Record purse disbursed in Pakistan Day bridge

By Syed Khalid Mahmood
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Cash awards of no less US $20,000, a new record, were presented to the leading performers of the Pakistan Day International Bridge Tournament in what turned out to be a colourful closing ceremony of a successful event where the participation level was on the higher side.

The team event was contested by as many as 35 outfits, which included some of the top players of the United Kingdom, China, Jordan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

They were confronted with 29 local teams from Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi Islamabad, Multan and Hyderabad who had joined hands to tackle the tricky combination of cards and solve these problems through intense mental activity required in the mind sport of bridge. 

Both the UK outfits came up with sterling performance to share the top two positions after two days of intense fight for supremacy. UK-2, comprising of Jason Hackett, Justin Hackett, Mike Bell and Alex Hydes, won the Nawab Yousuf Talpur Trophy besides the top prize US $7,000 by aggregating 162.31 Victory Points (VPs) while Barmy Army, and containing Sendra Penfold, Edward Jones, Thomas Paske and Brain Senior, ended runners-up with their tally of 134.56 VPs and they collected a purse of US $3,500.

Talpur, featuring Nawab Mohammad Yousuf Talpur, Parvez Mirza, Rashid-ul-Ghazi and Syed Hasan Jawwad, were the leaders among the local teams as they finished third overall with their score of 129.72 VPs, picking up a cash award of US $2,500 while Miran, having Khurshid Hadi, Kemal Shoaib, Abdul Rehman Allana, Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan, Tahir Masood and Javed Ahmed, received US $2,000 for having finished fourth with 126.44 VPs. 

Dynamite, represented by Sarfaraz Ahmed, Mohammad Naseem Arzoo, Syed Hussain Jaffar, Mohammad Ashraf Kothari, Anwar Gheewala and Afzal Ahmed Sheikh, came fifth by having aggregated 115.77 VPs which earned them US $1,500 while the sixth placed KG-1, fielding E U Khawaja, Usman Ansari, Nasir Wahab, Sattar Cochinwala and Mansoor Habib, with an aggregate of 115.40 VPs, got US $500.

The participation in the pairs contest was even higher with as many as 92 pairs having competed for the Data Steel Trophy which was claimed by Ghufran Ashraf-Shahab Khan (61.50%), alongwith a cash prize of US $1,000. 

Runners-up Brian Senior-Sandra Penfold (59.98%) received US $700 while Anwar Sultan-Khalid Manzoor (59.97%), Afzal Sheikh-Iqbal Siddiqui (59.95%), Hassan Jawwad-Rashid-ul-Ghazi (57.21%) and Khurshid Hadi-Kemal Shoaib (57.12%) shared the next four positions and they were compensated with US $500, US $400, US $250 and US $150 respectively. 

Special prizes of US $100 each were presented through the courtesy of Data Steel to the pairs of Ali Hai-Zia Hai and Qudsia Dossa-Rubina Hai.