Thailand, Indonesia share bridge glory

Thailand, Indonesia share bridge glory

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and Thailand shared the pride at the
Southeast Asian bridge inter-club championships in Manila on
Tuesday.

It was the Thai men who stole the limelight, however, as they
scored a historic victory that ended Indonesia's 15-year
supremacy in the annual event.

Thailand's representative team, ROSC, silenced the home crowd
with a 63-33 win over YASC of the Philippines in Tuesday's final.
ROSC, the only Thai team to reach the knock-out quarterfinals,
then toppled giant killer Pattimura of South Jakarta 41-37 in the
semifinals.

Pattimura had sprung a surprise in the quarterfinals when it
upset defending champion and 12-time winner Volta of Manado,
North Sulawesi. In the other semifinal YASC edged out Pertamina
of Central Jakarta.

For 15 years, Indonesian clubs had total control of the annual
the tournament which began in 1979. Volta, Pattimura, Garuda of
East Jakarta and Lippo Arangam of Central Jakarta have all won
the President Soeharto's trophy.

"The tournament has seen encouraging progress despite our
upset defeat. The bridge situation in the region seems to be
balancing out.

"We will have to keep an eye on other countries more than ever
from now on," Volta's ace player, Hengky Lasut, said.

Hengky and his fellow bridge wizard Eddie Manoppo managed to
lead Volta to no more than fourth place in the round-robin group
matches en route to the quarterfinals.

Pattimura took the third place after beating Pertamina 13-7 in
the playoff.

Pattimura's women salvaged Indonesia's pride when they grabbed
the Madame Tien Soeharto trophy. The South Jakartans fielded
Lusye Doyoh, Joise Tueye, Sarce Pontoh and Tian Arwin Budisusanto
to thrash home favorite Santiago 65-28 in the final.

It was the second victory for Pattimura after 1993 in
Denpasar, Bali.

Pattimura made it to the final with a 56-16 rout of ROSC of
Thailand. YASC claimed its final berth after downing TAS 55-25 in
an all-Philippines semifinal.

Indonesian teams have now taken the symbol of Southeast Asian
women's bridge team supremacy six times since the initial
competition in 1983. Thailand and Singapore have won four and
five times respectively. (amd)