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| November 8, 2003 | Saturday | Ramazan 12, 1424 |
Pakistan’s dismal run continues
KARACHI, Nov 7: Pakistan’s Allana team continued their disappointing run in the Bermuda Bowl-World Bridge Championship, losing all their three matches on Thursday, according to information received on Friday from Monte Carlo.
Like previous day, it was more disappointment for Pakistan as they lost all three rounds they played on Thursday and were relegated to 17th spot with 185 Victory Points (VPs) in 22-nation championship.
First New Zealand overcame Pakistan 16-14, then Chinese Taipei 17-13 and finally Indonesia inflicted 24-6 defeat on them in the 14th round.
At this stage Pakistan has been relegated to 17th position and it has to improve to 8th in the next seven rounds to qualify for the semifinals.
The task is within their reach since they had to play against some weaker teams now with the exception of one that would be against one of the competition favourites USA, the message said.
Each team in the qualifying session will play 21 matches in the round-robin league.
Italy which had lost in the final two years back seems quite determined to avenge its defeat from USA’s teams, whichever enters in the final.
In the 12th round, Italy play 29-31 a losing draw against Brazil sharing 30 VPs equally. In the 13th round, actually Italy lost to Norway 14-16 and in the 14th round, Italy defeated India 19-11. However, on the points table, Italy enjoys the leading position.
USA-2, which had players of repute like Bobby Wolff, Dan Morse, Adam Wildavsky, Doug Doub, Landen, and Pratap Rajadhyaksha, were shocked when a lowly placed Monaco registered an overwhelming 25-2 VPs victory.
Later, USA-2 faced another stunning defat from Canada 5-25 and Bulgaria completed their hat trick of losses, 20-10 and that lowered USA-2 from second to seventh position on Points table.
The hot favourite star studded USA-1 with world renowned players like Nick Nickell, Richard Freeman, Jeff Meckstroth, Eric Rodwell, Bob Hamman and Paul Soloway continued their winning form.
They defeated Spain 16-14, Poland 17-13 and Egypt 21-9 VPs.
Surprising Canada had shown marked improvement in their game and are now standing on third position when they first defeated India 17-13, USA-2 25-5 and a winning draw against New Zealand.
In the Venice Cup, ladies championship, Pakistan’s team lost all the three matches of the day to Indonesia 10-20, Netherlands 17-13 and England 25-4. Chinese Taipei was leading when play resumed for the day in the group.
They beat Australia 18-12, but Sweden interrupted their run by winning 17-13 and USA-2 outplayed them in the 11th round 25-3, pushing them from top to sixth spot in the points table.
At the close of the play on Thursday, China has taken over the leadership with 204 VPs when Chinese ladies played draw against Egypt, then defeated canada 19-11 and Indonesia 25-1.
Fifteen teams are competing in the Seniors Bowl. USA’s first team is leading in this group with 154 VPs. Two rounds were played on Thursday evening USA-1 defeated Pakistan 25-2, then played winning draw against Egypt sharing 30 VP equally.
Pakistan was beaten by the joint team from Brazil/Argentina 13-17 in the eighth round.
Following are the positions after the conclusion of fourth days, play:
BERMUDA BOWL: 1.Italy 270, 2.USA-1 259.5 3.Canada 248, 4.Poland 235.5 5. Chinese Taipei 234.5 6.Norway 234, 7.USA-2 231, 8.Indonesia 219.5, 9.Australia 219 10. New Zealand 217, 11.Egypt 213,12.China 213, 13. Monaco 203, 14. Sweden 203, 15. Bulgaria 202, 16. Spain 194, 17. Pakistan 185, 18. Brazil 182, 19. India 181, 20. Uraguay 178, 21. South Africa 153 22. Bermuda 106 VPs.
VENICE CUP: 1. China 204, 2. Netherlands 199, 3. USA-2 195, 4. USA-1 183, 5. England 182, 6. Chinese Taipei 181, 7. Canada 178, 8. Italy 166, 9. Brazil, Germany & India 157, 10. Sweden 156, 11. Australia 148, 12. Venezuela 148, 13. Egypt 144, 14. Indonesia 144, 15. South 16. Africa 136 & Pakistan 115 VPs.
SENIORS Bowl: 1. USA-1 154, 2. France 151, 3. Israel 146, 4. USA -2 145, 5. Indonesia 140, 6. Australia 136.5 7. Italy 125, 8. Denmark 123.5 9. Brazil/Argentina 119.5 10. Japan 117, 11. Egypt 114.5 12. Guadeloupe 105, 13. Pakistan 90, 14. Monaco 72 15. French Polynesia 30 VPs.—APP
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