December 12, 2003	Friday	Shawwal 17, 1424

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LAHORE, Dec 11: The guest pair from Dubai Olavo-Finton edged past others by their magnificent 64 percent score on the opening day of the Balijee International Pairs Bridge Championship Pairs on Thursday morning at Lahore Gymkhana Club.

It was their remarkable performance that they topped in such a large house with 298 points.

Giving excellent treatment to the tricky board, they capitalised every single mistake by their opponents and defeated their contract by their precise dauphins.

On Board 1, 4, 8, 9, 27 and 32 they proved their worth. On Board 1, mostly a part-score hand, Olavo-Finton were able to make a major-suit game, Then on Board 4, 8 and 9 they defeated opponents game contracts and enjoyed a penalty of 1400 when opposing Pairs bid too highly and got penalised.

On Board 23, most of the pairs preferred a No Trump game contract, but the pair of Finton-Olavo and three other pairs bid and made a minor-suit siam netting twelve tricks with their remarkable dummy play when they bid and made a slam in clubs.

It became a hotly contested event. Participants were placed in Bali and Ajaz Houses to tackle the boards with extreme accuracy and required precise bidding. The organizers have offered attractive cash prizes to the top five position holders.

Out of 44 contesting pairs 19 pairs are participating from Karachi, Hyderabad, Abbotabad and Rawalpindi. .

For the host club the heartening news was that Hamid Zaman and Ali Abbas, a pair from the reigning Champions, finished slightly behind the leading pair. They had taken over the leadership after the 4th round, but met few unlucky swings that caused them minus average score. Asad- Zafar and Waheed Khan- Jahangir made their presence felt to more experienced pairs like Fehmina Shauq-Tahir Abbas and Gulzar Bilal-Pervaiz Mirza.

Two more rounds remaining, it is a very wide field since all the pairs have to play against each other. The third round will decide the winner of a heavy purse, offered by the organizers.

Following are the leading positions of the contestants:

Olavo-Finton 298, Hamid Zaman-Ali Abbas 293.47, Asad-Safdar 288, Waheed Khan-Jahangir 275.91, Izzat Khaleel-Shoaib 272.20, Fehmina-Tahir Abbas 266.79, Pervaiz Mirza-Gulzar Bilal 265.41, Dr. Khalil-Sajid Bokhari 261.65, Nayier-Usaid 259.79, Abida Ali- Shahnaz 256.38, Roshan Bokhari-Teeta Agha 255.50, Asif-Kiani 253.80, M. A. Ansari-Mirza Shauq Hussain 252.59, Munir Ataullah- Sarfraz Khan 250.53, Mubashir Puri-Nawaid Anjum 247.12, Humayun- Tariq 243 M. Azwerul Haq-Ghufran Ashraf 239.40, Peerzada-Toor 238.68, Sultan-Rashid Jafer 238, Ahsan-Zia 235.76, Uzair Kamal- Umer Aslam 235.80, Brig. Mahmood-Khalid 228, Nausherwan-Shafaat 225.5, Mazhar Ali Khan- Hafiz Ather 221.5, Sharif-Munir Khalid 221.15, A.A. Rehman-Brig Arshad 219.24, Hamid-Masud Mazhar 216.09, Hafiz-M, Jamali 214.71, Sajjad-Sulaiman 209,15, Abdul Khaliq-Nasir Reza 207, Khalid-Muzaffar 206.95, Raees- Ghulam Muhammed 206, Col. Taqi- Col. Yaqoob 203.41, Tahira Nasir-Fehmida 201.91, Khalida-Riffi 196.76, Gulshan-Tahira Liquat 195, Tariq Rasheed Khan-Zahid Mohiuddin 192, Ghalib- Asad 191.09, Elisbeth Naqvi-Talat Husain 187.92, S. P. Jamal-Tariq Zafar 181.85, Farhat Khan- Asghar Abbas 180.80, Pervez Zafar-Atiqur Rehman 179.21 and Neelofar-Najm 164.50 Match Points.