Round 6 Novice Kirwan League
Here are the full set of results and the League Table at the end of Round 6
OMG. What a final round we have in store for ourselves. Glasnevin have finished all their
matches and have the target on their back that Kathy Murphy’s Malahide team and Louise
McKenna’s Vernon team will be taking aim at in the final round.
But what drama we had in round 6 to bring us to this state of affairs!!
The big match was between Kathy’s and Louise’s teams. Kathy’s team were sitting pretty after
winning the 1st session by 29 IMP’s. They increased this lead to 36 IMP’s after the 1st two
boards of the 2nd session. But then the wheels came off with Louise’s team 35 IMP’s on the
next 6 boards. The match was thus balanced on a knife edge when it came to board 20. When
you look at the deal, it says E/W can make up to 4NT, 5S or 6H which certainly are possible but
would need a lot of assumptions to go one’s way. As it turned out Malahides’s Gay Connolly did
get to play in 4S but went down one, while Vernon’s Fionnuala Burke managed to stay in 2S
making +1, a swing 6 IMP’s to Vernon and the win by 5 IMP’s and by 11.34 to 8.66 VP’s, leaving
Malahide on 64.93 VP’s and Vernon on 64.18 going into the last round.
Now while all this drama was ongoing, Deirdre King’s Glasnevin team were playing Louise
Jacob’s Clontarf team, knowing that Glasnevin really needed a good result as this was their last
match. This they duly did winning by 16.08 to 3.92 VP’s and setting “The Clubhouse Lead” at
80.84 with the rest of the teams “still out on the course”
. Board 5 proved to be decisive in this
match with a 15 IMP swing to Glasnevin. Again if you look at the deal, you will see that this is
one of those classic ones where E/W can make game - 5S which was bid and made by
DeirdreKing and N/S can make game - 4H which was bid and made +1 by Maeve Bergen.
Like in the game above, Board 20 was also influential with Deirdre bidding 4H and making +1,
while Clontarf’s Paul Sullivan, like Vernon’s Fionnuala, made 2S+1 resulting in an 11 IMP swing to
Glasnevin.
In the final match of the round Frank Clarke’s Vernon team were the winners by 13.81 VP’s to
6.19 in their match with Raheny. Frank’s team are still in with a chance to come 2nd and pick up
some prize money.
So where does that leave us you may ask. In the words of Mick McCarthy “It’s squeaky bum
time”
. Malahide will need to win their match against Clontarf by 28 or more IMP’s while Louise’s
Vernon team will need to win their match against Frank’s Vernon team by 33 IMP’s or more
while still keeping an eye on each other. Deirdre will have the Glasnevin team on their knees
keeping an eye on how these matches turn out. Donabate and Raheny will fight out the final
match of the round for bragging rights.
We will have our final DNR facilitated session on Thursday 24th April at 19.00 in St Paul’s and
hopefully we will see you all there.
Dan.
Here are the full set of results and the League Table at the end of Round 6
OMG. What a final round we have in store for ourselves. Glasnevin have finished all their
matches and have the target on their back that Kathy Murphy’s Malahide team and Louise
McKenna’s Vernon team will be taking aim at in the final round.
But what drama we had in round 6 to bring us to this state of affairs!!
The big match was between Kathy’s and Louise’s teams. Kathy’s team were sitting pretty after
winning the 1st session by 29 IMP’s. They increased this lead to 36 IMP’s after the 1st two
boards of the 2nd session. But then the wheels came off with Louise’s team 35 IMP’s on the
next 6 boards. The match was thus balanced on a knife edge when it came to board 20. When
you look at the deal, it says E/W can make up to 4NT, 5S or 6H which certainly are possible but
would need a lot of assumptions to go one’s way. As it turned out Malahides’s Gay Connolly did
get to play in 4S but went down one, while Vernon’s Fionnuala Burke managed to stay in 2S
making +1, a swing 6 IMP’s to Vernon and the win by 5 IMP’s and by 11.34 to 8.66 VP’s, leaving
Malahide on 64.93 VP’s and Vernon on 64.18 going into the last round.
Now while all this drama was ongoing, Deirdre King’s Glasnevin team were playing Louise
Jacob’s Clontarf team, knowing that Glasnevin really needed a good result as this was their last
match. This they duly did winning by 16.08 to 3.92 VP’s and setting “The Clubhouse Lead” at
80.84 with the rest of the teams “still out on the course”
. Board 5 proved to be decisive in this
match with a 15 IMP swing to Glasnevin. Again if you look at the deal, you will see that this is
one of those classic ones where E/W can make game - 5S which was bid and made by
DeirdreKing and N/S can make game - 4H which was bid and made +1 by Maeve Bergen.
Like in the game above, Board 20 was also influential with Deirdre bidding 4H and making +1,
while Clontarf’s Paul Sullivan, like Vernon’s Fionnuala, made 2S+1 resulting in an 11 IMP swing to
Glasnevin.
In the final match of the round Frank Clarke’s Vernon team were the winners by 13.81 VP’s to
6.19 in their match with Raheny. Frank’s team are still in with a chance to come 2nd and pick up
some prize money.
So where does that leave us you may ask. In the words of Mick McCarthy “It’s squeaky bum
time”
. Malahide will need to win their match against Clontarf by 28 or more IMP’s while Louise’s
Vernon team will need to win their match against Frank’s Vernon team by 33 IMP’s or more
while still keeping an eye on each other. Deirdre will have the Glasnevin team on their knees
keeping an eye on how these matches turn out. Donabate and Raheny will fight out the final
match of the round for bragging rights.
We will have our final DNR facilitated session on Thursday 24th April at 19.00 in St Paul’s and
hopefully we will see you all there.
Dan.
