Ireland’s senior team finished fourth in the European championships which ended in Ostend, Belgium on Saturday.
The team – consisting of BJ O'Brien, Ranald Milne, Mícheál and Pádraig O Briain, Nick FitzGibbon and Adam Mesbur with non-playing captain Derek O'Gorman – has qualified for the world championships in Sanya, China in 2019. The Irish moved into silver medal position on Tuesday and held it until the third-last round on Saturday when they suffered their only serious defeat of the competition at the hands of Italy, a result that dropped them to sixth place.
Playing a set of deals with potential for big swings, the Irish players were simply on the wrong side of some close decisions. Closing victories over Portugal and Spain left them just four points short of the bronze medals. It was the best performance by an Irish senior team in international competition.
France had secured the gold medals a long way out while Sweden and Poland took silver and bronze respectively. Denmark, Norway, Netherlands and England also qualified for the trip to China. Twenty-two teams competed.
In the women’s event Ireland never recovered from a poor start and, despite some fine play including wins over strong teams such as Israel, Netherlands and Italy finished last of the 23 competing teams. Poland, Sweden and Norway captured gold, silver and bronze respectively. Denmark, England, Netherlands, Scotland and France also will go to China.
Norway, Sweden, England and Netherlands emerged as Europe’s leading bridge nations when their respective teams qualified for the world championships in all three categories.
Summer festival
The summer festival of bridge at the Regent bridge club on Dublin’s Waterloo Road will he held over four Friday evenings: June 29th, July 20th, August 17th and September 7th.
The prize fund will exceed €5,000 and includes a first prize of €1,000.
Cash awards also will go to the leading male and female players over the four sessions and to the first three pairs, section winners and best visiting pair each evening. Participation will be limited to 60 pairs each session. Entries to regentclubmanager@gmail.com.