Daily Times

LAHORE: The Team Shoaib, comprising Abdul Rehman Allana, Javed Ahmed Miran, Imran Jaka, Rashidul Ghazi, Khurshid Hadi and Kamal Shoaib, won the 15th Balijee International Bridge Championship which concluded at the Lahore Gymkhana Club here Sunday. The mega event, held at the bridge tables of Lahore Gymkhana from March 23 to 26, lured the best bridge players of the country to this bridge playing arena which can be graded as one of the remarkable ones in Asia.

Besides the national players, an individual champion to stand out was Sapan Desai who travelled all the way from Mumbai to be a competitor in this much adored championship. Also there was Imran Abedi from Kuwait who became a member of the Bilal Team and supported them with his skills. As for the championship itself, the more dexterous and adroit ones produced an exotic mix of intelligent play, control and strong moves and one can safely say that the ultimate victors – Team Shoaib – turned in consistent majestic play in the last days sessions to cow down and overtake many strong contenders who were in a mood to outplay them. In this process of extinction, the Romex Team were beaten, and so were the teams like Alvi’s and Karachi Silver. The Team Shoaib may emerged on top but along the way, most of the time, the click of the form of teams like Bombers, Bilal, Saga and Alvi’s, had been evident and even against extremely strong challengers their team effort had been outstanding, notwithstanding the fact that they missed out the top slot.

In the women’s category, the pair of Fatima Raza and Rubina Agha won the first prize. Second prize was won by the pair of Abida Ali and Najam Abid. Third position went to Shahnaz Peerzada and Shamim Saeed. The open pairs contest was won by the pair of Wajahat Suri and Sheikh Abdul Muqeet. Second position went to the pair of Mirza Shauq Hussain and Sapan Desai from India. Once again Aijaz Ahmad of Yummy Milk Products and his sister Mrs Tahira Nasir were the superb hosts and in particular Tahira Nasir appeared as the live wire in the whole process: the spirit of bridge promotion was there and also continuously oozing was the family hospitality with the result that Balijee Bridge has become an integral part of the national bridge calendar, thus keeping the memory of a noble father Sheikh Muhammad Iqbal (affectionately known as Balijee) alive.

Tournament director Ihsan Qadir was in the forefront, conducting all stages with precision, accuracy and free of compromises plus exercising exemplary control over the run of play. A special one who deserved a mention was Sarfraz Butt whose contribution can be graded as significant. Others who can’t be missed were the scorers Asif Sheikh and Uzair Kamal and local bridge players like Izzat Khalil and Tahir Abbas.

Final standings:

1: Team Shoaib (Abdul Rehman Allana, Javed Ahmed Miran, Imran Jaka, Rashid ul Ghazi, Khurshid Hadi and Kamal Shoaib). 149.70 victory points

2: Team Bombers (Ahsan Javed Qureshi, Ghias A Malik, Mirza Shauq Hussain, Hasnat Mehmood and Nauman Khalid Butt) 133.72 victory points

3. Team Bilal (Gulzar Ahmed Bilal, Farrukh Liaqat, Imran Abedi, Parvez Mirza) 125.40 victory points.