ITALY has retained the open team title at the Generali European Bridge Championships which ended in Montecatini on Saturday.
The Italian team of Norberto Bocchi, Giorgio Duboin, Andrea Buratti, Massimo Lanzarotti, Lorenzo Lauria, Alfiedo Versace, dominated the event from early on and brought their country its 14th Open European Team Title.
Poland beat Ireland in the last round to win the silver medal, finishing just ahead of Norway. The remaining two qualifying places for the World Championship Finals in Tunisia next October went to Denmark and France.
France, last year's Olympiad Champions, in a dramatic final round beat Italy 16-14 to snatch fifth place from the Netherlands who lost their chance by losing 5-25 to Britain.
The Irish team continued its late good form almost to the end, beating Liechtenstein 24-6 and Ukraine 18-12, before going down 7-23 to Poland.
It was a vital match for the Poles as it determined whether they would win silver or bronze. It was the first time in five years that Ireland has lost to Poland. Ireland's 14th place out of 35 competing nations is the best performance by an Irish team since finishing third in 1979.
Tom Hanlon, Hugh McGann, Donal Garvey, Micheal O Briain, John Carroll, Tommy Garvey, with nonplaying captain Niall Toibin, won 20, drew three and lost 11 of their 34 matches. They started badly and by day four had slumped to 29th place. In the second week of competition they fought back to win 13 and draw one of their last 18 games. They had some notable wins, including 20-10 against the champions Italy, 18-12 against bronze medallists Norway and 16-14 over France.