Bilal lead points table in Bridge event

KARACHI: Karachi’s Bilal came up with an unblemished performance on the opening day of the Coca Cola Bridge Championship being staged at the Islamabad Club in the federal capital on Sunday.
According to the details made available by the Mind Sports Association of Pakistan (MSAP), the two-day event is being contested by 11 teams from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Saeed Akhtar is conducting the tournament, while Abdul Muqeet is serving as the official scorer.
Six of the 11 rounds were completed on the first day and Karachi’s Bilal, featuring Gulzar Bilal, Mubashir Puri, Hamid Mohiuddin and Khalid Mohiuddin, led the table with 97.65 Victory Points (VPs).
Holdem from Islamabad was placed second with 87.79 VPs and they were being followed by Saga (82.89 VPs), Trendsetter (74.83 VPs), Cavendish (68.59 VPs), OGDCL (67.54 VPs), Tariq (56.56 VPs), JK (44.46 VPs), SKKR (43.28 VPs), PK (41 VPs) and Humayun (19.71 VPs).
Bilal, captained by Gulzar Bilal, displayed consistency throughout the day and they overwhelmed their rivals in the first four rounds with the margin of 12.18, 15.97, 17.30, 18.30 and 19.86 VPs, while they were credited 14 VPs for the bye in the fifth round.
Holdem,with Uzair Kamal in the pivotal role, kept Islamabad’s hopes of winning the title alive and performed quite well to be placed second at the halfway stage of the tournament, having aggregated 87.79 VPs, by winning four matches with the difference of 15.98, 19.66, 16.59, and 15.29 VPs. The only defeat they suffered was at the hands of Tariq in the second round.
Saga turned out to be the front runner from Lahore and they remained in contention for the trophy after being placed third at the end of the fifth round.
Tariq, fielding a combination of players from Karachi and Lahore, also remained in the hunt for the top slot. They have Tariq Rasheed Khan and Shakeel Ahmed Chandna, playing alongside Mohammad Saeed and Shahnaz Pirzada.
The fancied JK, having the likes of Javed Khalid, Saeed Akhtar, Shauq Hussain, Abdul Muqeet and Khalid Manzur, was left to do a lot of catching on the final day after a tough first day at office.