cup has been presented to the winners of the IBU’s All-Ireland Pairs Championship. In 1962 and 1963, the Moylan Cup was won by Gordon Holmes, a Limerick solicitor, and Michael O’Connell from Cork. The Moylan Cup was won eight times between 1974 and 1997 by Eoin MacNeill, who was also playing in this year’s event. This year’s runner-up Tom Hanlon has won the Moylan Cup ten times, the first time in 1990; he also has at least three second-place finishes.

The first female pair to win the Moylan Cup were Ruth Giddings and Barbara Seligman in 1965. Ann Montwill and Aileen O’Keeffe won the Moylan Cup twice in 1975 and 1981. Jeannie and Joan are the first all-female winners since then. Next weekend Jeannie and Joan will be playing on the CBAI Ladies team in the Lady Milne Trophy which takes place in Perth, Scotland. A further Ennis connection among the prizewinners at the weekend was provided by Pat Quinn, who came fourth with Donal Garvey.

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  2023 Burke 1st
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  2023 Burke 2nd
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  2023 Burke 3rd
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  2023 OConnor Winners

The IBU Inter-County Open and Intermediate Teams Championships, for the Burke and O’Connor Trophies respectively, were held in the Cavan Crystal Hotel over the weekend of 11/12 March 2023.

The prizewinners were:

Burke Trophy (Open)

O’Connor Trophy (Intermediate)

Our thanks to Tournament Director Diarmuid Reddan for ensuring the competitions ran smoothly.  You will find the session and overall results here.

The IBU Interprovincial Championships were held over the weekend of 19/20 November 2022 in the Templeogue Bridge Centre, back live for the first time since 2019.

In the Open Section, a very strong Leinster team (Tom Hanlon, John Carroll, Peter Goodman, Nick FitzGibbon, Adam Mesbur, Terry Walsh, BJ O'Brien, Karel De Raeymaeker, Conor Boland, Marcin Rudzinski, Wojciech Gorcyzca, Tomás Roche, and PC Paul Delaney) had a very convincing trap-to-line victory.

The same province also had a comfortable win in the Area Master Section (Adrienne Purdy, Martin Purdy, Eimir Beirne, Eamon Martin Jnr, Sue Power, Colette Stokes, Elizabeth O'Reilly, Helen O'Reilly, Sean Galligan, Brid Galligan, Marie James, and Fiona O'Gorman with NPC Mary Breen).

The Intermediate Section was more closely contested, with Ulster (Geraldine McNamee, Michael McNamee, Christine Stewart, Judy Young, Eric Butterwick, Bill McCormick, Robert Caves, Diana Patterson, George Harper, John Forsythe, Veronica Fay, Felicity O'Brien) emerging victorious.

Well done to all the winners, and thanks to our TD crew of Fearghal O'Boyle, Mairead Basquille, and Martin Brady. You'll find the full results here. 

Many congratulations to the Irish Open team of Mark Moran, John Carroll, Tom Hanlon, Hugh McGann, Nick FitzGibbon, Adam Mesbur, and NPC Gráinne Barton, which finished sixth in the recent European Championships in Madeira, earning a qualification spot for next year’s World Championship (Bermuda Bowl) in Marrakech in the process. The team was in contention throughout, winning 19 matches out of 29, and a three-match winning streak against three of the toughest opponents, eventual winners Netherlands, runners-up Switzerland, and highly-rated but ultimately unsuccessful Sweden, created a good gap in the race for a qualifying spot, and meant that all that was needed from there were continued solid performances and strong nerves. Well done to all on a great achievement, based upon a lot of hard work, in the past few pandemic-hit years in particular, where the team has taken every opportunity to compete in the highest-level and most testing events.

And heartfelt commiserations to our Women’s squad Teresa Rigney, Diane Greenwood, Rebecca O'Keeffe, Gilda Pender, Joan Kenny, Jeannie Fitzgerald, and NPC Paul Porteous, which missed out on qualification for the Venice Cup by the most agonising of margins, just 1.01 Victory Points, after 19 matches. They won 9 of those, and drew one, beating four of the eight qualifying teams, including the ultimate winners Poland, in the process. They always had a battle on their hands for the final qualifying spot, and unfortunately a narrow defeat to Iceland in their final match put it just beyond reach. Well done to all nevertheless on a fine performance.

