Irish juniors, Richard King and Thomas MacCormac, made a good start in the Lipton Ice Tea junior (under-25) pairs at the World Bridge Championships in Lille, France, yesterday. They lie in 10th place in a field of 66 after the first session, having played well in the process. Three further sessions remain.
With only one qualifying round remaining in the Vivendi Rosenblum team championship, the Irish team, captained by Karel de Raeymaeker, after acquitting themselves well in their first exposure to world-class bridge, have dropped to 8th in their group. Losing four of their last five matches to teams from Slovenia, USA, China and France, they had a consolation win over an Israeli side.
This young team of two Dublinborn players, de Raeymaeker and Jim Heneghan, and two Dutch nationals living in Dublin, Jerome Lodewijks and Andre Kuyt, have performed better than anticipated. Their learning experience continues in their last match against a top-class British quartet, Goodman, Thomas, Dhondy and Pagan. Mike Lawrence, who recently did a lecture tour in Ireland, heads the American team leading the group.
Aidan and Ena Cleary, Gordon Lessels and Pat McCarthy went close to bringing off a major upset when failing by a mere two imps against the championship favourites, the all-professional French side of Christian Mari, Alain Levy, Michel Perron and Paul Chemla.
The Limerick-Killarney combination rose to the occasion against their undefeated opponents, giving nothing away over the 10-board match. They also had good wins over Danish and Greek teams - 21-9 and 17-13 - and lost narrowly to a Swedish side. Despite this good run they will not advance to the next stage.
Italian teams took gold and bronze medals in the junior team championship. Denmark won the silver medals. Ireland was not represented.
The knock-out stages of both the Vivendi Rosenblum, with 64 teams (four from each group), and the Louis Vuitton McConnell women's teams, with 32 teams, begin today. Ireland is not represented in the women's team event.