Hot on the heels of Tom Hanlon’s induction last week into the European Bridge League (EBL) Hall of Fame, we are delighted to report further recognition for Irish bridge at European level, with former CBAI Chief Executive Paul Porteous being awarded a gold medal by the EBL for his extraordinary contribution to European bridge.
As well as being the leading figure within the CBAI for thirty years, Paul served for more than ten years on the EBL’s Executive Committee, and as Secretary of the Executive for most of that period. He first came to prominence within the European sphere when he spearheaded the successful Irish hosting of the 2012 European Championships, taking over at short notice from Greece, who had to withdraw due to their economic crisis (and notwithstanding that we were going through an economic crisis of our own!). Subsequently, in the 2015-2020 period, Paul as Secretary of the Executive, and the only native English-speaker on the EBL’s top team, played a prominent role in coordinating the prosecution of the cheats who blighted the game at the top-level for so long, and the drawing up of enhanced regulations to try to ensure that it could never happen again. All the while, Paul was running Irish bridge, and playing to a standard which has seen him win Senior caps for Ireland (including on the current team in Riga) and also acting as non-playing captain of many Irish international teams.
We’re sure you will join us in congratulating Paul on this wonderful achievement. He is pictured with his wife Maureen receiving the gold medal from EBL President Eric Laurent.
As the European Championships draws to a close – it finishes tomorrow – none of the Irish teams is currently in qualification position for the World Championships. The Open Team, which has been in the qualifying top eight for most of the event, and got as high as third place at one stage, is lying tenth at the moment, so could still qualify with a good final push. They have two tough matches today, but finish tomorrow with matches against three teams below them in the rankings. There are no easy matches at this level, however. The Women’s team also occupied a qualification spot for much of the series, but has now slipped to eleventh. The Seniors have been climbing the ranks after a slow start, and now lie fourteenth, one place ahead of the Mixed team, who have been drifting backwards in the last few days. Any of them could conceivably qualify, so here’s to a bit of good fortune in the next 48 hours.
Finally, very well done to the Dublin South team of Paul Delaney (Capt), Martin Brady, Wojciech Gorczcya, Marcin Rudzinski, Alan O’Sullivan, Carol-Ann Cummins, Mairead Haugh, Roisin De Jong, Matthew O’Farrell, Kevin O’Dea, Liam Maher, BJ O’Brien, and Derek O’Gorman, who won the annual online President’s Cup, an invitational event involving ten “county” teams from England, Ireland, and Scotland.