Unfortunately, neither our Senior (BJ O'Brien, Ranald Milne, Terry Walsh, Peter Goodman, Micheál Ó Briain, Pádraig Ó Briain, and NPC Derek O'Gorman) nor our Mixed (Carol-Ann Cummins, John Noonan, Sandra Newell, Michael McAuliffe, Louise Mitchell, David Walsh, and NPC Diarmuid Reddan) teams ever really got going, and both finished down the field. We did learn from the championship bulletin that BJ is planning an autobiography, which should be entertaining.

We also have a good performance to report from the Women’s Pairs, however, where Ann O’Connell and Dolores Gilliland became only the fifth Irish pair to qualify for the final of the event since it was inaugurated in the 1980s, eventually finishing in fourteenth place. And of course we were also represented at the championships by our international Tournament Director, Fearghal O'Boyle, as a key member of the officiating team.

Our thanks to all those who represented us in Madeira, and to all who either travelled out to support them or followed the championships from back home. You’ll find all the results here.

The next couple of weeks sees the 55th European Teams Championships being held in Madeira, Portugal. Ireland is represented by the following teams:

• Open Event (12-22 June): Mark Moran, John Carroll, Tom Hanlon, Hugh McGann, Nick FitzGibbon, Adam Mesbur, NPC Gráinne Barton
• Seniors Event (16-22 June): BJ O'Brien, Ranald Milne, Terry Walsh, Peter Goodman, Micheál Ó Briain, Pádraig Ó Briain, NPC Derek O'Gorman
• Women's Event (16-22 June): Teresa Rigney, Diane Greenwood, Rebecca O'Keeffe, Gilda Pender, Joan Kenny, Jeannie Fitzgerald, NPC Paul Porteous
• Mixed Event (16-22 June): Carol-Ann Cummins, John Noonan, Sandra Newell, Michael McAuliffe, Louise Mitchell, David Walsh, NPC Diarmuid Reddan

Good luck to all the Irish teams; we will be watching their results and cheering them on. You'll find all the information, including updated results and daily bulletins, at the tournament microsite. Some matches will be broadcast on the BBO Vu-graph facility, so hopefully we'll have an opportunity to watch our teams in action. There will also be a Women's Pairs Championship and a Senior Pairs Championship (12-15 June), and we will have participants in both events. And of course we will also be represented at the championships by our international Tournament Director, Fearghal O'Boyle, as a key member of the TD team.

Moynihans Irish Bar, just around the corner from the playing venue, has very kindly offered free tea and coffee to any Irish players who drop in (just show your official accreditation) in return for a mention on our website and social media ... we are happy to oblige, and hope they will be very busy during the championships.

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  Moylan 2022 RunnersUp
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  Moylan 2022 Third Place
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  Moylan 2022 Winners

Congratulations to Carol-Ann Cummins and John Noonan, who emerged victorious after three sessions to win the Moylan Cup (the IBU All-Ireland Pairs Championship) which was held in Malahide Bridge Centre over the  weekend of April 2-3. This was the first IBU event to be held live in more than two years, and, while numbers were a little lower than normal (with several COVID-related withdrawals in the days before the competition), everyone was delighted to be back to the table for live bridge. Our thanks to Tournament Director Brian Lawlor for managing the event smoothly.

The full list of prizewinners is:

• 1st Carol-Ann Cummins & John Noonan
• 2nd Tom Hanlon & John Carroll
• 3rd Kathleen Vaughan & Bríd Kemple
• 4th Anna Onishuk & Karel De Raeymaeker
• Session 1: Michelle Moloney & Marcin Rudzinski
• Session 2: Seamus Costello & Brendan Sheridan
• Session 3: Joan Kenny & Jeannie Fitzgerald

Full results

Well done to the winners of the IBU competitions in the 2018/19 season.

