LAHORE, May 3: The second phase of the national bridge trials ended with Allanas and Candyland reaching the final after elimination of six qualifiers at the Lahore Gymkhana on Saturday.

Trials are being held to select Pakistan team to take part in the World Championship to be held in Oman this year.

The battle now is restricted to the reigning national champions from Lahore, Punters and three Karachi based teams challenging with credits of their stamina, intelligence and knowledge of games.

Punters, comprising three regulars Tahir Abbas-Fehmina Shauq, Ali Abbas-Hamid Zaman and Javed Khaled-Shauq Hussain, picked up Allanas for the advantage of their carry over score of 9 IMP, by virtue of their win against them in the qualifying phase.

In the first segment of 16 Boards, Punters finished with a deficit of 4 IMP 20-24 when both the teams exchanged swings on Board 4, Allanas missed diamond slam which gave net 13 IMP to Punters, however, Board 10 and 13 gave two swings to Allanas.

In Board 10, they made a 4H game contract, which was defeated in the open room by Allanas leading pair of Sultan Siddiqui-Rashid Jafer.

On Board 13 a contract of 3NT was defeated which gave 400 points in one room and 600 in the other, when Allanas pair of Jane Alam Fazli-Rehman Allana was able to reel of nine tricks for the contract.

In the second segment, Punters once again returned with 12IMP lead when Allanas conceded two minor part game swings. At the other table Multi played a draw against Candyland and that made the battle too close and open.

In the third segment Allanas recovered their earlier lapses and returned 46 against 31 thus eliminating the lead to barest margin. On Board 3, a 3NT contract was cold but Punters open room pair revoked, which cost them a swing of 12 IMP.

Candyland also made great efforts to recover and they succeeded to score 40 against 26 IMPS a lead of just 7 IMP making the semis wide open.

In the fourth segment Allanas used all tricks of their trade, which they have amassed by virtue of their vast experience in competitive bridge. On Board 2 Jane-Alam and Allana made Four spares which was defeated by Sultan-Rashid Jafer by their excellent defence. Sultan-Rashid Jafer snatched another big swing when they made 3D doubled in the open room, this gave them a neat swing of 16 IMP. Again on Board 15 they made 3NT while Punter’s pair landed in 5 clubs going down one. Allanas collected 42 as against 24 thus entering in the final.

At the other table both Karachi-based teams Candyland and Multi faced each other. It was another close fight since Multi, comprising international players Tahir Masud-Javed Ahmed, Rashidul Ghazi-Amin Hakeem and Shahin Iqbal-Mohsin Chandna battled fiercely showing their control over bidding and play.

However, Candyland comprising three regular pairs of Ziaullah- Hamid, Khalid-Hassan Askari, Muhammad Ismail-Imran proved that their entry into the semis was not a fluke. They mean business. In the first segment Multi returned with 7 IMP’s lead.

In the last segment Multi completely lost track and Candyland dominated the proceedings winning by 42 as against 9 IMP. The final between Candyland and Allanas will begin on Sunday at 9.30am.