The annual general meeting of the Contract Bridge Association of Ireland will take place in the Templeogue Centre, Dublin, next Saturday. Seamus Dowling (Dublin South region) will assume the office of president in succession to Michael O'Connor (western region).
The north-western region has nominated Teresa McGrath as president-elect. One of the resolutions to be put to the meeting is that "the CBAI regularise itself by setting out maximum terms of office for officials and committee". The proposer is Patsy Meehan and the seconder Bernie Lynch.
According to Una Walsh, the honorary secretary of the CBAI and editor of the Irish Bridge Journal, the association is considering ways to make itself more relevant to the members. The regional structure, which has been in place since the 1940s, has become unwieldy and irrelevant in many cases. The main cause is that membership has almost doubled in the past 20 years.
One proposal being examined is that the association be based on units of counties, as players would have more affinity with their county rather than a widespread region. Suggestions and views on the subject would be welcome at CBAI Headquarters, Templeogue House, Templeogue Road, Dublin 6W.
The national pairs championship for the Lambert Cup, which is open to the intermediate A grade and masters with a holding of fewer than 30 national points, was decided over two sessions at the Regent Club, Waterloo Road, Dublin.
The event was won by I. Loncur and D. Filjar, who recently were on the team which came out on top in the national mixed team championship (Coen Trophy) in Mullingar. Runnersup were A. Moran, and P. Kerins. The third prize went to B. and M. Carroll. Sessional winners: P. McCartan, J. Coyne; D. Pendleton, M. Meade.