Martin Brady and David Dunne have won the first leg of the four-session, summer festival of bridge at Dublin’s Regent bridge club.
Grand masters Terry Walsh and Mícheál Ó Briain were second, while David Ryan and Ed Perrett were third – the latter player making a return to competitive bridge after a long absence from the game.
John Fagan and John G Kennedy were fourth, while last year’s winner, Tomás Roche, kept himself in contention for a repeat victory by finishing fifth with Paul Delaney. Peter Goodman and BJ O’Brien were in sixth place, while Wojciech Gorczyca, Marcin Rudzinski, Rita O’Neill and Mary Quigley also scored significant points towards the €1,000 first prize.
The next round will be played on the evening of Friday, July 20th.
The fourth Home Instead Dublin summer congress will take place at Westmanstown sport and conference centre, Lucan, Co Dublin, from Friday, July 27th, to Sunday, July 29th. The programme for the weekend will feature separate pairs and team competitions for all grades of players, and will begin with mixed and novice pairs events on the Friday starting at 7.30pm.
Congress pairs with prizes for regional masters, and separate pairs events for area masters, intermediate A and intermediate B players will start at 1.30pm on the Saturday. On Sunday the major team championship will be run as a Swiss movement, while different team contests for area masters, intermediate A and intermediate B and novice competitors will be contested simultaneously, commencing at 11am. Entries for the main events should be submitted to: competitions.cbai.ie or dublinsummercongress@gmail.com
An open pairs competition for which pre-entry is not required will be held on Sunday at 1pm, subject to sufficient numbers.
The annual general meeting of the Contract Bridge Association of Ireland has been convened for next Saturday at Athlone Springs Hotel at 2pm, when Peter O’Meara from Sharavogue, Birr, Co Offaly, will become the 84th person to be elected president of the association since its foundation in 1932.
At the annual general meeting of the Northern Ireland Bridge Union, which was held recently in Belfast, the following officers were elected for the 2018-2019 season: president Ian Lindsay; chairman Harold Curran; honorary secretary Michael McFaul; honorary competitions secretary Liz Scott; and honorary treasurer Anne Fitzpatrick.