Holdem bounce back to win bridge title

KARACHI: Holdem came from behind to emerge triumphant in the two-day Coca Cola Bridge Championship which concluded at Islamabad Club in the federal capital the other day.
According to the details made available by the Mind Sports Association of Pakistan (MSAP) here on Monday, Holdem, one of the local outfits, clinched the winners’ trophy by accumulating 155.25 Victory Points (VPs).
Karachi’s Bilal, having produced unblemished performance on the opening day, ended runners-up with a tally of 140.82 VPs.
Saga from Lahore finished a close third with an aggregate of 140.73 VPs and Trendestters came fourth with 132.10 VPs.
The high-profile event, spread over 10 rounds in two days, was contested by 11 teams from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. Saeed Akhtar conducted the tournament, while Abdul Muqeet served as the official scorer.
Holdem, comprising Uzair Kamal, Imran Gardezi, Umar Aslam and Mohammad Arsalan, staged a superb comeback after having lost to Trendsetters in the first round. They never looked back and exhibited fine all-round performance to win the tournament convincingly. They overwhelmed leading teams, including JK and Bilal, to confirm their supremacy.
The opening day’s leaders Bilal, featuring Gulzar Bilal, Mubashir Puri, Hamid Mohiuddin and Khalid Mohiuddin, were unable to sustain the momentum on the second day.
Saga, having the services of Ghalib Bandeshah, Asad Maqbool, Sarwar Khan, Shahid Hamid, Sarim Shakir and Asadullah Khan, remained in the hunt for the trophy but had to settle with the third position after losing the game against JK, who had Javed Khalid, Saeed Akhtar, Shauq Hussain, Abdul Muqeet and Khalid Manzur.
Trendsetters, having Farida Ahmed, Goga Saeed, Azra Raja, Asif Ali, Hafeez Mirza, and M Jameeli, finished fourth but they had the satisfaction of having routed Holdem, Bilal and Saga.