Well done to Team Moran (Mark Moran, John Carroll, Tom Hanlon, Conor Boland, Adam Mesbur, Nick FitzGibbon, NPC Gráinne Barton) which emerged victorious from the weekend’s trials and will represent Ireland in the Camrose Trophy (Open Home International Championship) over two weekends in 2026.
This was a second success in a few weeks for Moran, following on from their win in the IBU trials to select a team for next year’s European Championships, and, although the end result looks comfortable enough, they were made to fight much harder this time around, being pushed all the way by runners-up Team Pigot (Peter Pigot, Thomas MacCormac, BJ O’Brien, Derek O’Gorman). After four of the five matches, Moran had a small lead, but faced possibly the tougher final assignment against the third-placed team at the time. In the end, Moran had a decisive win in their final match, whereas Pigot lost narrowly. In fact, Moran won all their matches, including the head-to-head against Pigot, so the victory was conclusive.
Best wishes to Team Moran for their two assignments next season, and thanks to all who took part. Thanks also to TD Fearghal O’Boyle, and to our team of vugraph operators (particularly Eamon Galligan, who did a few extra stints and gave us the benefit of his experience when a few technical glitches occurred); as a result of their efforts, we were able to broadcast two tables from every match over the weekend, for the first time in several years. The plan is to maintain this approach for trials, and to add expert commentary next time around (for the Lady Milne trials in early January). If anyone would like to volunteer to act as vugraph operator (effectively you simply type in the bids and plays as on BBO or RealBridge to allow the audience to watch), please let us know and we’ll add you to the list.
The EBL Online Fall Senior Championships will start tonight on RealBridge at 6 p.m. Irish time, and Ireland will be represented by Peter Goodman, Terry Walsh, Ranald Milne, BJ O’Brien, Pat Barry, Rex Anderson, Joan Kenny, Teresa Rigney. We wish them the best of luck; the format is two qualification rounds on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28, a quarter-final round on Wednesday 29, two semi-finals on Thursday 30, and a final on Monday 3 November.
You’ll find full details of the tournament here, and you can watch on RealBridge using this link.