European Bridge Championships: Ireland consolidated its bronze medal position following another good series of matches at the 48th European bridge championships in Warsaw over the weekend.
The latest run of success began when Tom Hanlon, Hugh McGann, Nick FitzGibbon and Adam Mesbur lined out to defeat Belarus 19-11.
The big clash of round 17 was between Hungary and Ireland, at that stage lying second and third respectively behind Italy. The same four Irish players lined out but got off to a poor start. Only a rally near the end prevented a worse defeat than the eventual scoreline of 9-21. The disappointing result dropped the Irish to fifth and gave the Hungarians a comfortable gap over the third team Norway.
In the next two matches the Irish showed character when they fought back to secure two maximum 25s against Estonia and San Marino. Hanlon, McGann, John Carroll and Tommy Garvey played in both matches. A solid 19-11 win by Carroll, Garvey, FitzGibbon and Mesbur over Romania in round 21 restored the team to the coveted third spot on the leaderboard.
Hungary suffered a crushing 2-25, defeat at the hands of Norway in round 21, a result which relegated the Hungarians to fifth place and elevated the Norwegians to second.
Italy continues to cruise to victory. Despite losing to Iceland in round 17, only their second loss of the championship, they scored heavily against Spain, France, Switzerland and Greece, taking 87 points from the four matches to go further ahead of the field.
Significantly, the Irish team, captained by David Jackson, has opened a gap of 24 points over Israel, the team in seventh place, and with 12 rounds still to go is looking assured of a place in the world championships next year in Shanghai. The leading six in Warsaw will travel to China.
The Irish women's team of Ciara Burns, Mary Finn, Ena Cleary, Jeannie Fitzgerald, Dympna Friel and Diane Greenwood, with Gay Keaveney as non-playing captain, are also having a good championship.
They lost to former European champions Austria in round 10. Before that they scored impressive victories over England 18-12, Finland 19-11 and Iceland 18-12 to occupy eighth place behind joint leaders England and Germany. Netherlands are just a point behind in third.
Ireland's seniors team, John Comyn, Joe Moran, Enda Glynn, Paul Scannell, Des Houlihan and Gordon Lessels with non-playing captain BJ O'Brien, have failed to make an impression on the competition so far. They lost their last four matches to Sweden, France, Estonia and Netherlands, and are 14th of the 16 competing teams.
Turkey is the surprise leader, followed closely by France, Sweden and Scotland.
Open championship leader board: 1 Italy 417, 2 Norway 389, 3 IRELAND 373, 4 Sweden 369.5, 5 Hungary 365, 6 Iceland 359, 7 Israel 349.5, 8 Netherlands 346, 9 Denmark 340.5, 10 Germany 340.5, 11 Poland 337, 12 Russia 330 18th England 318, 23rd Scotland 286, 26th Wales 283. 33 teams compete.
Women: 1 England and Germany 190, 3 Netherlands 189, 4 France 178, 5 Denmark 169, 6 Poland 162, 7 Croatia 159, 8th IRELAND 158, 9 Austria 157, 10 Italy 153. 22 teams compete Seniors: 1 Turkey 195, 2 France 182, 3 Sweden 177, 4 Scotland 176, 5 Denmark 173, 6 Germany 170, 7 Italy 162, 8 Poland 143, 14th IRELAND 121, 15th Wales, 16 teams compete.
The championships continue until Saturday.