Situated along the Wild Atlantic Way on the West Coast of Ireland, Galway is a vibrant city of music, arts, and culture. Amongst its many accolades, Galway was voted Europe’s friendliest city in 2020 (Condé Nast Traveller Reader Travel Awards) while hosting the European Capital of Culture in the same period.

In keeping with tradition, Galway’s Annual Bridge Congress was held over the Easter bank-holiday weekend. Now in its 85th year, the Congress welcomed players from across Ireland and overseas and was run under the expert direction of our International TDs Fearghal O’Boyle and Diarmuid Reddan. Following a wine reception, the Congress was officially opened by the CBAI President, Mr Gordon Lessells. With competitions catered to suit all grades of player, play ran through from Friday evening until Monday night.

While there were a number of interesting hands throughout the weekend these are taken from Monday’s Congress Teams which were sponsored by Lapteck Computers:

Teams Session 1

Bidding at the table with Milne & O’Brien playing NS against Coyne & Walsh as EW went:

South (O’Brien) led a trump and East (Coyne) won in dummy. He immediately led a spade which ran to O’Brien’s Ace. He continued with a second trump. Coyne won in hand and ruffed a spade. He then played a diamond to the king and ruffed another spade. Top diamonds followed, declarer pitching a spade and a club. The 3♦ was then ruffed back to hand and declarer then ran his remaining trumps. Dummy was reduced to ♣AQ and declarer had J♣ and Q♠. North was now in trouble and had to keep his club guard and K♠. He bared his K♣ but Coyne read the situation perfectly, playing a club to the Ace, dropping the now bare king.

Teams Session 2

Opening pre-emptive bids can make life difficult. In this hand, South had Ace empty to 8 and at equal vulnerability, some will open 3♠ and some 4♠. On this hand, West doubles 3♠ for takeout and East bid 3NT. It’s life on the edge but it brings home nine tricks.

The auction in the other room was brief when South opened 4♠ and made the contract after West led a heart. Best to bid as high as you can and let the opposition work it out after that.