RI men and women miss out on quarters at bridge tourney

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian men's bridge team managed only one win in the last three rounds on Saturday to fall short of a spot in the quarterfinals in the Bermuda Bowl in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

After losing to Australia 10-20 in the 19th round, Indonesia bounced back with a convincing 25-2 win over Brazil in the 20th round. But it failed to maintain its winning form, going down to Norway 11-19 in the closing round.

Indonesia, which had to compete without its best pair of Eddy Manoppo/Henky Lasut, collected an overall total of 323.5 points to finish tenth place in the final standings. The top eight qualified for the quarterfinals.

Indonesia fielded Taufik G Asbi/Robert Tobing, Franky Karwur/Santje Panelewen and Santoso Sie/Stefanus Supeno. Eddy/Henky, who has featured in almost all of Indonesia's previous performances in the Bermuda Bowl, are now playing in the Senior Bowl.

The result was a step backward for the men's team, which reached the quarterfinals in the previous two World Bridge Championships.

The ladies, however, made a clean sweep in their last three rounds but just missed qualifying for the top eight. However, they deserved praise for being able to improve their rankings from the bottom in past years to a very respectable ninth place overall.

With a total collection of 253 points, Indonesia, which comprises Lusje Bojoh/Joice Mandolang, Fera Damayanti/Riantini and Elita Syofian/Amelia Amri, must have rued the near miss of qualification, being outscored by eighth-place Sweden by just two points.

In the last three rounds, Indonesia took its last wins over Sweden, USA2 and Egypt. Apart from China and Canada, the other six quarterfinalists all were beaten by the Indonesian ladies during the round robin competition.

The quarterfinal matches both in Bermuda Bowl and Venice Cup are played under knockout format. The top half are given freedom to choose opponents in the bottom half with the leader awarded first chance to land its choice.

Meanwhile, while they have been excluded from the Indonesia's Bermuda Bowl team, Eddy and Henky find it an almost unlikely chance of guiding the senior team to Senior Bowl title as the Indonesian Contract Bridge Association (Gabsi) has been hoping.

The chance for the title, albeit slim, is open for Indonesia, which lost to USA1 14-16 and walloped Egypt 25-4 on Saturday, only if it beats its next three opponents by a very large margin of victory and the results in other pairings fall its way.

Indonesia, which remained in fifth place with 213 points, will face Italy, Pakistan and Japan in the last three rounds.

Unlike the Bermuda Bowl for men and Venice Cup for women, the Senior Bowl does not include a final knockout competition to determine the champion. The team with the highest points during the round robin tournament is automatically the champion.

USA1 leads with 232 points, followed by France, USA2 and Israel.