The Burke Trophy (Open Inter-County Teams) was won by Tyrone (William Dukelow, Dean Bradley, Bill Scott, and Drew Lindsay)

The O’Connor Trophy (Intermediate Inter-County Teams) was won by Dublin City (Teresa Gavin, Philip Robinson, Frank Kennedy, and Evgenia Gladysheva)

The IBU Club Pairs (Open Section) was won by John & Lucy Phelan

The IBU Club Pairs (Intermediate Section) was won by Teresa Gavin & Colette Allen

The Moylan Trophy (All-Ireland Pairs Championship) was won by Ronan McMaugh & Marcin Rudzinski

The Egan Trophy (All-Ireland Teams Championship) was won by Rex Anderson, David Greenwood, Paul Tranmer, and Wayne Somerville

The IBU Seniors Congress Pairs was won by BJ O'Brien & Terry Walsh

The IBU Seniors Congress Teams was won by Enda Glynn, Bob Pattinson, Joan Kenny, and Teresa Rigney

Congratulations to all, and thanks to those of you who supported the IBU competitions this season.

We wish the very best of luck to the Irish team competing in Dubrovnik in the European Champions Cup from 9th - 11th November.  Alongside NPC Grainne Barton, we will be cheering on Tom Hanlon, Conor Boland, John Carroll, Mark Moran, Adam Mesbur and Tommy Garvey.

You can follow the progress of the team from this link.

The World Bridge Federation is conducting a survey exploring what types of leisure activities people do and why.  The survey is aimed primarily at bridge players, and will help us get a better understanding of why different groups of people around the world like and play bridge, and how bridge compares to other activities that bridge players and potential bridge players like to do.  This will help administrators, teachers and promoters design better ways to get people into bridge, and to stay in bridge.  WBF wants to hear from all players, not just those participating in international events.  

The link to the survey is >here< and you can find an article about the survey >here<.

The EBL will conduct the last online training session for this year on 18th December 2023, at 19:30 CEST on RealBridge.

How is it going to work?

We will play 15 boards (teams of 4) 

and enjoy the analysis of our guest coach Goded Gonzalo a professional bridge player from Spain.

The talk is in English and the players will have the chance to ask questions.

Who is it suitable for?

The trainings are suitable for competitive bridge female players who want to join the EBL's fantastic training program for women (it's free), 

How to register a team?

1. Players can contact the Irish Women's Coordinator, Joan Kenny, using This Link
2. Players are welcome to send an email to the Women's Bridge Committee, and we will be happy to assist: WomenBridgeCommittee@gmail.com

Thank you for your cooperation,

Oryah Meir, Chair. EBL Women's Bridge Committee

Click here to find out more about the EBL 1st European Winter Transnational Championships in Alpe d'Huez in April 2024.

Good luck to the team of John Connolly, Stephen Barr, Michael Donnelly, Nathan Doyle, Jarlath McDonnell, and Conor Farrell, with NPC Thomas MacCormac, who will represent Ireland in the 27th European Under-26 Open Team Championships in Oslofjord, Norway, from 5 to 11 July. Full details, including ongoing results, can be found here.

Here are the notices for the following international trials:

International Open Trials for the European Open Teams Championship to be held in Madeira from 17-27 June 2020 - IBU Open Trials.doc

International Women's Trials for the European Women's Teams Championship to be held in Madeira from 20-27 June 2020 - IBU Womens Trials.doc

International Senior Trials for the European Senior Teams Championship to be held in Madeira from 20-27 June 2020 - IBU Senior Trials.doc

International Mixed Trials for the European Mixed Teams Championship to be held in Madeira from 17-27 June 2020 - IBU Mixed Trials.doc

The IBU Simultaneous Pairs week 2019 has now concluded, and a list of the prizewinners is here. Well done to all, and we will be paying the prizes through the relevant club's bank account wherever possible. If you were not amongst the prizewinners, click here to see the final results and check how you fared in the national rankings.

