LAHORE, March 22: The Munir team with 95 IMPs emerged leaders on the first day of the 8th Balijee memorial bridge championship team event at Lahore Gymkhana on Tuesday.
The team comprising Munir Ataullah, Tahir Masud, Imran Jaka, Shauq Husain, Mohsin Chandna and Rita Choksi, after winning the first segment, went on to defeat Abbottabad Lancers 24-6 in the second.
They faced pitched fight from Punters in the third before taming them 18-12. Punters comprise Tahir Abbas, Ali Abbas, Fehmina Shauq, Jane Alam Fazli and Rehman Allana.
Giants scored 85 points to finish the day as runners-up by winning all the three matches. The team comprising Shahin Iqbal, Masud Mazhar, Azher Karim, Hasan Jawad and Maj Akhtar Zaidi started their run defeating Multan 18-12 and Bridgettes 25-4.
In the third segment they faced Yummy, a Lahore team and won 21-9.
The Formidable from India was at the third position with 76 IMPs. The Indian outfit having stars like Sunit Choksi, Vankatraman, Subhash Gupta, Raju Tolani, Kiran Nadar and Satyanarayan started off with a very convincing score 25-5 defeating Challengers, but Jarrar Taees, comprising Brig Tony Mahmood, Ashfaq Tola, Shakeel Chandna and Navaid Anjum sprang them some surprises and eventually won 18-12.
Solox from Karachi having the pair of Abdul Khaliq-Nasir Reza Khan continued their winning streak. They earlier defeated Nishat 25-5, then Delhi Gymkhana 20-10. Afterwards, they were drawn against Jarrar Taees.
In all, 33 teams are fighting for the title.
Most remarkable performance among all is shown by Sherdils comprising Safdar, Asad, Shameem, Rashid and Tausif.
Having started with a close victory against Four Bidders 17-13, they defeated Data Steel 20-10. Against Formidable, they were dead serious and never allowed them to take any undue advantage, forcing them a draw.
Tariq Aces from Rawalpindi are a live threat to any team. They first played a draw against Yummy then won 18-12 from Mian.
In the third segment, Tariq Aces netted maximum against Delhi Gymkhana 25-2. Javed Khalid, Saeed Akhtar, Uzair Kemal, Wajahat Suri and Col Masud are playing for Tariq Aces.
Data Steel is another team with a galaxy of stars like Sultan Siddiqui, Rashid Jafer, Rashidul Ghazi, Pervaiz Mirza and a great motivator, Tariq Rasheed Khan.
They first defeated Delhi Bridge Association 17-13, then lost second round match to Sherdils and recovered in the third round to defeat Abbottabad 18-12.
The Kamaljit would be a threat to frontrunners. They were defeated by Brave Hearts 14-16, but beat Delhi Bridge Association 20-10 in the second round and consolidated their position by outplaying Bokharis 18-12 in the third round.
Another noteworthy feature is the participation of 12 juniors, all under the age of 16. They are Fauzan, Raza, Abdullah, Shazeb, Saad, Oosman, Arsalan, Zain Khalid, Zain Iqbal, Fahd, Hassan and Haider.
