Ireland's Tom Hanlon, Hugh McGann, Nick FitzGibbon, Adam Mesbur, John Carroll and Tommy Garvey got through to the last 16 of the open teams event at the European open bridge championships in Menton yesterday.
They did so in dramatic fashion. Having missed the cut to go into the main qualifying Swiss competition, they had to finish in the top five from 83 teams in the Swiss B in order to survive.
After four of the seven 10-board matches in that competition they were still adrift of the top teams. They needed a big finish and they got just that, beating Gullberg, Sweden 18-12, Savin, Romania 20-10 and Bennett, Scotland 22-8 in the last three matches to finish in third place and claim their place in the knock-out rounds.
The conditions of contest decreed that they meet the third- placed finisher from the Swiss A, Kirilenko, Russia, in the first round of the knock-out. They beat the Russians 21-9, having laid down the foundations for victory with a good first half to their 32-board match. In the round of 16 they meet Clemmensen, Denmark. Defeated teams from the knock-out rounds go back into the consolation event at the top of the Swiss.
Hastings Campbell, Greer McKenzie, Gay Keaveney, Pat Quinn and Adam Dunne had chances with two rounds to go in the Swiss B qualifier. They finished 24th on 116 points. Terry Walsh, James Heneghan, Anna Onishuk and Karel de Raeymaeker were 28th on 112.
They take their places in the consolation Swiss competition. Paul Delaney, Seán Ó Lúbaigh, Hilary Dowling-Long and Anne Marie Horan never recovered from a bad start in the main Swiss A and finished down the field. They did not take their place in the consolation Swiss, each of the two partnerships preferring to wait for the pairs championships later.