Given the current lack of real-life bridge, bridge bodies are finding all kinds of ways to enable us to get our bridge fix. If you’d like to watch some top-level bridge involving two well-known Irish participants, the US Spring Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, which was cancelled, has been replaced with an online event called ColumbusAlt. This is a joint initiative of Paul Street, bid72, Netbridge, and BBO, in which eight world-class teams have been put together to compete in an online equivalent of the prestigious Vanderbilt Trophy, which would have been the feature event of the Columbus Nationals. And our very own Tom Hanlon and Hugh McGann are playing, as members of the Street Team.
You can find full details here, and you can watch on BBO. Thus far, some but not all of the event has been shown on the normal Vugraph; if the match you want is not on Vugraph you’ll need to find the relevant tables yourself. To do so, under “Play or Watch Bridge”, click “Team Matches”. If you are looking before the start time, these matches will be in the “Pending” section; if they’ve already started they will be “Running”. I’m sure Tom and Hugh will welcome plenty of Irish support. The event runs until Thursday 26 March, and starts daily at 2 pm Irish time.
And we have been advised that the Australian Bridge Federation has made a daily bridge column available free of charge. You find it here.