Thanks to all those clubs that took part, and to our bulletin commentators Paul Delaney and Brian Senior for their expert analysis. We hope that you enjoyed the event and will play again next year.

If your club does not take part in the Sims, why not encourage the committee to sign up; there will be another opportunity in February, for the CBAI Simultaneous Pairs week. Just give us a call on (01) 4929666 if you'd like to be included.

The Keep Bridge Alive project being run by Professor of Sociology at the University of Stirling in Scotland (and Scottish international bridge player) Samantha Punch has been rebranded as "Bridge: A Mindsport for All" (BAMSA). The key goals of the project are to work in collaboration with bridge organisations to use research to transform the image of bridge, to increase participation across all ages, and to enhance the sustainability of bridge as a mindsport that connects people and challenges their minds. Details of the current projects being undertaken in support of those goals are here.

The project has recently produced a short video, Why Play Bridge? What Makes Bridge Brilliant, which may be found here. Hopefully, it will not be too long before we are back to face-to-face bridge (and hand-shaking!) as seen in the video. In addition, the researchers are interested in learning how bridge players have responded to the challenges to the game presented by the Covid-19 pandemic and associated restrictions, which they will collate in an effort to provide insights into the short- and longer-term impacts on the bridge community. You can email your views to bamsa@stir.ac.uk or for more information see the BAMSA website. Responses don't need to be long and can be structured as you wish. So please consider responding yourself, and bring this to the attention of any fellow bridge players that you think might be prepared to help.

Another survey, aimed specifically at club representatives and bridge teachers, is being run by Kevin Judge, who is a PhD student involved in the project. The aim of Kevin's research is to develop an understanding of how bridge clubs promote themselves, and encourage, develop, and retain players. The survey may be found here (until 31 July) and will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Participation is entirely voluntary, and all potential participants can receive full participant information detail by accessing the survey. Both the CBAI and the IBU are pleased to support the research effort, and we would therefore encourage relevant parties (bridge club secretaries, or organisers, and teachers) to share their views to enable Kevin and his colleagues to form solid conclusions and develop effective proposals on how best to promote bridge. If anyone has any questions on this research project as a whole, any issues accessing the survey, or any suggestions on how it might be improved, Kevin will be happy to help, and can be contacted by email.

We hope you are enjoying the IBU Simultaneous Pairs week for 2021, with games every day this week. Thanks to all those clubs that are participating. You are contributing very valuable funds to the IBU (a confederation of the CBAI and the NIBU which is responsible for sending teams to international competitions). The next European Championship is scheduled for Madeira in June 2022, so the funds raised will go towards the expense of the four teams (Open, Women, Seniors, and Mixed) due to represent Ireland there. The arrangements are a little complicated this season because some clubs will be playing in-person, some online, and some in a combination of the two, but however you have played the event, we hope that your members have enjoyed it.

The results can be found on the ECATS website, which is also where your members should go to check their rankings in the national standings once you have uploaded your results. We will be presenting the usual prizes to the winners, both overall and within the various sub-categories.

The daily commentaries are also available on the ECATS site, and have been sent to all the participating clubs for distribution, and will also be uploaded here once each nightly game has finished. Our thanks to our expert analysts for this season, Brian Senior, Paul Delaney, and Enda Glynn.

Monday Commentary Tuesday Commentary Wednesday Commentary Thursday Commentary

If you have any feedback to assist us in organising future Simultaneous Pairs events, we’d be happy to hear it.

The European Bridge League has published this statement on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. President Jan Kamras, whilst recognising that the actions of the bridge world are unlikely to have any major impact on the conflict, notes nonetheless that the bridge community has a responsibility to support Ukraine and show its revulsion at the Russian actions, and the support of Belarus for those actions. You’ll see that certain supports are planned for the Ukrainian Bridge Federation, and that Russian and Belarussian participants have been disinvited from all EBL events until further notice.

The IBU supports this stance completely, and a number of fundraising initiatives on behalf of the Ukrainian relief effort are being planned by clubs within both the CBAI and the NIBU.