We’ve reached the business end of the Inaugural Irish Individual Knockout Championship on Funbridge, which has now arrived at the semi-final stage.
The semi-final line up is:
- US expert Jade Barrett v Irish junior international Luca Crone; since he moved to the US earlier this year, Luca has been working a bit with Jade’s bridge programme, so this will be an interesting matchup, with bragging rights up for grabs;
- Grand Master and remaining seed Peter Goodman v Northern Ireland international Wayne Somerville; Wayne won the swingiest quarter-final, against Willem Mevius, with six swings of 9 IMPs or more in the 12-board set (those who remember Willem from his Irish playing days may not be entirely surprised at this!), while Peter needed a late recovery over the final three boards to deprive John Flavin (who had already beaten seeds Paul Delaney and Tom Hanlon) of a remarkable trifecta.
The semi-finalists are competing for a weekend at an Irish congress of their choice (first-place), a weekend for two in the Mount Wolseley Hotel (second), €150 CBAI gift voucher (third), and €100 CBAI gift voucher (fourth), as well as the title and masterpoints. And John Flavin and Thomas MacCormac already have €200 and €100 respectively in the bank due to their seed-killing efforts. The consolation plate for those knocked out in the first round of the main competition has also begun.