PBF softens stance

KARACHI: The Pakistan Bridge Federation (PBF), aiming to find an amicable settlement to the ongoing crisis, has opted for a soft stance to the trials organised by the Karachi Bridge Associates (KBA) here at the Aslam Bridge Hall, housed in the National Stadium, earlier in the week.
President PBF Nawab Yousuf Talpur clarified to ‘The News’ here on Saturday that the KBA had conducted the recent trials with the knowledge of the federation but its winners, Aces from Lahore, will not be an automatic choice to represent Pakistan in the upcoming BFAME Championship, due to be staged in Jordan in June.
“Aces have now become the number two team of the country and they will only be able to proceed to Jordan if the number one team from Islamabad, who emerged triumphant in the national trials held in the federal capital last month, were unable to go there due to any reason,” the PBF President stated.
“It’s indeed sad that the national trials at the Islamabad Club early last month were marred by controversial incidents but in the larger interest of the bridge fraternity we have been trying to sort out issues instead of taking any harsh measures or going strictly by the book,” he added.
Three teams, two of them from Karachi and one from Lahore, took part in what could now be termed as the final phase of the national trials, The fourth team, Islamabad Sixes, didn’t take part in what ultimately became a one-day event.
Meanwhile, according to the results of the trials, as announced by the KBA here on Friday, Lahore’s Aces, comprising Ahsan Javed Qureshi, Nauman Butt, Ghias Malik and Zia Haider Naqi, won the triangular contest by aggregating 139 IMPs in four sets.
Ahsan from Karachi, featuring Ahsan Zahir Rizvi, Anwar Kizilbash, Nasir Raza Khan, Ghulam Mohammad, Wajahat Suri and Shaikh Abdul Muqeet, ended the runners-up with 128 IMPs and Puri Estate, having the services of Mubashir Puri, Junaid Said, Ziaullah Baig, Hamid Mohiuddin, Hasan Askari and Khalid Mohiuddin, came third with 99 IMPs.
Aces surprised Karachi’s both outfits by producing logical bidding thus approaching correctly on game or part game contracts, and handling dummy with perfection to take up the task. All the three teams played four sessions of 16 boards each.