Ireland ended the second day of the European Bridge Championships in Salsomaggiore yesterday when Nick FitzGibbon, Adam Mesbur, John Carroll and Tommy Garvey combined to decisively beat Yugoslavia 22-8 in the fourth round.
Earlier, FitzGibbon and Mesbur with Rex Anderson and David Greenwood went down by the narrowest of margins, 14-16, to Norway, world championship runners-up and one of the pre-tournament favourites. This was a good result for the Irish: the Norwegians would have expected a bigger margin.
The Irish team had earlier received good news from officials concerning the result of their first round match against Croatia. The original result, 16-14 to Ireland, was revised following an appeal and a director's ruling on Croatian unauthorised information, to give Ireland a 20-10 victory. Among the tournament directors (referees) in Salsomaggiore is Fearghal O'Boyle from Sligo, officiating at his first European championships.
Italy set the pace in the early rounds, scoring three maximum 25s before losing 11-19 to Ukraine to relinquish the overall lead to the Netherlands, who beat Wales 23-7 in round 4. Iceland has started well with four straight wins to be third.
Ireland has difficult matches in the next three rounds against Turkey, England and Bulgaria. Turkey, two points ahead of Ireland on the leaderboard, are confident after a 20-10 win over Israel. England and Bulgaria have been challenging for medals in recent championships. Ireland's non-playing captain, Gay Keaveney, has selected Anderson, Greenwood, FitzGibbon and Mesbur to line out against Turkey.
Leaders after four rounds: 1, The Netherlands 89; 2, Italy 86; 3, Iceland 85; joint 4, Lebanon and Russia 80; 6, Czech Republic 79; 8, England 75; 10, Scotland 73; 19, Ireland 62; 25, Wales 55.
The championships continue until June 29th.