The attached are the seating plans for tomorrow's competition. If anyone cannot play, please let Mary Deane know on tournaments@MRBC.ie. Thanks.

Further to the earlier notice please be aware that Fran Ronan’s classes will start at 10.30am each Friday, starting on 18 September.

Congratulations to the 2026 winners of An Corn Buíochais, Janice Dack & Mary Chambers. They are  pictured receiving the trophy from club President, Anthony McMackin.

Congratulations to John Murray, the MRBC Player of the Year for 2025/2026. John was presented with his award by club President, Anthony McMackin.

Board 12 last Monday was challenging.

At my table, West passed and in the north seat, I opened 1 heart. East passed and my partner bid 2NT (Jacoby…showing 4 card support for the hearts and 13 plus points). I couldn’t think what to do….I knew there might be a slam on, but didn’t know how to get there, especially given I was Jack high in hearts. So I reluctantly bid just a game, 4 hearts.

When Helena’s hand went down I reassessed. I had a certain diamond loser and probably a club loser as well. Maybe I was in the right place.

Despite the fact I only needed 10 tricks to make my contract, I felt I had to try to make 12 tricks if I wanted a half decent score, as I expected a few norths would have bid the slam. A diamond was led which I won with the Ace. One round of trumps drew the hearts. I now had to give up a club, before the Ace of spades and especially the King of diamonds were gone. With the jack doubleton in my hand and Ace, 10, x in dummy, losing only 1 club trick was a possibility. Furthermore the clubs might allow me to pitch my losing diamond. And so it proved. 12 tricks.

On my side 2 Norths had bid 6 hearts, one making it and one going down. Curious to know how 6 hearts was bid, I was discussing it with the guys who were their opposition on the board and the lads admitted they had pushed them into it, by bidding 5 spades. With the vulnerability and a fistful of spades, I might well have done the same thing. It backfired on Tony and Noel on this occasion, though in fact one E/W did bid 5 spades, got doubled, went down 3, but still got a good score of 86%.

Nobody on the B side bid 6 hearts, though interestingly more of them made 12 tricks.

Looking back at the hand again, I think after Helena bids 2 NT, I should bid 3 spades, which is showing a control in spades, Helena should bid 4 clubs (not Gerber here, but showing club control). My next bid is 4 diamonds, again showing control in diamonds and now Helena should bid 4NT. I show 2 keycards and she now knows we have all 5 of them plus the queen. 6 hearts is now an easy bid. But once I get my bid wrong (my 4 heart sign off) Helena can’t rescue the situation.

However this board is also a lesson in not settling on just enough tricks to make your contract. Always strive for an overtrick (or 2) so long as it doesn’t put the contract in jeopardy. On this board there was nothing to be lost by eking out a 12th trick and it was worth it as those making 11 tricks got 43% whereas those making 12 got 79%.

Note: When playing teams making your contract is enough. An extra trick might secure you1 insignificant IMP, but an extra trick in pairs can often give you 100%

Congratulations to all Gala Pair Section Winners pictured with President Anthony McMackin.

Congratulations to the following Player of the Year  winners for 2025/2026

Monday morning - Tom Cassidy

Monday evening  - Martin Smyth

Tuesday evening - Brendan Redmond

Wednesday evening - Rachel McHale

Thursday evening  - Gay Connolly 

Two separate sessions of bridge classes for beginners, will start in the club on Monday evenings from 14 September and on Friday mornings from 18 September. Details are on the attached notice. Please bring this opportunity to the attention of anyone that is interested in learning how to play bridge. Thank you.

After a promising start to our Wednesday morning game we will now take a break until early September . Wednesday morning bridge will resume  on Wednesday 16th September at 10am. Thank you to all who have supported this new venture so far. 

Friday Night Bridge is cancelled for the Summer and will also resume in early September.

Following the AGM on 21st May and subsequent Council meeting the following are the council members for 2026/7.

Details of the AGM are available on AGM 2026 Page.

President - Anthony McMackin,

Bar Manager - Patricia Brennan.

Social Secretary - Mary Chambers 

Secretary - Clodagh Gallagher.

Treasurer - Niall Duffy.

Facilities Officer - Kathy Murphy.

Technology Officer - Eilish Timoney.

Tournaments Officer - Mary Deane

The following is one of the items on the Smart Card Information Tab.

How do I check my balance.

If you make any purchase at the bar using your Smart Card you will get a receipt with your balance on it.

You can also go to the Bar with your Smart Card and ask the Bar Person for the balance or for a list of recent transactions. 

You can also get it online through the Smart Club Cloud App (which you can download to your phone) - Click on Smart Card - then on the page which appears click on the three rectangles on the top right of the screen.  These will then allow you to view your Transaction History.

You can logon to SmartClubCloud | Login Page - Go to the Top Up Icon - Scroll down through that and you will see a Transaction History Tab. Fill in the details and this will show your transaction History.

To login online your username will be in the form firstname.surname.number - e.g. joe.soap.567 and you should have set up your own password.