Yet another busy weekend, with Galway Congress at the Ardilaun Hotel, and the Junior Home Internationals, for the Junior Camrose (Under-26) and Peggy Bayer (Under-21) Trophies in Prestwick, Scotland.
In Galway, where the numbers were once again well up on the previous year, by more than 20% on this occasion, the prizewinners were:
- Congress Pairs: BJ O’Brien & Pat Quinn
- Intermediate Pairs: John Bourke & Mary Bourke
- Mixed Pairs: Joan Kenny & Enda Glynn
- Novice Pairs: Brian Carpenter & Cian McNamara
- Congress Teams: Gay Keaveney, Enda Glynn, David Walsh, Louise Mitchell
- Restricted Teams: Geraldine Carroll, Norma O’Connell, Ann Nolan, Pat Ward
- Open Pairs: Mary Timoney & Concepta Healy; Carmel Murphy & Maura Killackey; Tommy Banks & George Brennan; Ann Nolan & Frank Reynolds; May O’Sullivan & Anne Roche; Jeanne Naughton & Eilish Goode; Novice Open Pairs: Bernie Murphy & Margaret Reilly
Thanks to Diarmuid Reddan for making sure everything went smoothly.
It was a case of deja vu all over again in the Junior Home Internationals, unfortunately, as both categories followed a pattern that has become familiar in recent years. Our Under-26 team (Luca Crone, Matthew O’Farrell, Denise Walsh, Leah Finnegan, Isabel Burke, Tom Gorey, and NPC Conor Boland) won seven of their ten matches, most of them very comfortably, but lost twice to England, who won all their matches, resulting in a second place finish for Ireland. Our Under-21s (Eve Connell, Klara Flanagan, Bence Orosz, Sam Connolly, Paul Luo, Grace Gissing, and NPC Margaret Murphy) won six of their ten matches, again several of them by a large margin, and likewise finished in second place to England. England’s bigger playing numbers have meant that they have traditionally dominated these tournaments. The last non-English victory in the Junior Camrose was by Scotland in 2020, and in the Peggy Bayer was by Ireland in 2016.
Finally, hard luck to the Moran Team (Mark Moran, John Carroll, Nick FitzGibbon, Adam Mesbur, Tom Hanlon, and honorary Irishman Frederic Volcker) who came up a little short in their effort to complete the hat-trick by winning the prestigious invitational Lederer Trophy in London for the third year in a row. The team started well, but fell back to finish fourth in the usual very high-quality field.